Thai-style chicken pumpkin soup

• 1 large white onion, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger (I used gourmet garden)
• 1 tablepoon chili pepper blend (gourmet garden again)
• 1.5lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 15oz can packed pumpkin
• 1/2 cup mango nectar
• juice of 1 lime
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3 cups good quality chicken stock
• 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
• fresh cilantro, chopped
• green onions, chopped
• roasted unsalted peanuts, roughly chopped
• cooked white rice (take out is best)

In a skillet over a medium flame brown onion, garlic and pepper for 3-5 minutes. Turn off heat and stir in ginger. In large crock pot combine onion mixture with chicken, carrots, pumpkin, mango nectar, lime juice, peanut butter, chicken stock and vinegar. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Place a mound of cooked rice in center of serving bowl and pour soup around it. Garnish with cilantro, green onions and peanuts.

The dish: I hate our local newspaper, and yet I've been a steady subscriber forever. One of my favorite things to do is to settle back with the Sunday paper and read through all the news and save the colored funnies for a grand finale. Somewhere in there I sort through the mountain of store circulars and coupons. Hiding beneath that yogurt coupon is page after page of useless crap, ranging from Yankee's Christmas ornaments and limited edition trains to elastic waistband comfort pants made from genuine polyester (accept no imitations). One day a few weeks back I saw an ad for a set of three crock pot cookbooks among all the other crap. Feeling a little adventurous I sent in my check and waited 3-4 weeks for my bounty to come in the mail. When they arrived I thumbed through them and was not shocked to see mostly recipes I had seen before. This soup was one of the few new ones that stood out. We decided to be daring and try something new at home. The result was phenomenal; this soup is a winner. It turned out to be not spicy or sweet, but rather very distinctive and comforting. It will most certainly grace the red room again. If you're reading this in the fall of 2009, please be aware that there's a shortage of canned pumpkin and you may have to drive to more than one store before you stumble upon some.

basic coleslaw

• 1 bag shredded coleslaw mix
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• juice of 1 lime
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons sugar (or more if you're not already sweet enough)
• poppy seeds (optional)

Combine the mayonnaise, lime juice, vinegar and sugar together. Pour over the cabbage mix and add poppy seeds. Toss to coat. Let mixture sit at least one hour prior to serving. When made, the mix should look a little on the dry side as it will moisten as it sits.

The dish: I'm not even that old, comfortably in the second half of Gen X, and I went to public schools, and yet I still took Latin. Six years of it. Being a dead language and all, it has limited usefulness when trying to order a drink on a different continent, but it's great for finding word derivatives. Take for example coleslaw; I can tell you that the Latin word for cabbage is colis. I think the term slaw was invented by lazy southerners who never received the memo about annunciation, but I'm certain where the first half of the word came from (I can also tell you where plumbers got their name from, but that's a different story). Latin actually turned out to be one of my favorite classes in high school, thanks to the fact that there was a small group of us taking it and we all got along pretty well and Mrs. N (anonymous to protect the innocent, et cetera- damn, more Latin!) kept class amazingly relevant and fun. So go ahead and carpe diem and try e pluibus unum the recipes from this blog. Ilia acta est on your dinner plans for tonight, just make sure to ubi sub ubi.

cilantro lime shrimp soft tacos

• corn tortillas
• 1lb large shrimp, shelled
• fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 lime
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 5 garlic cloves, chopped
• lettuce, shredded

In a little bit of butter (or better yet, Olivio) brown onion and garlic over a medium flame for 5 minutes. Add wine, increase heat to medium high, continue sauteing until reduced, about 5 minutes. Add shrimp to pan, reduce heat back down to medium. Meanwhile, warm tortillas in oven for 3-5 minutes or in separate pan for about 30 seconds. Once shrimp is cooked (it will turn pink), add juice of lime to pan along with cilantro. Spoon mixture over lettuce placed on tortillas.

The dish: Back when your creditors could kick your ass for not paying (a possible solution to the sub-prime mess?), France invaded Mexico for being deadbeats. Cinco De Mayo is the celebration of the unlikely victory of Mexico in that battle (the French lost a fight- no way). Here in America us gringos use the day as an opportunity to eat spicy foods and drink tequila (not me, the last time I touched the nectar of agave I wound up on a bus going to Toledo wearing someone else's pants- but whatever). Cilantro, lime and tacos are three basic building blocks in Mexican cuisine, so putting them together was a no-brainer (which is good as I have a limited supply after the Toledo incident). I added the butter and wine as a nod to the French, as without their aggressive debt collection May 5th would be just another day. This dish worked well, but it could easily have been chicken or pork, or burritos or enchiladas. I served it alongside some poblano roasted corn and guacamole. This year more than ever we all need to celebrate the heritage of our neighbors to the south and forget all about that nasty cough so many of them seem to have. Happy Cinco De Mayo everyone!!

mango, pork and avocado wraps

• 1 cup cooked pork, cubed (I used some boneless pork chops that were on special)
• 2 large mangos, peeled and cubed
• 1 avocado, cubed
• your favorite sandwich wraps
• mayonnaise
• adobo (I've been rocking the light variety)
• fresh cilantro, chopped fine
• half of a lime

In a small bowl combine about 1/4 cup of mayonnaise with cilantro, a few shakes of adobo, and juice of half the lime. Stir together until fully combined. Assemble wrap by spreading mayo mixture on 1 side and placing equal amounts of avocado, mango and pork in center. Wrap it up and enjoy!

The dish: My wife is known for many things; her ravishing beauty, her sharp wit, her ivy league education, her irreproachable selection of husbands. One of her lesser known attributes is her ability to roll a wrap like nobody's business. This no doubt stems from her brief stint in the budding moments of the 1990s as a Taco Bell employee. She's a quick learner with great retention and here, many sunsets later, she can construct a wrap that is the envy of all. I am truly covetous of this, as I, someone who has some serious deli cred, can wrap about as well as I can play the accordion (read: not so hot). Working together is the foundation of any solid relationship and I'm proud to say that we get along as well as mango and pork (and avocado and cilantro lime mayo). The personalized plate was a Christmas gift from my mother-in-law and I find it fitting that it is showcased in this recipe which parades one of her daughter's greatest talents.