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This is a family favorite. It is basically a heart attack in a bowl. Serve it with some dripping garlic bread, a Cesar salad, and some nice wine. Mixing all the ingredients together can be rough on the biceps, but all the effort is well worth it when your guests leave with full and happy stomachs. Make sure to use good bacon and sausage because it adds most of the flavor. Also try substituting pancetta, ham, or other cured meats.

Ingredients

• One package of pasta
• 6 eggs
• 1/4 C half and half
• 1 lb bacon
• 1 lb Italian sausage
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 C grated Parmesan cheese (you could also use any combination of Romano and Asiago)
• 1/4 C chopped parsley (garnish)

Directions

Start by cooking all the meat. I typically chop up the bacon before cooking it and drain the fat off midway through cooking. Don’t drain off all the fat, because you’re going to want to use it later.

While the meat is cooking, beat the eggs and half and half and let sit. You want this to get close to room temperature for mixing everything together.

When the meat is a quarter of the way done, start boiling the water for the pasta. While you’re waiting, share some wine with your guests (this makes it all taste better). You’ll need your strength for the rest of the procedure.

The meat is done when it is on the verge of charring. Cook the pasta al dente and drain. Add some of the bacon and sausage fat to the pot and crush the garlic into the fat over high heat. Cook the garlic till it starts to get translucent, then take off the heat. Add the pasta and more of the fat (you’ll want to add about 1/4 C total). Mix well.

Then add all of the egg mixture and the cheese. Mix well and continuously. Turn on the heat to low and keep mixing. The traditional recipe you don’t need to turn the heat back on because the pasta cooks the eggs. If you want to cook it a little (like I do) you need to keep mixing the pasta so that the eggs don’t cook too much. You want to pull it off the heat when the sauce starts to thicken.

After it’s off the heat, add all the meat and stir in. Plate the pasta and garnish with parsley and cracked black pepper.

This is a new spin on the traditional Lebanese dish. I use a lot less parsley and substitute couscous for bulgur wheat to whip this up in no time flat. It’s a great dish for the summer. You can eat it alone or serve it with grilled chicken or fish.

Ingredients

• 3 C cooked couscous
• 2 bunches fresh parsley
• 1 bunch fresh mint
• 1 bunch scallions
• 1/4 C chopped green olives
• 2 cucumbers
• 3 medium tomatoes
• 4 lemons
• 1/2 C evoo
• 1 T salt
• 1 T cinnamon

Directions

The couscous is pretty easy to cook. You just add hot water to the grains and let it sit covered for a few minutes. It immediately starts to absorb all the water. Put it in the fridge to cool it for the all the fresh veggies (you don’t want wilty mint).

The parsley is pretty much the hardest part of tabouleh because you have to chop SOOO much of it. The trick is to try to get as much of the leaves off without getting the branches. I find that if you skim off the outside leaves, you can get most of them without the twiggy parts. Then chop very fine. For the mint, pull the leaves off the stalks, pile them up and chop.

Chop the scallions, up to 2-3 inches up the green. Cut the cucumbers in half and scoop out the seeds. If you want, you can also peel them, but I kind of like the extra green. Then chop them up. Chop up the tomatoes. If you’re not going to eat all the tabouleh in the next day or so, you might want to consider cutting up tomato each time you want a serving. I feel that the tomato gets a little mushy after a few days and makes the salad a little watery. Cutting up fresh tomato makes it seem fresh each time you eat it.

After all this chopping, you’re going to end up with a beautiful, big pile of veggies.

To make the dressing, squeeze the juice from the four lemons. Mix in the salt and cinnamon. Add freshly ground pepper to taste. Then mix in the evoo. Mix in the veggies, the dressing, and the couscouse and serve.

To support the school’s horticulture club I bought a flat of strawberries during their annual Spring sale. Needless to say a flat of ripe strawberries is impossible to eat before all the strawberries will go bad. Thus the reason jams and jellies were created. This was my first time making “real” jam, meaning jam which requires canning. I was a little nervous as I don’t have all the canning gear, however, I was able to retrofit an existing pot and trivet to work well. This is the standard strawberry jam recipe and makes 8 half-pint jars (twice the size of the jars in the picture).

Ingredients

• 2 quarts fresh strawberries, hulled
• 1 (1 3/4 oz) package regular powdered fruit pectin
• 1/2 teaspoon butter (optional - cuts down on foaming)
• 7 cups sugar

Directions

Place 1 cup of berries in an 8-qt heavy pot. Crush the berries. Continue adding berries and crushing them until you have 5 cups crushed berries. Stir in pectin and butter.

Meanwhile put your boiling water canner (or large pot fitted with a rack) on and heat the water to boiling. Also, begin the process of sterilizing your jars (see below).

Heat berry mixture on high, stirring, until mixture comes to a rolling boil. Add sugar and return to a boil. Boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and skim off foam with a metal spoon.

Ladle at once into the hot, sterilized half-pint canning jars, leaving 1/4-inch space at the top. Wipe jar rims then put on lids. Place in the boiling water canner. Process for 5 minutes (starting the timer when the water returns to a boil). Remove jars and cool on racks.

Notes

To sterilize your jars and lids. I recommend using glass jars with self-sealing lids. Always use new lids when canning. Start by washing your jars in hot soapy water. Then rinse and dry. Place the jars right side up on the rack in the boiling water canner. Add the lids but make sure they don’t stick together. Boil 10 minutes (if at sea level). Remove and drain the sterilized jar and immediately add hot jam. Remove a lid, place on the jar and tighten with a screw band. For more information on canning see the USDA’s Complete Guide to Home Canning.

Chili is awesome. It’s easy. It’s everything you need in one bowl. It keeps you warm on long, cold winter nights. Some chili recipes place too much emphasis on the heat, but they become unbalance and just burn your tongue, but don’t really feed your soul. The trick is to use a bass note to balance the high notes of the intense spices. The typical bass note is chocolate, but here, I’ve used an oatmeal stout. Yummy.

Ingredients

• 1/4 C olive oil
  2 medium red onions, diced
  6 cloves garlic, minced
  2 T cumin seeds
  3 T coriander seeds
  1 box Boca Ground Burger
  1-3 jalapeño peppers, minced
  1 C oatmeal stout
  2 large cans diced tomatoes
  2 cans black beans, rinsed and strained
  2 T paprika
  2 T ground cumin
  2 T ground coriander
  2-3 T salt (to taste)
  1-3 t cayenne pepper (to taste)
  rice or chips (optional)
  cheddar cheese (optional)
  sour cream (optional)

Directions

In a stock pot, saute the onions in olive oil over high heat. When transparent, add the garlic, jalapeños, and cumin and coriander seeds. Let them all pop around for about two minutes, stirring continuously. Add the Boca Ground Burger and cook for another 5 minutes.

Then add the beer and watch it foam all up (this is the fun part). When the foam subsides, add the tomatoes and beans. You’re going to need it too cook down for a few hours, to help the flavors meld. The best is to cook it and the let it set over night.

The trick is to get the measurements of the spices right. You really can’t mess up much but the salt and cayenne pepper. Too little and you’ve just got tomato sauce. Too much and then you’ve got a spicy, salty mess. I suggest adding the spices gradually, like a teaspoon at a time till you get it to the flavor you like. And getting to the right flavor happens in one shake of the salt shaker. One moment it’s not quite right, and the next it’s great chili.

Serve with rice, corn chips, cheddar cheese, sour cream or anything else you like.

Yields: 12 servings

This is a light, delicious salad. Perfect for summer or to balance out heartier foods, like the veggie chili pictured here. If you like things with a bit more bite, add some cayenne pepper. If you have time prepare everything but the avocados the day before letting the cilantro, tomatillas, and lime juice all meld together. Just make sure to keep the corn separate until right before serving (it has a tendency to absorb and neutralize the lime juice making it a bit bland).

Ingredients

• 4 ears fresh bi-color corn
• 1/4 C chopped red onion
• 4 tomatillas, chopped
• 1/2 C fresh, chopped cilantro
• juice from 3 limes
• 2 t salt (to taste)
• 4 ripe avocados

Directions

Microwave the corn for about 5 minutes with the husk still on. Allow to cool. Take off the husks and cut the corn from the cob. Add the other chopped vegetables. Mix in the lime juice and salt. Put in the refrigerator.

Right before serving, chop up the avocados. I like to score a half with a knife and then scope out the pre-cut pieces with a spoon. Mix everything together and serve.

Yields: 10 side servings