Hot Potatoes (Sweet Potato Chipotle Soup)

Lately, I've been obsessing over soups. The perfect answer to blinding snow and biting cold, they make a timely and seasonally appropriate companion. The winter pantry offers no short stock of roots like onions, potatoes, and garlic, and hardy greens like cabbage and kale, but today I extoll the virtues of the humble sweet potato. Naturally bursting with flavor and nutrients, sweet potatoes make a thick, velvety soup with a color sure to brighten up the end of the day. Some of the oldest evidence of human sweet potato consumption dates from Peru 8,000 years ago, spreading to the Caribbean by 2500 BC and Polynesia by 1000 AD. Europeans weren't lucky enough to first taste sweet potatoes until Columbus' famed voyage of 1492. I embraced a general Meso-American theme by including Mayan sweet onion and the smoky spice of chipotles in adobo.

Colorful, flavorful

Easy Being Green (Gumbo z'Herbes)

Cajun cuisine may be stereotyped as all pork fat and crawdads, but gumbo z'herbes stands as a saucy testament to the cardinal importance of vegetables. While no dish would be complete without "the Holy Trinity," a blend of celery, onion, and green bell peppers, gumbo z'herbes raises the stakes by rounding up a potful of fresh greens and letting them rock out front and center. This recipe is extremely timely as April rains coax new shoots of tender green from the warming earth and budding leaves form misty plumes of color painted along the limbs of trees. Gumbo z'herbes is a fun, family-friendly dish that packs magnificently satisfying body and flavor with nary a shellfish nor ham hock in sight.

Flavor-full

Noodle Incident (Spicy Sesame Soba)

I have absolutely no pedigree when it comes to the cuisine of any culture. In true American fashion, my creations are bastardized, adapted, and sometimes probably miss the point completely. That said, I love the food of many cultures, especially that of Japan. Since I feel the local is establishment is a tad on the greasy side, though, I'm often left to my own devices in this arena. So much the better.

An attempt at authenticity