My dear friend John loves to cook and has a great creative flair. Instead of running out to the grocery store when he doesn't have an ingredient, he just substitutes the missing ingredient with what he has on hand, or just makes something up with available ingredients. Whenever he's in town, you can bet he's in the kitchen with us whipping up some new dish we've never cooked before. I love getting late night texts (he's on the west coast) of what he's cooking (as well as edits I need to make to the Cookbook). Last night John made Basic Pizza Dough (page 50) and totally improvised the pizza itself. Here he tops the pizza dough with Pesto, Mozzarella, Shrimp and Kalamata Olives. "Devine! The crust was awesome." With what ingredients do you like to top your pizza?

Ben received a new wok for Christmas, and he and Heather put it to good use by making Chicken in Thai Peanut Sauce (recipe on p. 214). Ben put his own twist on this recipe by adding mushrooms to the other ingredients. He also suggests cooking the broccoli until the edges begin to brown before adding the chicken. What I would recommend is that you as the cook should judge which gets added first. I personally like vegetables to be crunchy, so I tend to add them to the very end of a stir fry. If you like them a bit more cooked, then add them earlier. That's the beauty of a dish like this - you can add or substitute ingredients, and can cook it less or more, depending on your individual taste.  The best part of this one though is the sauce. To quote Ben, "The Peanut Sauce is like candy. Delicious recipe and will make again!" Try this one and some of the other stir fry recipes included in the Cookbook. Or . . . make up your own.  Just cook something!

Irene and Mark took my basic Fettuccine w/ Red Pepper Flakes and put their spin on it by adding sausage and mushrooms.  I'm not sure if Matt was there as a co-chef, or if he was just there to eat, but he said their version of this recipe was great. They served it up with Garlic Toast using a baguette left over from their french toast feast the day before. Keep cooking guys and let us know us your versions turn out!

Click here for Fettuccine w/ Red Pepper Flakes recipe

I had John's name in our Christmas gift drawing, and knew he liked Le Creuset pans, so I bought him a dutch oven. Here's the picture he just texted me showing his first work of art in his new pan! The recipe is from "Cooking with Quinoa" by Rena Patton.  John says this one is like meatloaf . . . never the same twice. You can use any grain - brown rice, farrow, etc., and it's both sweet and savory. A variety of herbs and other vegetables can be used. John used 2 sweet potatoes - baked and scooped out, Monterey Jack cheese and feta.  Adapt it based on the ingredients you have on hand. Recipe follows.