spinach salad with warm cider vinaigrette and seared scallops

• fresh baby spinach, washed and dried
• good quality bacon bits
• fried onion strips
• 1 cup apple cider
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• fresh sea scallops

In a saucepan over high heat, bring apple cider to boil, reduce heat to medium high and continue to simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add vinegar to cider and reduce heat to medium low, continue cooking while preparing scallops. Heat olive oil in pan over high heat. Season scallops with coarse salt and fresh pepper and add to pan when fully heated. Cook for 3 minutes, flip and continue to cook for three minutes or until done throughout. Arrange spinach on plate, build with onions and bacon, pour dressing over it and top with scallops.

The dish: Every now and again I'll have a dream that's so vivid that I'll wake up and not be sure if it really happened or not. While this phenomenon isn't always so pleasant when my dreams have bad twists to them, sometimes it can be quite enjoyable. Awhile back I woke up after having dreamt that I was at some social function where I stood with a drink in one hand and a bacon wrapped scallop in the other. The server was always nearby and by the time I pushed myself out of the REM cycle there was a formidable pile of discarded toothpicks on her tray and my drink had been refilled more than once. It was such a nice memory that I wasn't sure it didn't actually happen until Kim insisted it occurred only in my frontal cortex. From that moment I was on the hunt: I had to have some bacon wrapped scallops. Naturally things like this only happen on weeks when every minute I have is well spoken for in advance. It was about 6 days later when I finally dug into some and they tasted as good as I had been expecting (fortunately I didn't have to wait that long eternity for a cocktail). Bacon really does make most things better, but scallops in particular seem to benefit from their salty goodness. Throw in some spinach and a vinaigrette and you've got some nutritional absolution that tastes like a dream.

grilled spam and pineapple sandwich

• spam, sliced
• cored pineapple slices
• fresh baby spinach
• Dijon mustard
• hamburger bun

Grill spam and pineapple on bbq until just slightly charred. Assemble sandwich as follows (from bottom to top); bun, spinach, pineapple, spam, mustard, bun.

The dish: Spam was born as the marketing effort to revive sales of Hormel's spiced ham. The name was the result of a contest where the lucky winner, the brother of a Hormel executive (fix anyone?), won $100 for tagging the iconic canned meat. Many years later, there is no spot on the earth that consumes more Spam than Hawaii, whose citizens each eat in excess of 15 tins per year of the edible junk mail. First introduced by soldiers during World War II, Spam quickly became a staple of the native diet. The 50th state is pretty far out there and needs to import pretty much everything, so the canned meat that travels well is an obvious choice for dinner on the island. Spam is so prevalent that Hawaiian McDonald's and Burger Kings offer it on their menus. My first introduction to Spam came when I moved into a bachelor pad apartment with regular red room reader Rebecca's (up yours Judy Bussman- don't worry, your not supposed to get it) now husband, Kevin. A group of us sat and watched reluctantly as Kevin grilled us up a snack. I'm pretty open minded, but Spam just has such a connotation to it, but damned if it wasn't delicious. This sandwich is a nod to Kevin's genius grilling and the folks that call Spam their "Hawaiian steak".

gnocchi in red sauce with spinach and sausage

• 1 lb gnocchi
• 1 can crushed tomatoes
• 1 can tomato paste
• 1 can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 bag fresh baby spinach
• 1 package good quality sausage
• fresh garlic, chopped fine
• 1 large onion, chopped fine
• shredded parmesan cheese

In a large dutch oven or cast iron pot cook the sausage over a medium flame until just done. Remove from pot and chop into bite sized pieces, set aside. In same pan saute garlic and onion over a medium-high flame for 3-5 minutes. Add tomato paste and cook for an additional 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the crushed and diced tomatoes, bring to a simmer, cover and reduce heat, cooking for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, begin to cook gnocchi according to package directions. Add spinach and sausage back to sauce. Spoon sauce over cooked pasta, sprinkle cheese on top.

The dish: Somebody sent me an email message that was titled "the death of common sense" where it went on about how stupid most of us are. While I'd like to think that I haven't grown that cynical (yet), there are certain things that leave me wondering, "what are they thinking". The now defunct no carb diet craze did just that. I can see the virtue of limiting your carbs, especially if you have health concerns that would benefit from doing so, but the diet a few years back just went to a crazy extreme. There were scores of people that were afraid to eat a carrot but poured bacon and beef down their throat with a reckless abandon. Carbs are the basic building blocks of energy for your body and without them you'd feel lethargic. Like anything else there's good carbs and bad carbs and too much of even a good thing can quickly become quite the opposite. I bring this up in defense of gnocchi, a potato based pasta (carbs on carbs, roll over Dr. Atkins). You wouldn't want to eat this every day, but as an every now and again treat it's spectacular. Just go into the meal knowing that you're indulging in something special, unlike those carb counters who inhaled backfat in the name of good health.

spinach and cannellini bean salad

• 3 cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 yellow pepper, diced
• 1 orange pepper, diced
• 1 bag baby spinach
• fresh parsley, chopped fine
• white wine vinegar
• olive oil
• 1 lemon

Combine juice of lemon with a equal parts olive oil and vinegar, whisk until combined, set aside. Combine all other ingredients in large bowl, pour dressing over salad and toss to coat.

The dish: This is basically a variation on the theme of bean salads. They all start off with a base of beans with a few other veggies mixed in for good measure, and then they get topped with a oil and vinegar dressing. Even though this salad is only 1 or 2 ingredients different than a few others I've posted, each one tastes pretty distinctive and we haven't gotten bored of eating any of them. Beans and veggies are a great thing to load up on and these salads are an easy and tasty way to do just that. I suggest trying one for yourself, I think you'll be surprised at how much you like it.

spinach salad with warm bacon vinaigrette

• fresh baby spinach, washed and dried
• 4 slices bacon
• sherry vinegar (or any red wine vinegar)
• Dijon mustard
• sugar
• olive oil

In large skillet (I used my cast iron) cook bacon over medium high heat until just crispy, remove. Blot bacon with a paper towel and then chop into small pieces, set aside. Discard all but about 2 tablespoons of the bacon grease from the pan. Over a medium high flame, whisk together the grease, 3 tablespoons of vinegar, 2 tablespoons of mustard and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Assemble spinach on plates, adding bacon pieces and a drizzle of high quality olive oil. Spoon warm vinegar over salad, serve immediately (unless of course you have to stage a photo for your blog, then your guests can wait a few minutes as you line up the perfect shot).

The dish: I have a good friend that feeds her son oatmeal every morning figuring that it acts as "nutritional absolution" for whatever else may happen in the day. I believe bacon acts in the exact opposite way: no matter how healthy what you're putting it on may be, it instantly becomes a decadent treat. There's not much that's healthier than straight raw spinach, but you wouldn't know it when you take a bite of this salad. Serving the dressing warm wilts the leaves just a touch and gives it a distinctive flavor and texture. Just be sure to eat your oatmeal every morning so that you can begin throwing bacon around without any guilt knowing that you've already been nutritionally absolved for the day.

happy husband

• fresh baby spinach, rinsed
• 1 large egg
• sausage patty
• roll or bagel

Cook sausage patty (our favorite is Morningstar Farms meatless patties, we're carnivores and love these things- great flavor with almost no grease), place on bread. Fry egg to your liking, we do over hard. Place egg on patty and top with spinach, letting the heat from the sandwich slightly wilt the leaves.

The dish: In addition to my lovely wife's full time gig as a math teacher in a middle school, she also moonlights as a college professor once a week and teaches two Spin classes a week at our local gym. Yes, you read that right- three jobs, I tell her one more and I can be a kept man. She has a real passion for teaching Spin and I love being part of her Monday evening class, but her Saturday morning class begins at 7:15AM and I just feel like that thin line between Friday night and Saturday morning is almost non-existent at that hour. She also makes it too easy not to go to her class, bringing me the paper and breakfast in bed when she returns. She's experimented with all different variations on the breakfast sandwich theme, and this one's the winner- it's satisfying without being greasy and it's a great way to begin the day.

insider tuna

• 3 cans of tuna, drained
• 1/3 cup of bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• adobo, I prefer the con pimienta variety
• dried dill
• old bay seasoning

Combine drained tuna with other ingredients and blend well. If mixture appears to have too much mayonnaise, add more breadcrumbs for balance. If mixture appears too dry, then add more mayonnaise. Use just a little old bay seasoning, with a healthy shake of the adobo and 2 healthy shakes of the dill. Serve on your favorite bread with spinach for extra flavor.

The dish: If you've ever ordered a tuna sandwich at a deli and thought, "why doesn't my tuna come out like this", the answer is in three parts: 1. the original idea was to cut costs, but adding breadcrumbs to the mixture totally enhances the flavor. 2. Always drain your tuna before you do anything with it, the funk in the can doesn't bring anything to the party. 3. The deli only makes tuna once, maybe twice a week. The longer all these flavors sit together (within reason, of course) the better they all become. If you happen to have a ripe avocado, which I did not at time of writing this, a few slices on top turns this sandwich into a superstar.

Mediterranean Boboli pizza

• 1 Boboli crust
• prepared pesto
• fresh spinach, chopped finely
• pitted kalamata olives, sliced
• 1 jar of artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
• ricotta cheese

Preheat oven to 425. If you have a pizza stone leave in and make sure it gets all hot, otherwise cook it directly on the rack, but if you're wondering why pizza you make at home sucks it's because you don't have one. Meanwhile, spoon dollops of pesto and ricotta randomly on crust and cover with rest of ingredients being generous as most of this stuff is pretty good for you. Cook in hot oven for 10 minutes or until toppings are hot and crust is crispy.

The dish: There is no substitute for real New York style thin crust, so when I make pizza at home I don't even try to replicate it. Boboli makes a pretty good and very easy crust and I try to load it up with all kinds of things I would never ask the dude with the vowel-heavy name behind the counter at the local pizzeria to top one of his slices with. Themes work well, this Mediterranean one is great for loading up on veggies, but you could just as easily be non-virtuous and have a bbq chicken or meats from around the world pie.