(I like peas now, too.)

For one serving, set 1 c. skim milk to boil; you can substitute soy, rice or almond milk.

Add a splash of vanilla, healthy dashes of cinnamon and cardamom, salt and freshly ground black pepper. I guess you could call this Chai Oatmeal.

Tear up four or five dates (Medjool dates are the best for eating but I use the cheap kind for oatmeal).

Add heaping 1/2 c. of old fashioned oats, that is, not the quick-cooking kind.

By now, the milk should have started to boil. Turn down to a simmer and stir occasionally.

I like my oats thick and creamy, so cooking time runs about ten to fifteen minutes.

As you stir, try to break up the dates a bit more to spread their sweetness throughout the oatmeal.

When you’ve achieved your desired consistency, taste for salt and serve.

Options: Before serving, add

• chopped nuts;
• butter or coconut oil;
• and/or maple syrup.

In your pressure cooker/soup pot, saute a large onion in olive oil. Add 2 T freshly grated ginger and a good tablespoon or two of fennel seeds. Stir and toast the seeds. Add 1 1/2 c chopped celery, three large carrots cut into chunky discs, 6 c of water, 2 c yellow split peas, curry powder if you have it (I had about 1 T left), a healthy dash of cinnamon, a few healthy dashes of cardamom, a tablespoon or two of ground coriander, 1 t basil, 1 t Garam Masala (optional—I was trying to make up for not having enough curry powder). Throw in a few handfuls of raisins. Yep! Raisins. Do not add salt at this point. I’ve always been told adding salt to beans and peas while they cook make the legume tough. And with a dish where you need the peas to break down, why test the theory?

Close up your pressure cooker and bring to high pressure for ten minutes. (For standard stove top, follow the directions on the pea package—probably forty minutes.) If you’re in a hurry, you could release the pressure right away. I let mine come down naturally for another ten minutes while I went to price check Internet providers with Liz.

Stir the peas well and start adjusting seasonings. I start with the salt since it brings out the other flavors as well. Last night, I also added cayenne, but the other spices were fine.

So delicious it’s easy to overeat. Be forewarned.

Soak and cook a one-pound bag of pintos. Have I mentioned pressure cookers? I swear that they lock in more flavor, and of course they save you time and energy as well.

If you like heat in your beans, throw hot peppers in your pot. I like using dried habernos—sometimes I break them open to chip out the seeds, but like last night, when I’m lazy and in a rush, I throw them in whole.

In a food processor, toss in half an onion and two cloves garlic. I had some leftover green pepper and added that, too. Let the processor mince up the veggies. (You can do this step by hand, of course, if you’re a neo-Luddite or don’t have a processor.)

Once the beans are cooked, you can start pureeing them in the processor with the veggies. (I leave the dried peppers in!) If you have a lot of liquid, you might drain some of it off. I always save some, however, to make sure the beans don’t get too thick. Remember that they will thicken as they stand and cool.

You’ll probably have to puree in batches. I ended up doing two batches and adding another half onion and clove of garlic to the second. Season with salt and ground cumin and coriander while you’re mixing.

Stir the batches together and finish seasoning. Sometimes a few splashes of lemon juice really wake the beans up, but if your beans are too soupy, avoid this.

Reheat if necessary and serve with tortilla chips. You may add grated cheese on top. You may also wish to bake it in the oven with diced tomatoes and grated cheese. And if you totally want to change it up or make a second meal of it later, you could thin it with a combo of water and lemon or lime juice to make a soup. Of course, there’s always burritos as well. Or tostados. Or enchiladas. Or…

Chop a ripe avocado. The success of this dish is the flavor of the fruit. You can only do so much about that, of course, but at least you can ensure the avocado’s ripe before using.

Chop an equivalent amount of grape tomatoes. Other tomatoes will work, but in the winter, you’ll get luckier with flavor if you go for the grape or cherry tomatoes.

Slice red onion thinly. You can gauge the amount depending on your own taste for onion.

Mince a small clove of garlic. Normally, I recommend lots of garlic, but for this salad—eaten right away—too much garlic could overpower the salad.

Toss everything together with a dose of olive oil and a few splashes of lime juice. Fresh juice would be best but I didn’t have it on hand, and this salad still turned out fabulous.

Season with freshly ground pepper and salt. I used chunky Celtic sea salt and let it sit just long enough for the salt to dissolve, then tossed it one more time.

Amazing scooped up on bread, especially Liz’s famous loaf.

I served it with tofu steaks—slices of tofu sautéed in toasted sesame oil with a homemade fajita sauce. If you don’t have a good sauce on hand, tamari works perfectly on its own. Be sure to let the tofu cook slowly enough to absorb the sauce and let it brown.

You can skip this first step if you buy canned beans.

Soak black beans overnight and cook with just enough water to cover. Add a fresh Habanero pepper (just plop it in whole) or dried hot peppers, depending on the amount of heat you like. (With dried peppers, I crack them open and remove the seeds. With fresh peppers, I wait and remove them once it’s cooked, usually because I keep my peppers in the freezer, and it’s easier. Sometimes I’m lazy and don’t remove the seeds at all, but this will make the dish spicier and somewhat bitter if you get the seeds in your spoonful. Whatever works for you; just be careful to keep your fingers away from your eyes afterwards!) I do my beans in a pressure cooker for 8 minutes, swirling the pot once during that time to make sure the beans at the top are getting enough liquid, and then let the pressure come down naturally. You can follow the directions on the package for regular stovetop cooking.

While my beans are cooking, I sauté a chopped onion and lots of minced garlic (usually seven or eight cloves—I love garlic) in a large cast iron skillet. Oh, and I use olive oil for everything, well, except desserts. Chop some celery, too. If I’ve just gotten a new head, I use the inner stalks first with all the leafy parts (and put the rest of the stalks in water so they get nice and crisp sitting in the fridge). Dice a small to medium sized sweet potato.

When the onions are soft, add a good couples tablespoons of cumin seed—I’m as generous with my cumin as I am with garlic. Toast the seeds for a minute or two. Add the celery and sauté a bit longer. Add the sweet potato, one can of frozen OJ concentrate, a good splash of tamari (maybe 1/4 c.), and bring the whole thing to a boil. I used to only use 3/4 can of the OJ but I don’t like drinking OJ so sometimes I’d forget to use the leftover. A whole can will make it tangier, less subtle. You might want to start with less and see how you like it. Turn the skillet down to simmer.

The sweet potatoes take between ten and fifteen minutes to cook. I’ve started not using a lid in order to help the liquid cook down. This dish usually starts out runny, but thickens up in the end because of the beans.

When the potatoes are soft, I add the black beans. You can drain them if you want, but I’ve gotten the water to bean ratio down to a science and so I can just add the whole pot to the skillet and not worry about it being too wet. It also depends how long you’ll be able to let the beans simmer and sit. If you’ll be serving them right away, go ahead and drain the beans so you have a thicker dish.

Once the beans are stirred in, start tasting for seasoning. Usually all I have to do is add salt. Sometimes I try more tamari for that rich flavor, but it also adds more liquid, so it’s a trade off.

Serve right away with tortilla chips or turn off the heat and let the beans sit until you need them. If I have cilantro on hand, I’ll throw that in at the very end. Lots of cilantro. So bright and green!

Great leftovers for lunch throughout the week. These beans also make a mean Huevos Ranchero (I like two eggs over easy—that yolk loves the sweet savory sauce of the beans).

1/2 c. liquid—I usually some of the liquid from the canned artichoke hearts (and I don’t buy the artichokes in oil, only brine).

Salt this. Boil it. Turn off the heat. Add 1/3 c. cous-cous. Let sit covered at least 7 minutes.

In the meantime, chop a good handful of the artichoke hearts. Saute a good portion of frozen spinach. Chop some grape tomatoes—I like to do about twice as many tomatoes as artichoke hearts. Mince some garlic and throw on the spinach when it has about two minutes left. (The spinach should be thoroughly defrosted and not have any liquid left. Season the spinach with olive oil, about 1/2 t of thyme, a good shake of salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Mix everything together and season to taste. Usually for me, this means shelling pistachios for the salt and the crunch. Sesame seeds are nice, too.

Dessert: super dark chocolate and crystallized ginger. And/or a Clementine when in season (only!).

Set a pot of salted water to boil.

Mix together the sauce. Don’t even think about Jiffy for this recipe. Don’t even think about Jiffy ever. Peanut butter should be nothing but peanuts and, because I love it, salt.

Note: these measurements are extremely approximate. I just mix and taste as I go.

Put your kettle on the stove and start boiling a little water. Add about 3 T honey to 2/3 c peanut butter and stir together. Add white vinegar—maybe 2 T. Stir. Add 2 T tamari (note #2: I won’t touch “soy sauce” unless I absolutely have to; tamari tastes much richer and more complex). Stir. Add cayenne to taste. If your kettle has whistled, add 1 or 2 T of hot water. Stir. Now taste and adjust flavors. You want to just sense the acidity of the vinegar and the sweetness of the honey. The tamari transforms the peanut butter into something not so peanuty. This shouldn’t be like eating a pb and j.

I like leaving the sauce pretty thick, something like spreadable frosting. The noodles are usually wet enough to thin it out and then you won’t end up with a soupy mess. If you like a soupy mess, well then, go for it.

When the pot of water boils, add your noodles. I used angel hair pasta, cooked it for three minutes, added a bunch of frozen peas and cooked one minute more. Perfectly al dente. I drained the noodles and added left over bean sprouts I had on hand. I also tried sparzha, a freeze-dried tofu that Liz brought back from China, for the first time. We put it to simmer along with the noodles, which turned out to not be enough time. The chewy texture would have been nice though, so it’ll be worth trying again.

Pour your sauce over your noodles and mix together until you get a good ratio of sauce to pasta.

We ate with chopsticks—immensely fun (though I swear mine kept breaking, sometimes they wouldn’t pick up a damn thing!)—and enjoyed Liz’s Chinese-prepared cabbage, too.

Comfort food. This is a lighter version of what can be rich and creamy if you substitute cream cheese for the yogurt (or half and half for the skim milk—though I’ve never tried this myself).

Chop an onion. Saute it in olive oil and a generous sprinkle of sugar. Turn the heat down, put a lid on it and let the onions sweat slowly.

Dice some celery. Add to the onion when the onion is almost soft. Turn up the heat and sauté a bit longer.

Add one of those large cans of crushed tomatoes. Add almost a quart of quality tomato juice. Stir in maybe a cup of yogurt, maybe a cup and a half. Add skim milk. The dairy balance is up to you. Too much milk makes it a very thin soup, so I tend to work with yogurt first. I also work against undermining the tomato-y-ness. You still want that tart acidity.

At the same time, add honey. This is your preference as well. I’d start with 1/3 cup.

Crush about two tablespoons of dried rosemary (I use a coffee bean crusher.) Stir in with lots of white pepper.

Start tasting and adjust seasonings as necessary. I usually need to add some salt, but then I like salt.

Serve with hunks of good bread warmed in the oven.