udon and vegetable salad

• udon noodles
• snap peas
• broccoli florets
• baby corn
• shredded cabbage
• 1 large yellow pepper, cut into matchsticks
• 1 large orange pepper, cut into matchsticks
• green onion, chopped fine
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoon mirin
• 1/2 lemon

Combine juice of lemon, with mirin, soy sauce, vinegar and sesame oil. Mix well, set aside. Cook udon noodles (available in the Asian section of the supermarket) according to package. Drain cooked noodles and rinse with cool water and combine with vegetables and dressing. Serve cool.

The dish: Successful cooking begins with keen shopping and a well stocked pantry. If you want to cook your own Asian dishes you first have to build your Asian pantry. I suggest starting with keeping these basics on hand:

• a good quality light soy sauce
• sesame oil (if adding to anything hot, put it in at the last minute as it's a very delicate oil)
• wok oil (flavorless oil with a high smoke point)
• rice vinegar

Don't be afraid to keep these on hand as they will keep forever and your Asian dishes will improve so much that you'll use them often. If you'd like to branch out from there, I suggest:

• mirin (sweetened sake- use sparingly as it's 8% alcohol)
• Chinese 5 spice (never use more than a tiny pinch)
• black sesame seeds

Keeping this stuff on hand will open you up to a whole new selection of dishes that you can easily prepare. I've had great luck with the sushi chef and house of Tsang brands, and both are available in most supermarkets.

matzo crusted chicken tenders

• boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into tenders
• buttermilk
• matzo, crushed into a fine meal
• cayenne pepper
• adobo
• dried oregano
• fresh apricot preserves
• fresh lemon juice

Combine apricot preserves and lemon, set aside. Add cayenne, adobo and oregano to matzo. Soak chicken in buttermilk, then dredge in matzo meal to coat. Bake at 450 degrees for about 10 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked. Serve with apricot dipping sauce and any other topping you wish, we used bbq sauce.

The dish: While it's true that Passover is almost two weeks in the rear view mirror, I made these chicken tenders now on purpose. As a Catholic boy I have no idea what's Kosher and what is not, let alone Kosher for Passover. I suspect soaking the chicken in buttermilk would make even the liberalist of Rabbis cringe, so I figured I'd post this well ex post facto so no one actually mistakes me for someone who knows what he's talking about and copies it trying to keep Kosher. Faithful redroom reader Mike from Brooklyn can be thanked for the matzo, as he and his better half had a surplus and were kind enough to pass some along to the gentiles up the walkway. This dish was a neat way to showcase matzo, but truthfully I think I prefer mine plain with peanut butter, it's great if you haven't tried it.

martini

• gin
• dry vermouth
• good quality olives

Fill martini glass with ice and water, set aside. In shaker, combine gin with a little vermouth to taste and shake well (don't believe the hype- you can't bruise gin) for 30 seconds. Dump ice water out of glass, strain drink into glass and garnish with olives.

The dish: Having spent a fair enough of time on both sides of the bar I've learned a few things about mixing drinks. It seems these days that any drink you strain into a martini glass deserves the fabled title, even if gin, vermouth or olives are nowhere near it. This of course is wrong and if a bartender immediately asks "gin or vodka" after you say "martini", my advice is to turn and run as the gentleman clearly doesn't know a cape cod from a vodka cranberry. There is only one martini and this is it. Make it with vodka and it's a vodkatini, with Scotch it's a rob roy, with bourbon a Manhattan. Even if you make it with gin and vermouth but then throw an onion in it, it becomes a gibson. This was made with Bombay Sapphire White, but any good quality gin will work.

spaghetti with a creamy dill salmon sauce

• 1 lb spaghetti
• 1 lb salmon (unseasoned frozen would work), cut into bite sized pieces
• low fat sour cream
• fresh dill

Cook spaghetti according to package in lightly salted water. Cook salmon in a little olive oil over a medium flame for about 10 minutes, or until desired doneness is reached. Turn burner under the salmon off. Add the sour cream and stir until creamy. Add dill, toss with the pasta and serve.

The dish: Now seems like a great time to let you know that I'm having a lot of fun doing this blog and it's been a great influence on us. We've definitely cut back on our eating out and my I'm feeling pretty good about my camera skills improving. Almost everything we've been eating has been swayed by the blog; we never go this long without repeats and we've been scouring for different plates to show in the pictures. I've done this dish before, but as a salmon fillet with a creamy sauce. At some point I'll post it as such, but I thought you might be getting bored of seeing slabs of salmon covered in something saucy. If I didn't have the blog we would have had it as we always have (or more likely wound up at Denny's) and we both thought it was really cool that since we knew you'd be reading we tried something new. I've been shocked at how many people have been following the red room rambles (more than have been posting I assure you) and I just want to say "thanks" for the motivation you provide. I'm looking forward to many more enjoyable meals together.

egg salad

• 8 eggs, hard-boiled
• 3 tablespoons low fat ricotta cheese
• 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• fresh parsley, chopped
• 4 slices bacon (optional- or for ease you can just rock bacon bits)

Cook the bacon until just barely crispy. Blot with paper towels, chop into small pieces. Peel and chop the eggs. Combine all ingredients in large bowl. We enjoyed it on 12 grain bread (Hannaford makes a great one) with some spinach.

The dish: Making a great egg salad is highly dependent upon properly hard-boiled eggs. Eggs peel easier when boiled in salted water, so always add a pinch. Place eggs in water that covers them and cook over a high flame. When water reaches a roaring boil, turn off the burner and let eggs sit in water until cooled. The result will be perfectly cooked eggs that retain distinctive yolk and white texture as opposed to just becoming one big yellow mushy mess.

brownie with mango compote

• 2 fresh mangoes
• vanilla
• boxed brownies
• whip cream (we love dream whip)
• cocoa powder

Cut mangoes into bite sized cubes, drizzle with vanilla and set aside for 1-5 hours. Prepare brownies according to package. Top warm brownie with mango compote and whip cream, garnish with sprinkles of cocoa powder.

The dish: The red room has followed in the footsteps of corporate America: we've outsourced our brownie manufacturing and only do final assembly on site. Brownies are a peculiar thing in that the boxed version is far superior to anything homemade. Instant has that gooey texture that just screams "brownie", while the from scratch variety always is a little too much like cake. As you can clearly see in the above photo, Kim is great at presenting a dessert and the final mix of flavors tasted even better than it looked.

rosemary roasted rack of lamb with mint pesto

• rack of lamb
• fresh rosemary sprigs
• fresh mint, chopped fine
• fresh basil, chopped fine
• whole garlic cloves
• 1/2 lemon

Combine mint, basil, juice of half the lemon and a swirl of good quality olive oil in a large bowl, set aside. In large skillet over a high flame heat a couple of swirls of olive oil, brown each side of lamb for 2 minutes, transfer to oven safe dish. Cover lamb with fresh rosemary and garlic cloves and bake in oven at 325 degrees for 15 minutes or until cooked to desired doneness. Once cooked, discard rosemary and garlic, spoon pesto over lamb immediately as it comes out of the oven.

The dish: Okay, I lied. Not even a month ago I told you that I only eat lamb once a year, and here we have yet another preparation of it coming out of the red room. I promise that if it had not been Easter, this never would have happened. True to form, mint was in this recipe as well and it played quite nicely off the basil. This was the first time I ever tried cooking a rack of lamb and everyone thought it was great, so that was a relief. One glaring thing wrong with the dish is the absence of those little paper chef hat looking things they put on the lamb at fancy restaurants. If anyone has any idea of where to buy those things (or what they're called for that matter) please let me know. Just do me a favor and wait a while before telling me, because if I had them in my hands the temptation to do another rack of lamb would be too great and I can't bring it upon myself to lie so frequently.