Bok Choy and Mushroom Stir Fry

I have always loved the idea of stir fry, throw some veggies and maybe some tofu or chicken all together in a hot wok, stir it up a bit and you've got dinner!  Amazing!  The reality however has never been so dreamy.  Rubbery mushrooms, painfully wilted veggies, and you don't even want to know about the culinary sins I have created involving toasted sesame oil.

All of this culminated to make me believe that it was simply beyond my grasp to properly cook bok choy.  It was a mysterious freak of the vegetable world that I just couldn't crack, until now.

The problem was exactly what I described above as my idea of a stir fry - throw everything in a pot - together - at the same time.  Of course, the result of this method is that some things will cook faster and be overcooked, while others will barely be cooked at all.  Even my nemesis the Bok Choy needs to be divided up and cooked in stages.

Puréed Wild Mushroom and Brussels Sprout Soup

This is like your favorite sweater in a bowl. A warm, hearty brew that's perfect for those last chilly nights in spring or those first fall evenings.

For those who are fearful of fat, this recipe uses no cream and only a small amount of butter for sautéing. For those afraid of brussels sprouts, fear not - sautéing them and blending them to a puree removes all bitterness and texture that might be a turn off to you.  For those afraid of ghosts... I'm afraid there isn't much here that concerns you.

This recipe does require an immersion blender, which is a kitchen gadget I could not live without and can probably be found for as little as $15 at your nearest drugstore (where I got mine).

Cheesy Pasta Bake

Not terribly photogenic, but oh so good.

I cannot call this dish macaroni and cheese. For one, I do not like to use macaroni when creating this dish as it reminds me too much of kindergarten craft projects and I have a hard enough time controlling my impulse to run for the glitter and elmer's glue as it is. For two, the dish I know as macaroni and cheese from my childhood comes from a bright blue box and is often a suspicious orange color. That having been said, this dish is divine. I do not know how I spent the formative years of my life having never had "real" macaroni and cheese - from an oven, not a pot - but I have recently seen the light.

The first time I experienced "real" macaroni and cheese was with my partner Noah at his mother Toni's house. His mother and stepfather have been veggie-converts for many years and as such have had time to perfect what has become a staple in their home. This version is a hodgepodge of what I gleaned from watching Toni work her magic and a recent recipe from Gourmet magazine. It couldn't be simpler and there are SO many ways to vary this recipe to go from weeknight sassy to dinner party classy.