Stew is meant to be a comfort food, so we saw no reason to complicate this one. It's a classic beef stew with vegetables lightly seasoned and flavored with a Czech dark lager. We used Bohemia Regent, but any equivalent beer will do.

Ingredients:
16 ounce beef steak
four large carrots
six medium to large red potatoes, skin on
one bunch of scallions
four cups beef broth
one pint Czech dark lager
fresh basil, to taste
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions: Cook steak in a frying pan with butter to medium, then slice into cubes. Chop carrots and scallions, dice potatoes into large chunks and add all ingredients to a large pot. Let sit on low heat for at least three hours, longer if you're stomach can stand it (the smell will call to you). Eat with a baguette. And do enjoy.

It's a shame pomegranate isn't more accessible. It's one of my favorite fruits, yet I rarely find the occasion to pick one up. I suppose I've only myself to blame.

My instinct was to make a desert of some kind – pomegranate oatmeal cookies came to mind – but I thought I'd experiment.      This recipe employs pomegranate in two different ways – as an accent to traditional fried corn cakes and as the base of a salsa. The idea for the salsa came first, then I thought I'd try to recreate the look and feel of a Mexican tostada with some basic Greek ingredients and flavors.

This recipe has three basic components that require (fairly simple) individual preparation – pomegranate corn cakes, pomegranate-tequila salsa and a basic Greek tzatziki. The rest is just assembly. I've listed each component separately and then given directions for arrangement at the bottom.

Apologies for the crappy pictures; my camera is acting up and I'm looking into a new one.

Pomegranate-Tequila Salsa:

Ingredients:

• seeds of 1/2 pomegranate
• 1 medium yellow pepper
• 1/2 small red onion
• 1/3 cup of tequila
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• dash of salt

Directions: Dice pepper and red onion, then toss all ingredients together, reserving a small handful of pomegranate seeds. Crush the remaining seeds and let juice leak into the salsa. Place in the refrigerator for about one hour to let the flavors combine.

Tzatziki:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1/2 cucumber
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin

Directions: Dice cucumber very finely. Add to yogurt with cumin and mix together.

Pomegranate Corn Cakes:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups yellow cornmeal
• seeds of 1/2 pomegranate
• 1 egg and 1 egg yolk
• 1 1/4 cup milk (preferably whole)
• cooking oil

Directions:

1. Beat egg and egg yolk in a large bowl. Add in cornmeal and milk and whisk together until a thick batter forms. Fold in pomegranate seeds.
   
2. Heat oil in a pan on medium high heat until it begins to sizzle.
3. Drop about 1/3 cup of batter at a time onto the pan, allowing it to spread out a bit to form 3-inch diameter pancakes. Let fry until crispy on one side and then flip, doing the same on the other side.
4. Remove from pan and let cool completely.

Greek Tostadas:

Ingredients:

• pomegranate salsa
• tzatziki
• pomegranate corn cakes
• whole spinach leaves, stemmed
• baby shrimp, boiled and unseasoned

Directions: Spread tzatziki thinly on top of the corn cakes. Lay spinach leaves on top, then arrange shrimp. Top off with a generous dollop of the salsa. Serve as appetizers.

Alternate directions: Toss salsa and shrimp with the spinach. Drizzle tzatziki over the salad as a dressing and serve with corn cakes on the side.

Buttermilk waffles slathered in maple syrup have long been a Saturday morning staple in our apartment. With kiwi as this week's ingredient, we decided to try a lighter, fruitier variation.

What follows is a recipe for kiwifruit waffles with a light honey-ginger drizzle and strawberry whipped cream. Buttermilk seemed a little hearty to go with the rest of the motif, so I used my aunt's sour milk waffle recipe, which matches the tartness of the kiwi. We then used the leftover kiwifruit to make orange-kiwi mimosas. It didn't make for the most visually

Sour Milk Kiwi Waffles:

Strawberry Whipped Cream


Honey-Ginger Drizzle


Orange-Kiwi Mimosas: Blend one or more peeled kiwi with desired quantity of orange juice. Fill glasses with half of this mixture and the rest of the glass with champagne.