Tilapia and vegetables in coconut chowder

This is a quick, colorful, super healthy weeknight dish. And infinitely adaptable to what you have laying around the kitchen and don't know what to do with, much like my frittata recipe. In this case, I had a handful of snow peas, half a red bell pepper left from a moderately successful peperonata experiment, couple of fingerlings, chunk of butternut, and a lonely old carrot. It's also easy on the dishes, only two pots! If your two-legged dishwasher is anything like mine, they'll be psyched.

And a few leaves of basil to tie it all together. Thai basil would be ideal and I will plant it again in the garden this year, but this is regular ole Genovese and it was just fine.

1 Thai chili, minced (seeds removed if it's going to be too hot for you)

1/2 an inch or so of ginger, minced or microplaned

1 garlic clove, minced or microplaned

1/4 a yellow onion, finely diced

handful of snow peas

half a red bell pepper, julienned

2 or 3 fingerling potatoes, cut into small rounds

chunk of butternut squash, cut into cubes the same size as the potatoes

lonely old carrot, diced finely

1 can coconut milk (I generally use the "light" one)

~1-2 cups of vegetable broth

~2 tsp green curry paste

zest of 1 lime

few dashes of fish sauce (don't chicken out, it's non-negotiable for authenticity - and, it is salty awesomeness)

few pinches of brown sugar

2 tilapia fillets

4 or 5 basil leaves, torn or julienned

1/2 cup of white or jasmine rice

sprinkle of cilantro

My white rice technique is pretty simple. I have never trusted the add-double-the-water thing where you just clamp a lid on and never stir, for me it always turns out gummy and stuck on the bottom. So I cook my rice in plenty of salted water and drain into a metal sieve just before it's cooked through. Then I pop the whole sieve back into the pot with a little water on the bottom, put it back on the heat, then clamp a lid on and let it steam for a few minutes. Voila, gorgeous fluffy rice every time. Anyway, yeah - do this.

Meanwhile, in a large heavy-bottomed pot or dutch oven, saute the chili, ginger, garlic, and onion in a drizzle of vegetable oil. Once the onion has softened, add your potatoes, squash, and carrot and allow to cook for a minute before adding the coconut milk, vegetable stock, green curry paste, lime zest, fish sauce, and brown sugar. I was careful to only add a little green curry paste since I didn't intend this to be a curry. It functions more as a seasoning here. Fish sauce is mad salty, so you may not need to add much more kosher salt for seasoning - just taste it as you go along. Ditto for pepper, considering the Thai chili. Cover and allow to cook for about 10 minutes, then add the red bell pepper, snow peas, and dunk the fillets right into the sauce, thinning with more vegetable broth if necessary. Cover again and let the fillets cook, probably another 7 or 8 minutes. Once everything has cooked through, stir in the basil.

Serve your lovely coconut fish and vegetable chowder in a wide shallow bowl with a scoop of rice and sprinkle of cilantro on top.

Serves 2, takes half an hour.

New Orleans-style shrimp and sausage over steaks with cheesy grits and collard greens

Despite my extreme dislike of gender roles, it has to be said: this one's for the dudes.

I married a [tall, handsome, sweet-as-pie] Cajun. Having spent a few years in Louisiana myself, I can empathize with becoming weak-kneed before a steamy bowl of gumbo and salivating at the thought of freshly fried beignets. That being said, it's not exactly the healthiest of cuisines, so these recipes are in the "every once in a while" file.

Chicken and spinach potstickers

I've been thinking about starting another blog about experimenting with making foods you usually buy, for all my bread and sausage and also otherwise non-whole meal recipes... But considering I can barely find the time for this one, I'll just post those recipes here. Documented experiment, the first: potstickers!

I just had a hankering. I'm sure everyone's bought a bag of frozen MSG-coated potstickers from the grocery store at one time or another, and they do cure a craving, but I always wonder what's actually inside the ground mystery centers. Pig tails? Chicken feet? (My mother's mouth is watering somewhere). Yeah... gross.

Penne with butternut squash, ground lamb and kaseri

This is another quick delicious one-pot meal. Yay! My fave! Thank you, epicurious.com "Weekly Planner" section!

I've always been a big fan of the winter squashes. Well, all squashes, really, but particularly the sweet winter squashes. Butternut squashes, acorn squashes, delicata squashes, you give me some squashes and I will be a happy camper. Squashes. It's just fun to say.

Chicken saltimbocca with pesto pasta and sauteed kale

This is a great weeknight meal. Very quick and satisfying, but with a little touch of fancy too. It's another great find from the Williams-Sonoma cookbook series "Food Made Fast", specifically, "Simple Suppers". I highly recommend the series.

You could stuff your chicken breasts with any kind of melty cheese and salty ham you happen to like or have kicking around the fridge, although the original recipe calls for fontina and prosciutto or boiled ham. This time I used a delicately smoked Italian caciocavallo cheese with prosciutto. Twas lovely. It also calls for fresh sage but dried works just fine, particularly when it's 13 degrees outside and your garden is an ice skating rink.