You will need:

• 1-15 oz. can whole or crushed tomatoes -or- 4-5 medium tomatoes, finely chopped
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced into rounds
• 1 large clove garlic, minced
• 1-2 tbsp fresh parsley, minced
• 1/4 tsp thyme
• dash oregano
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp lemon or lime juice (juice from 1/2 a small fruit)
  and
• 1 of three spicy addatives:
  crushed red pepper, to taste -or- 2 whole, dried cayenne peppers, minced -or- 1/2 to a whole jalapeno, minced

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Assembly:

• For a chunky salsa, simply mix all ingredients together.
• For a smoother salsa, blend all, or some ingredients on low setting in a food processor or blender.

You will need:

• 4 dried Shitake mushrooms
• 1/4 to 1/2 cake medium consistency tofu, cubed
• 1-5 oz. can bamboo shoots, cut into sticks
• 4-6 c. chicken stock or vegetable stock
  (home-made, from a can, or bullion in water-1 bullion cube to 1 c. water)
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 carrot, shredded
• dash chilli oil
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 2-3 dried, whole cayenne peppers, minced
• 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 3-4 tbsp cornstarch, mixed in 1/3 c. water
• 1 green onion, diced
• 1 egg, beaten
• dash black pepper

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Assembly:

• Cover mushrooms with boiling water and soak for 20-30 min. Remove mushrooms and slice very thin. Reserve the liquid to add to the soup later.
• Put chicken or vegetable stock, soy sauce, mushroom liquid, carrots, mushrooms, and bamboo shoots in a large pot.
• Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 3 minutes.
• Add chilli powder, chilli oil, cayenne peppers, rice wine vinegar, tofu, and black pepper.
• Bring back to a boil. Pour in the beaten egg slowly while stirring the soup gently.
• Stir in corn starch mixture, making sure to whip it into suspension before adding, and remove soup from heat.
• Add green onions and eat.

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Possible variations:

• Add fresh ginger, sliced into rounds and/or shredded cabbage in the first step.

You will need:

• 1/2 c. wild rice
• 1 qt. skim milk
• 3/4 c. onion, chopped
• 2-16 oz. cans potato soup
• 2 large cloves garlic, minced
• black pepper, to taste
• 1/2 c. cubed mozarella cheese
• 1/2 c. cubed parmesean or romano cheese
• small handfull flour
• 2 scallions, chopped

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Assembly:

• Cook rice in 1-1 1/2 c. water until soft, but not mushy (around 30 minutes).
• While rice is cooking, saute onion and garlic in oil until onions are clear.
• Add everything except the scallions into a large pot and warm over low to medium heat until hot, stirring constantly to keep milk and cheese from burning.
• Garnish with onions and serve.

You will need:

• 1-16 oz. can black olives, sliced or minced
• 15 green olives, sliced or minced
• 10-20 capers, minced
• 8-10 cloves garlic, minced
• 1-16 oz. can whole, peeled tomatoes, diced -or- 4-5 roma tomatoes, diced
• 1-8 oz. can tomato paste
• olive oil
• Parmesean cheese, grated -or- feta cheese, crumbled
• crushed red pepper -or- 1 whole cayenne pepper, crushed -or- fresh ground black pepper

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Assembly:

• In a medium sauce pan, saute garlic in a little olive oil for 1 minute.
• Add tomato paste, tomatoes with their juice, black olives, green olives, capers, and pepper.
• Simmer over low heat for about 20 minutes.
• Serve over pasta with grated parmesean or crumbled feta.

You will need:

For Chicken:

• 1/2 lb chicken, sliced thin
• l large clove garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• pepper, to taste
• pinch of salt
• dry white wine or sherry
• 2 large crimini mushrooms, diced

For white sauce:

• 2 tbsp. butter
• 2 tbsp. flour
• pepper, to taste
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 c. milk

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Assembly:

• Add chicken, garlic, and spices with the olive oil into a frying pan and cook, covered, standing in wine. Stir occasionally, and as the wine reduces during cooking, add more.
• When chicken is almost done, add mushrooms and continue cooking until chicken is finished.
• For white sauce, melt butter over low heat in a small sauce pan, then add pepper and salt and stir in the flour.
• Stir over low heat until smooth and bubbly.
• Add milk and heat until milk is scalded. Sauce should be a somewhat thick mixture and will become thicker upon cooling.

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Mushroom-Basil-Walnut:

• large handfull fresh basil (fresh is a must here), finely minced
• 1/2 c. walnuts, crushed or chopped as finely as possible
• l large clove garlic, minced
• 1-3 tbsp. olive oil
• pinch of salt
• dash dry red wine
• 2 large crimini mushrooms, diced small
• finely grated feta cheese, to taste

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Assembly:

• Add mushrooms, garlic, and salt with the olive oil into a frying pan and cook, uncovered, in a dash of wine. Stir occasionally, until the mushrooms are thoroughly cooked.
• Add basil and walnuts cooking until basil is limp. Stir often.
• Prepare white sauce as above.
• Add white sauce and feta cheese to mushroom mixture.
• Serve over pasta garnished with extra feta.

You will need:

• ~1 lb. swiss, ementhaler, gouda cheese or any mix thereof, grated
• couple of cloves garlic, cut in halves and scored on one end (to release the juices)
• 1 bottle light color beer (amber, pale ale, weissen)
• small handful cornstarch
• l loaf french bread, cubed into bite-sized pieces

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Assembly:

If using an electric fondue pot, all the following steps can be completed using the electric feature of the pot.

• Rub scored end of garlic halves on the inside of the fondue pot.
• Add beer and heat, leaving garlic halves in the pot.
• While the beer heats, toss the cheese with cornstarch until the cheese is well coated.
• When beer is heated, but not quite boiling, fish out the garlic and start gradually adding cheese while stirring.
• Once all the cheese is added, stir, stir, stir until smooth.
• Dip in bread cubes and eat!

You will need:

• 1 c. (1/2 pint) whipping cream
• 1-8 oz. package mascarpone cheese
• 1/2 c. powdered sugar
• 2 tbsp. kahlua or sweet vermouth
• 1 package (12-16) lady fingers
• at LEAST 1 c. espresso (probably more like 1 1/2-2 c.)
• 2 tsp. coa coa powder

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Assembly:

• Put whipping cream in a metal bowl and put in the refrigerator to chill.
• Brew espresso and also put in the refrigerator to chill.
• Combine mascarpone, liquer, and sugar and stir until it's a smooth mixture.
• Whip the chilled cream with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form (make sure its well whipped!)
• Gently fold mascarpone mixture into the whipping cream until just blended (you want the whipping cream to hold its fluff).
• Pour espresso into a shallow, wide bowl. Soak 1/2 of the lady fingers and lay them evenly in an 8x8 pan.
• Cover lady fingers with 1/2 the mascarpone mixture.
• Repeat with the rest of the lady fingers and mascarpone mixture.
• Sprinkle coa coa over the top for flavor and decoration, cover and chill for 4 hours before serving.

You will need:

• 1-1 1/2 c. short grain white rice per person
• Awase zu (rice seasoning-see below)
• Egg mixture (see below)
• 1/2-1 carrot
• 1 cucumber
• 1 avocado
• small spinach leaves, stemmed and washed well
• 2 green onions
• sesame seeds (~ 1/4 cup)
• Sushi Nori (flat seaweed sheets)
• pickled ginger
• wasabi (buy powdered)
  (The above three items you can find in any good grocery store in the asian foods section.)

Awase zu:

For every cup of rice:

• 2 tbsp. rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Egg mixture:

• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp sugar

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Assembly:

Awase zu:

• Simply mix ingredients until sugar has dissolved. Should be tart with a tinge of sweetness.

Egg mixture:

• Mix eggs and sugar and beat well.
• In a small (6 inch) frypan over low heat, pour in slightly less than 1/8 c. of egg mixture and swirl around the pan into a flat layer (like a crepe).
• When just barely cooked, carefully lift this layer and pour another ~1/8 c. of the egg mixture-place the first layer over the second so that they may cook together.
• When the second layer is just barely cooked (only takes a few moments), add a third in the same manner until all the egg mixture is used.
• At the end you will have a thick pancake of egg made of thin layers.
• Slice into 1/2 inch x 4 inch strips.

Vegetables:

• Cut avocado and cucumber (remove seeds) into 4 inch long sticks a few millimeters in diameter.
• Lightly steam carrots (still crisp, but slightly pliable) and cut similar to the avocado and cucumber.
• Cut green onions into 4 inch long segments and slice into halves or fours.
• Lightly toast sesame seeds on very low heat in a small fry pan.

Sticky rice:

• For every cup of rice, put 1 c. + 1 tbsp. water in an appropriate sized pot and boil.
• Wash rice and add to boiling water-stir slightly to make sure rice is flat on the bottom of the pot.
• Lower heat and simmer, covered for 15 minutes.
• Remove from heat and sprinkle in 1-2 tbsp water per cup of rice.
• Let rice sit for 15 minutes.
• Empty rice into a large bowl (preferrably wooden) and fluff in Awase Zu. Keep fluffing for a minute or two to help the rice cool.
• Rice should be extremely sticky at the end of this step. If it isn't, be warned that the sushi rolls may not hold together as they should.

California Rolls:

Rolling sushi is a fine art, so don't expect professional-looking sushi on the first (or second or third) try. The key things to keep in mind during the rolling process is that you want a tight roll that will not fall apart when you dip it in soy sauce, and you want the sushi to be pretty in cross-section (with a variety of colors, preferrably geometrically arranged).

• Prepare a bowl of Tezu for cleaning the knife when slicing the California rolls: simply add a dash of vinegar to some water (keeps the rice from sticking to the knife and your hands!).
• Lay out a sheet of nori on a clean, dry cutting board.
• Spread sticky rice ~1/4 inch thick on the bottom 2/3 of the sheet of Nori. Make sure and press the rice down on the Nori to decrease the pore space between grains. Also make sure and fill Nori 1/4 inch thick all the way out to the edges of the Nori-this will make the end slices come out better.
• Lay filling ingredients (egg, carrot, cucumber, avocado, sesame seeds, pickled ginger, spinach) midway up the rice-covered Nori (see below). Use a variety of colors and add enough veggies to make the middle part of the sushi roll about 1/4 inch in diameter. Examples of sample roll slices are shown below.
• Wet the end of the nori sheet that is not covered in rice.
• Roll rice-covered end of the nori sheet around the vegetables and tuck into the line between the other end of the rice-covered nori and the uncovered nori.
• Continue to roll the nori so that the wet end will stick to the outside of the roll-continue squeezing the roll slightly while doing this so that you have a nice, tight roll. Double check that the wet end of the nori is completely stuck down.
• With a sharp knife, cut the roll into 1/4-1/2 inch thick rounds, wetting the knife with the Tezu in between each cut.

Serving suggestion:

• Mix wasabi powder with water following the instructions on the wasabi package.
• Each person should have his/her own small dish to use to dip sushi into soy sauce.
• Wasabi may be spread (sparingly) on each sushi piece before dipping or may be mixed into the soy sauce to add some zest.
• Use pickled ginger and sesame seeds for extra flavor.
• Sushi goes excellently with Saki (rice wine-serve heated) and miso soup.

You will need:

• 1/2 cake silken tofu, cubed
• 4 c. water
• 1/2 carrot, cut in rounds
• 2 green onions
• 1 large clove garlic
• 2 tbsp. Miso (red or white)
• 4 cubes chicken or vegetable bullion
• 1/2 c. nori strips

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Assembly:

• Boil water and add carrots, garlic, and bullion; simmer for 5 minutes.
• Stir in tofu and miso; bring back to a boil.
• Add green onions and nori strips and serve.

Variations:

• Add three rounds of fresh ginger in the first step, remove when soup is finished.
• Add cooked rick sticks in the last step for a heartier miso.

Use amount of ingredients appropriate for the number of people you will be serving.

You will need:

• Asian rice wraps (rigid rice wrappers that are boiled until pliable)-available at most Asian food markets
• Ham or cooked pork, thinly sliced
• Cucumber, sliced into thin rounds
• Carrot, sliced into thin rounds
• Mung bean sprouts
• Hoisin sauce-available at Asian food markets
• Sweet chilli sauce
• Fresh mint leaves

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Assembly:

• Prepare vegetables and place at hand, ready to make the rolls.
• Boil a large pot half full of water.
• Prepare a small bowl filled with ice cubes and water for cooling your hands.
• To boil wraps, dip one hand in the ice water and hold the edge of a wrap with this hand. Dip the wrap in the boiling water for 5 seconds, meanwhile soaking the other hand in ice water. Trade hands so the freshly cooled hand dips the wrap in the water for 5 seconds, making sure that the edge that was not cooked in the first dip is imersed. The wrapper should be very pliable and sticky when finished.

You will need:

For Salad:

• 1 bundle of spinach or 1 head romaine lettuce, thoroughly washed
• 5-10 Strawberries, sliced very thin
• Pecans or sliced almonds, toasted

For Dressing:

• 2/3 c. red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 tsp. dried mustard
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 c. oil
• 1 tsp. poppy seeds

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Assembly:

• Toss together spinach, strawberries and nuts in a medium bowl.
• Combine ingredients for the dressing. Store separately from the salad.
• Just before serving, combine salad and dressing.
• Does not store well, so eat up! (I have found, this is not usually a problem.)

You will need:

• 1/2 Head broccoli, chopped (~2 c.)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 2 medium yams, peeled and thinly sliced
• black pepper, to taste
• pinch tumeric
• 4 c. vegetable stock
• 1 c. milk
• 1 c. grated sharp cheddar cheese
• 2 green onions, chopped, for garnish

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Assembly:

• Saute onions in oil for about 5 minutes, until just soft.
• Stir in yams, pepper, tumeric and broccoli.
• Add vegetable stock and simmer 10-15 minutes, until yams are soft.
• Stir in milk and cheese and blend in a blender or food processor. For a more chunky soup, mash by hand in the pot with a potato masher until desired consistency
• Reheat and eat, garnishing with the green onions.

You will need:

• 1 pkg. corn husks

For dough:

• 2 c. Maseca for tamales
• 2 c. lukewarm water or broth
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2/3 c. shortening

For filling:

Some or all of the following (adjust amounts as necessary):

• 4-8 oz creamed corn
• 1/2 c. corn kernels
• 1 c. moterey or pepper jack cheese, grated
• 4-8 oz black beans
• 4-8 oz whole green chiles, chopped
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1 bullion cube, crushed or grated

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Assembly:

• Boil water in a large pot. Turn off heat and add corn husks, letting them soak while you prepare the other ingredients (approx. 30 minutes).
• In a medium bowl, prepare and mix together ingredients for the filling.
• For the dough, in a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients (maseca, baking powder, salt).
• Work water or broth into the dry ingredients with your fingers to make a soft dough.
• In a large bowl, beat shortening until fluffy, then add the maseca and beat until dough has a spongy texture.
• Pick out wider, longer husks to wrap tamales. Pull off strips of less perfect husks for use in tying the ends of the assembled tamales.
• Spread 1/4 to 1/2 c. dough in the center of a corn husk.
• Put 1 tbsp. (or more if tamale is big enough) filling in the center of the flattened dough.
• Pull together outside edges of the corn husk so that the dough closes around the filling. Continue to wrap edges of husk around the tamale.
• Fold over the ends of the tamale and tie with the strips of corn husk so that they do not pop open.
• Steam assembled tamales for about 1 hour (time is forgiving).
• Eat right away or freeze for a quick ready-to-eat treat.

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