Carrot Mac and Cheese

The objective of this dish is not to sneak vegetables into fussy, unsuspecting children. Nay, you will taste the carrot. You will also taste zingy orange and lovely distinctive tarragon. These are not bad things; you should taste them, or you're doing it wrong. So while the caption of the original recipe touts the benefits of adding carrots for vitamin A and reducing the overall fat of the dish, I say the actual benefit is that carrots are delicious and go fabulously with the sharp cheddar and citrus.

This is mac and cheese elevated; not meant to replace the original, but a sophisticated dish to stand on its own. I don't want to mislead that it's complicated, because it isn't at all; in fact, there are only five ingredients. It's just mac and cheese all growns up.

Crawfish pies with spinach and grapefruit salad

There is a very old and celebrated Hank Williams song about Louisiana called "Jambalaya." The chorus goes thusly:

Jambalaya, a-crawfish pie and-a file gumbo
'Cause tonight I'm gonna see my ma cher amio
Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gay-oh
Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou.

Those of you who haven't spent a lot of time in the Deep South may need a dictionary, but we've all heard of jambalaya and gumbo, right? Crawfish pie, maybe not. That is about to change.

This was the first time I've ever made them myself, and they were awesome. Flaky pastry stuffed with spicy thick oozy bubbly delicious crawfish filling, yes, please. You could certainly substitute shrimp if you can't find crawfish tails, but it just won't be the same... Nothing replaces crawfish. Look for them in flat one-pound packages in the frozen seafood section of fancier grocery stores (unless you're in the South, where you can find them in most regular crappy grocery stores too). Do try to buy only Louisiana crawfish - the Chinese ones may taste alright, but they're the polar opposite of local.

Snapper with orange-fennel salsa, lemony quinoa and salad

On my usual Saturday morning grocery excursion I noticed them back in season: blood oranges. Ooo!! Then I remembered I had half a fennel bulb in the fridge leftover from a Mario Batali recipe last week and instantly put this on the menu.

Suffice to say I made mimosas out of most of the blood oranges, but you only need a couple for this recipe. And of course, you can use regular old oranges as I do most of the time. But aren't they cool?? I found this recipe on epicurious.com a few years ago after receiving a fennel bulb in my farm share one week and having absolutely no idea what to do with it. It's one of the only recipes I follow to the letter - I wouldn't even know where to begin on improving it, it's pretty much perfect. It's quite elegant too, making it great for company, especially since you can have your salsa and sides ready to go and all you have to do at the last minute is grill your pretty fish.

Lime shrimp over coconut rice with roasted acorn squash in chile vinaigrette

The title makes this sound much more complicated than it is. In reality it's a quick, simple, crazy tasty weeknight meal.

Rice cooked in coconut milk becomes rich and creamy, like risotto without the work. Topped with a ladle full of limey buttery garlicky shrimp, it is heavenly.