ginger baked beans

• 6 cans of navy beans, drained and rinsed
• 4 strips of bacon
• 2 large vidalia onions, chopped fine
• 5 tablespoons molasses
• 5 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 2/3 cup of ketchup
• 2 tablespoons bbq sauce
• adobo
• ginger ale

In a frying pan over medium heat cook bacon until just done, remove and blot with paper towels. In same skillet cook onion for 3-5 minutes or until translucent. Add cooked bacon and onion, along with all your other ingredients to the crock pot, cook on low for 6-8 hours. Adjust seasonings to taste.

The dish: People often think of their crock pot as being purely an appliance for cold winter nights, when the days are short and no one wants to leave home once they arrive there. Visions of stews and roasts, with a warm house filled with tantalizing aromas pop into people's heads and they feel that during the summer the crock pot should sit on the floor of the closet their parka hangs in. The closet that you rarely think of and never open in between Memorial and Labor day. All of this is true, but the versatile slow cooker can be just as handy in the warmer months as well. We try to mountain bike every chance we get and there is no better feeling than coming home after a long day of hitting the trails and having a warm dinner ready to eat, or at least a hearty accompaniment waiting to be chowed down. All of this and our kitchen doesn't get heated up one single degree. So dig it out and keep it on the ready. I showed you a German potato salad a while back, and there's few things that scream out "summer" better than baked beans, so forget turning on the oven and plan to go low and slow all summer long.

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.

potato crusted tilapia in a sour cream and chive sauce

• tilapia fillets
• 2 eggs
• instant potato flakes
• white pepper
• fat free sour cream
• fresh chives, chopped fine

In a bowl beat the two eggs. On a plate combine potato flakes with white pepper and salt. Dredge fish fillets in the egg and then the potato mixture. In a little bit of olive oil over a medium high flame, saute the fish for about 3 minutes per side (the topping will fall off so try to be gentle). Once cooked transfer to an oven at 350 degrees. Reduce heat in pan and add chives to pan drippings and saute for 3-5 minutes. Shut off the heat under the pan and add sour cream, mixing until consistency becomes sauce like. Spoon sauce over cooked fish and serve.

The dish: I already let you know that Lee Iacocca was my favorite childhood hero, but there were a few other runner ups. Dave Thomas, the iconic founder of Wendy's restaurants was always near the top of the list. Dave was an orphan who grew up fast and had no one to rely on but himself. He worked a variety of kitchen and restaurant jobs, always dreaming of having his own establishment. What you may not know is that Dave left his mark on the fast food industry long before anyone knew the name of his daughter with the red hair and pigtails. Working his way up through the ranks, he essentially saved Kentucky Fried Chicken from collapsing into certain bankruptcy (a fate that GM would have you believe is some kind of milestone). All the delicious menu items, Dave thought those up; that timeless red striped bucket, his invention; creating the image of the Colonel being a jovial old man instead of a crabby, fouled mouth hot head, his doing as well. It wasn't until he achieved a fair amount of success in the fast food industry that he opened Wendy's, and he stayed active in its operations well past what most would consider to be normal retirement age, especially with his means. Why do I mention all this? Simple, he was the first (and only to my knowledge) fast food executive to realize that sometimes fries just won't cut it, and every now and again people need a baked potato. Few things in American cuisine are as widely accepted as a baked potato with sour cream and chives. Not too healthy, not too decadent, simple, affordable and with flavors that taste like they were made for each other. That was the thinking I had when putting this dish together. It worked well, but I still like salmon better. Of course, after typing this I see a trip to Wendy's in my near future.

bacon roasted brussel sprouts

• fresh brussel sprouts
• 2 strips bacon
• fresh garlic, chopped

Place bacon in large dutch oven or casserole dish and roast in a 400 degree oven for about 5 minutes, or until just cooked. Remove bacon and drain with paper towels. Using the same dish, roast garlic in bacon grease for about 3 minutes. Add brussel sprouts and toss to coat evenly, season with coarse salt and fresh ground pepper. Roast in oven for about 10 minutes, or until brussel sprouts are cooked but firm. Chop bacon into small pieces, add to mixture and toss to coat.

The dish: Brussel sprouts are one of those veggies that everyone seems to hate but no one has tried since they were a kid and their food choices didn't involve much other than chicken nuggets, pizza and cheeseburgers. We know that roasting veggies brings out a natural sweetness that totally enhances their flavor, and we know that bacon makes everything better (faithful reader Rebecca posted an interesting question about bacon), but roasting with bacon; it just doesn't get any better. Brussel sprouts are also loaded with all kinds of good vitamins and antioxidants that do everything from fight various forms of cancers to keep your skin healthy, which means that you'll be ailment free when you have a coronary from all that damn bacon.

rotini with summer squash and peas

• 1 lb rotini
• 1 bag of frozen peas, thawed for 1/2 hour
• 3 summer squash, cut into bite sized pieces
• Olivio
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• Parmesan cheese
• fresh basil, chopped

Boil pasta in lightly salted water until just about fully cooked, maybe about 7-8 minutes. Scoop about 1-2 cups of the water (I recommend a pyrex measuring cup for the task) and set aside. Add squash and peas to pot and continue cooking over a high flame for about 2 minutes or until pasta is al dente. Drain mixture and return to the same pot, add 3 tablespoons of Olivio, lemon juice and enough of the reserved water to make a sauce that will cover all of the ingredients. Toss until Olivio is fully melted. Add basil and cheese and serve.

The dish: If you live in the beautiful Empire State, then you're going through this funky time where it's pretty hot out but constantly raining. I hate using the stove during the summer, but when it's wet out it's a necessary evil. This dish is great because it's a true one pot meal that only takes about 10 minutes to cook, so you can go from start to finish before your kitchen is even heated up. As always, try to use the pasta that's fortified with some good stuff like fiber and omega 3s, we like Barilla Plus or Hannaford has a similar house brand. You won't even taste the difference and you can feel good about eating a nice big plate of pasta.

honey mustard chicken wrap

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 head of iceberg lettuce
• good quality honey mustard dressing

Grill chicken until fully cooked, set aside to cool then chop into small pieces. Tear or chop lettuce into medium sized pieces, or just open a bag of mixed greens. Assemble wrap with lettuce and chicken and a pass of the honey mustard dressing.

The dish: I love making anything in a wrap because by virtue of Kim's aptitude, I get off the hook without doing too much work. It's like not knowing how to fix the photocopier at work; no one even bothers knocking on my door when the thing jams because they know I'm useless. I'm fairly certain that if I devoted a small amount of time to either that blasted machine or the flat sandwich holder, I could learn the skills necessary to master each, but why bother when those around me are so good at these things.

black bean and corn salad

• 3 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 bag of frozen corn, thawed
• fresh cilantro, chopped
• green onions, chopped
• sherry vinegar
• olive oil
• juice of 1/2 lemon

Whisk together vinegar, oil and lemon juice, add a small pinch of sugar if desired, set aside. Combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl, pour dressing over the top and toss to coat.

The dish: Another variation on the bean salad theme, and as I look at it, very close to the confetti salad that was posted awhile back. Truthfully, I like the confetti salad better, but that has more to do with my preference of kidney beans over black beans. Both are tasty and easy to prepare and are a great source of all kinds of good stuff, so now that's summer's here try a salad that has a base of something virtuous like beans and isn't drenched in mayonnaise.