Today's recipe is a vegetarian pilaf as satisfying and rich in flavor as mom's Lamb Pilaf. Imagine the aroma of mushrooms and garlic, the rich taste of lentils and the nuttiness of wild rice punctuated by tiny nuggets of spice stored in the green peppercorns. You have to pay for this richness, though, by using every one of the four stovetop burners, because mushrooms, lentils, white rice and wild rice all have to be cooked separately (else, you'll get mush).

Summer calls for salads, frosty drinks and fruit, but sometimes the body craves grilled cheese and protein, no matter the heat outside. These are easy-to-make, delicious stuffed mushrooms, with a couple of unique touches and the intense flavor of tarragon. Craving melted cheese?

Mushrooms, ginger, and pork - a perfect combination of flavors with an Eastern twist. This recipe is inspired by Japanese cooking, but does not require any rare ingredients (because I was too lazy to travel to Manhattan for a visit to a Japanese grocery). And I don't regret it, because this pork dish lacks absolutely nothing.

The reward was a few baskets of one of the best mushrooms. We dried them for winter use, mostly for soups. You can also make a soup of fresh porcini, but dried mushrooms acquire a unique scent, and these two soups are quite different in taste and flavor.

During long and frosty winter, boiled potatoes and salted mushrooms with sour cream made a decent supper. During winter holiday season pickled and salted mushrooms could be found in many festive dishes. Emetic Russula In today's recipe I used  Short-stalked White Russula(sukhoy gruzhd') that I pre-soaked in cold water for a few hours,   and some Emetic Russula (syroezhka, the red one ) varieties of wild mushrooms, and the way they are prepared is called hot method  for salted mushrooms (there is also a method to salt raw mushrooms).

They had mushroom noodle soup to die for, mouth watering beef stew in pottery pots, they also had beef in porcini sauce. The latter was my inspiration for today's recipe. What you need: 2 lb lean beef cut in thin 1"x2"slices Filtered water Mushrooms (2 big Portobello or 6 stuffing mushrooms), julienned or diced 1 big yellow onion, diced 2 tbsp butter 1 clove garlic, minced Salt Ground black pepper 2 tbsp sour cream 3 tsp flour in 1/2 cup water Method: Barely cover meat with water, put on high heat, and bring to boil.

Thus it came to be that I ignored my plans to go to the city for yoga, and instead cooked my favorite salmon recipe for a cozy dinner at home. I forget what wonderful person introduced this dish to the family, but unlike the person himself, the dish failed to be forgotten. Portobello mushrooms, very juicy by nature, together with tomatoes and salmon, result in the juiciest salmon I have ever tried.

Broccoli is certainly organic and eggs, oh eggs... Those eggs were not that crappy stuff one gets at regular grocery store, those eggs are real, with bright yellow yokes, loaded with vitamin D, eggs laid by real country chickens that nibble on fresh grass, eat insects and wander all day in the sun. As for mushrooms, we couldn't help but pick them in nearby forest the day before and asked Karen to incorporate them into our breakfast.

One of the prized dishes introduced to Americans by Julia Child, this rich beef stew is a French country classic. To this I add that my French co-worker referred to it contemptuously as "food for the old people", claiming that it's been cooked for so long to make the ingredients soft for the toothless that one can hardly taste a thing. This is of course far from truth, but one is always tempted to quote one frenchman's haughty opinions about food.

The chilliness of the day called for something traditional and hearty for dinner. I had borscht in my mind - the czar of Russian soups, but Alex talked me into making shchi ( the czarina of soups, if you will). At first I wanted to make a spring version of this cabbage soup: no meat broth (just water), potatoes, green cabbage, carrots, onion, tomato (may be), and lots of greens.