Winter

I haven’t been to Paris in a while, but I’ve been to the next best place: Encino.

There are two reasons why I go to Encino, a small city (or enclave or district or borough or cluster or whatever it is) in the San Fernando Valley, north of where I live. One is that I have a superior dentist there. The other is that I know a fabulous cook who lives there, and I like to take advantage of every opportunity to eat at her house.

Last time I dropped by (“Oh, is it dinner time? Who knew? What’s cookin’?”) Suzanne offered me a sample of her French onion soup. While my memory is admittedly badly impaired, I don’t recall eating a better version of it, ever.

For those of you who do not want to go to Encino because you are too busy visiting more glamorous places like, say, Cleveland, I have managed to procure the recipe for Suzanne’s soup. If you know what’s good for you, you will make it.

Eat your beets! We've all heard that from our moms quite often as kids. Unfortunately it was more often canned beets that we were persuaded to eat. As a curious eater, I've come to appreciate beets in many different preparations. I especially love them roasted in salads. But have you ever thought of eating them raw? Sliced very thinly, beets and other root vegetables, make great salads. Yes, it's possible to slice them thin with a knife, but a mandoline does the job better than anything else to get paper-thin shavings.

In this beautiful salad I combine three different colors of beets, plus a watermelon radish, and add pomegranate seeds for additional ruby color. The radish adds a different type of crunch and hotness. The pomegranate seeds along with a squeeze of orange juice add sweetness and tang to the salad. A sprinkling of dill adds green color as well as herbal flavor. After trying this salad, you will be surprised to find how naturally sweet beets taste when eaten raw. They are nature's candy in both taste and color.

Except for an ill-fated attempt to grow mushrooms in a box last winter and the occasional mini-fungi that pop up in the garden mulch, we do not grow mushrooms here on the farm. I guess that’s one of the reasons I’ve neglected writing much about this most meaty of vegetables.

But yesterday I was paging through Fast, Fresh & Green, looking for appropriate recipes for two classes I’ll be teaching at Stonewall Kitchens in Maine in May, and I stumbled upon these Mahogany Mushrooms. Oh, I’d forgotten how much I love cooking mushrooms like this. Chunky, fast, hot, browned, glazed–yum. Wan, undercooked, undercolored mushrooms are not my thing. If you follow this technique, that fate will not befall you.

Just to check, I made a batch this morning and Farmer and I ate them for lunch with some scrambled eggs. He gave the mushrooms ten licks (his rating system—it has to do with how much he licks his chops after sampling a dish).

Hot Artichoke Spinach Dip
Buffalo Chicken Dip
Clam Jam Dip
Cider Cheese Fondue
BLT and Avocado Bruschetta
Lila's Guacamole
Warm and Creamy Bacon Dip
Baked Vidalia Onion Dip
Baked Mexican Layer Dip
Reuben Dip
Creamy Shrimp, Spinach and Goat Cheese Dip
Maple Walnut Popcorn
Spicy Mango Salsa
Curried Deviled Eggs

New England Clam Chowder
Chicken & Sausage Gumbo
Boozy Beef Chili

Buffalo Chicken Wings with Blue Cheese Dressing
Fennel Sausage and Rapini Pizza
Best Baltimore Crab Cakes
Homemade Pigs in a Blanket
Pork Belly Sliders
Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp
Barbecue Beer Ribs

FOR ADULTS ONLY
The Bootleg | Bloody Mary | CosPompolitan | Classic Margarita | Long Island Iced Tea
Manhattan | Moscow Mule | Mojito | Sazerac | Sassy Sangria