Cranberry beans

• 2-3 lbs cranberry beans in shell (you can use canned borlotti beans — they're the same thing — skip the boiling step.)
• 1/2 medium white onion, fine dice
• 1 clove of garlic, sliced thin
• juice of one lemon
• zest of 1/2 lemon
• 1 cup vegetable stock
• salt
• pepper

1. (If using fresh beans) Unshell and rinse beans. Place in cold salted water to cover and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer until soft (20 minutes?)
2. Drain beans
3. Heat olive oil in a small saucepan until it shimmers; add onion and reduce heat to medium low to sweat
4. When onion is translucent add garlic and cook for another few minutes (god, how many times have I written this step?)
5. Add vegetable stock, lemon juice and beans
6. Bring to a boil, back off to simmer and cook until it comes together
7. Finish with fresh zest, salt and pepper as needed

Shrimp-flavored risotto stuffed red peppers

For the risotto:

• 1 1/2 cups arborio rice
• 5 cups vegetable or chicken stock
• a pinch of saffron threads (optional)
• 6-10 (how ever many you may have) shrimp heads (optional, but how else are you gonna make it taste like shrimp.)
• 1 medium onion, fine dice
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup fresh grated Italian sheep's milk cheese (I can't remember what I have, but anything will work)
• parsley
• salt

1. Put the vegetable stock and shrimp heads in a saucepan to boil, reduce to simmer
2. Sweat the onions and garlic in 3-4 tbls olive oil (you can use a mix of olive oil and butter too) and a pinch of salt
3. Add the rice once the onions are translucent
4. Cook the rice in the oil until it too becomes see-through (3-5 minutes) stirring often
5. Reduce heat to medium and start ladling in a couple of ladles of the stock in at a time, stirring when you pour in the liquid and for a few moments after, then let cook until you see little holes form in the rice.
6. Keep adding stock until a spoon drawn through the risotto leaves a clear path (you may need more liquid -- just add some water to the stockpot. You may need less liquid. You never know! Cooking!)
7. Stir in the parsley and cheese

For the peppers:

• 4 bell peppers (red, green, purple, yellow, etc)
• Bread crumbs

1. Turn on oven to 450F
2. Put peppers on baking sheet, place in oven
3. Pour yourself a glass of wine, enjoy it
4. When peppers become soft (20-25 minutes), pull from oven and place on plate. Cover plate with bowl to loosen skins
5. Let peppers cool 10 minutes, then slice off tops to leave the bottom cups open. Peel off outer skin and fill with risotto.
6. I actually browned some scallops in a mix of butter and olive oil and put one in the bottom of the pepper, then the rice, then one on top.
7. Mix some breadcrumbs with melted butter and place on top of rice in peppers
8. Put in 350F oven for 10 minutes, and then a few minutes under the broiler to brown the tops.

Braised sole with spinach-crab meat stuffing

• 4 fillets dover sole (or similar white flaky fish)
• 1 bunch spinach (or package frozen, thawed and very well drained)
• 1/2 cup parsley, chopped fine
• 1 medium shallot, diced fine
• 2 cloves of garlic, diced fine
• 1/2 lbs lump crabmeat (I used medium sized Peekytoe)
• 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
• Juice of 1 1/2 lemons (use the other 1/2 for garnish)
• 4 tbls butter, divided
• 1 egg (optional)
• 1 cup white wine
• salt and pepper

1. If using fresh spinach, lightly steam until just cooked, cool and squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Chop spinach roughly.
2. Mix spinach, crab, breadcrumbs, 2 tbls of the butter (melted) (or olive oil), parsley and some of the shallots. If it's too loose, beat the egg and add it as well.
3. Place a dollop of the stuffing on the wide end of the fillet and roll up. Tie with string, use a toothpick or just place seam-side down in a baking dish
4. Heat some olive oil and add the shallots and garlic (I actually used the pan from the scallops so I could get the fond from them off)
5. When the shallots and garlic take on some color, add the lemon juice and deglaze the pan. Be sure to scrape to get all the nice brown bits off.
6. When it's reduced a little, add the wine and cook down to 3/4 original volume.
7. Pour over stuffed fish and place in 350F oven.
8. Cook fish until "done" (130-140F) and take out. Strain liquid out and place over high heat
9. Reduce liquid by half and mount with remaining butter, spoon over fish to serve.