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 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.

Ham, black-eyed pea and collard green soup

 
Well, the farm has suffered a bit of a setback; someone bought the land we were getting serious about before we could. This is only a temporary problem, as there is always more land out there becoming available, but man - it sucks. Yet, we shall press forward. Pure Land Organic cannot be stopped! Obstacles only invigorate our spirit! Yeah!!

In the meantime, have some soup.

Yogurt-marinated chicken kebabs with wilted mustard greens and macaroni pie

Cool-weather greens season is upon us. My kale is still itty-bitty, but the mustard greens I planted a few weeks earlier are absolutely kicking ass. I used to just saute my mustard greens like Swiss chard, but pre-boiling them before the saute is definitely my new technique. There was no bitterness whatsoever. Like my Dad said, you could certainly add more butter or bacon to make them really good, but then you're kind of getting away from the point of eating them in the first place.