Yon Stephen has a lean and hungry look

I got ambitious again and put together this four-course meal. Nothing complicated about any of it. There was a fair amount of waiting time while things cooked. If I thought for one minute that these were things any of you would want to make, and wouldn't have your own way of constructing, I'd put real recipes in here. If I'm mistaken, write to me at scrout1944@msn.com and I'll share the specifics promptly.

Chicken gizzard terrine (with a surprise)

I bought a 1 ¼ lb package of chicken gizzards and hearts (“mostly gizzards” the package says) the other day. A little snipping with kitchen shears cleaned them of their naughty bits and then they just needed 2 hours of simmering to tenderize. The one secret (surprise) ingredient of this terrine was the addition of 3 hot dogs. Hey, they were in my freezer and I didn't know what else to do with them. Grind, grind, grind, combine, combine, combine, and gelatine, put into a loaf pan and refrigerate. You're done.

Japanese eggplant with a Thai-style dressing

I'm still without the means to have my camera talk to my computer, so you'll have to be satisfied with a nice picture of 2 Japanese eggplants. Roast them at 375 for an hour until they collapse. Make a sauce from chicken broth (remember those gizzards?), fish sauce, lime juice, ginger, and maybe something else. Slice the eggplants lengthwise, keeping them intact with the stem end and douse them with the sauce. Refrigerate until ready to eat.

Caprese salad with homemade ricotta

Making ricotta at home is stupid simple. Bring a quart of milk to 180 degrees, stir in 3 Tbs of white wine vinegar or lemon juice. Drain through a couple of layers of cheesecloth. That's it. Ricotta comes to a kitchen near you. We're finally into local fresh tomato season here and I found some great basil at, of all places, Safeway. Dress with a bit of olive oil, lemon juice, and salt and pepper and prepare to go to heaven (in a metaphorical sense).

Orange rice

1 cup long grain rice, 1 cup SunnyD, 1 cup chicken stock (gizzards again?). Cook the rice, eat the rice. Use leftovers for fried rice with broccoli (that's for tonight). By the way, I have come back around to cooking rice the way my Asian ex-wife does it. Bring the liquid (with the rice in it) to a boil and wait until holes start to appear in the rice. Clamp on a lid and reduce the heat to low, low, low. I love the texture that results from this method. It still takes 20 minutes, but it's really good.