// side dish

 The benefit of using these small artichokes is that once you peel off the outer green layers of petals, the entire rest of the artichoke is edible, as the fuzzy choke part has not really developed. You can also simmer the discarded leaves in water for an hour to make an artichoke vegetable stock for soup, so nothing goes to waste. Artichokes pair well with something acidic, such as lemon or balsamic vinegar, and something creamy, such as mayonnaise or Parmesan cheese. These sautéed baby artichokes are easy to prepare and combine flavors that work naturally well with artichokes. They can be eaten alone, or mixed in with pasta or risotto, or baked on to pizza.

My friend adapted this recipe from a recent issue of Cook's Illustrated, the main difference being that the Cook's Illustrated version calls for Portobello mushrooms and we used regular cremini and button mushrooms. Different vegetables cook at different rates and in different ways. So the trick to this stir-fry is to cook most of the veggies separately, bringing them together at the end with the sauce. The result? The sauce is superb and the veggies perfectly cooked, not too mushy, not too hard. The sauce with honey, chili, soy sauce, and ginger is at once hot, sweet, salty and tangy.

I love a good frittata - that and the fact that it is so dang easy to make.  Frittatas are usually made on the stovetop, but they can also be made in the oven and that is what I like to do -- they are amazingly easy that way.  Now, this particular one also helped me with this little project I have going on lately, which is to try a different cheese each week that I haven't tried before.  This particular week I tried a cheese called comte cheese, which was like a mash-up of cheddar and parmesan and was very delish...but if you can't lay your hands on some comte cheese, a nice sharp cheddar will work perfectly well.

Was looking for a recipe to use up some pancetta and this seemed perfect. It was fantastic! I would make it again in a heartbeat!!! Delicious!

Wonderfully simple, with bok choy, peppers, and green onions fresh from the farmers market, this stir-fry doesn't even need added salt, there is enough naturally in the bok choy itself.

The trick to Eggplant Parmesan is to drain the eggplant slices of excess moisture first, before cooking. We found this recipe recently in the New York Times and adapted it to our taste (olive oil only - no canola oil, and no hard boiled egg slices as the original recipe called for).

One of the best reasons to make corned beef and cabbage is for the leftovers. Corned beef sandwiches with mustard and lettuce, or corned beef hash, fried up with leftover boiled potatoes, to serve with runny fried eggs for breakfast. Funny thing, my father claims that his least favorite food in the world is corned beef and cabbage, yet he scarfed down both sandwiches and this hash made from the leftovers.