That object you see pictured above is a summer squash. Of some kind. That's what the nice lady at the New Albany Farmers Market told me, anyway (I trust her).

Want to learn how to prepare healthy food in your own kitchen? Willing to give raw and minimally cooked vegetarian cuisine a try but not sure where to start? Interested in low-mileage, high-octane fuel that sustains both the environment and your body? Join Chef Peter Klarman, who will lead “Cookin’ It Up with Chef Peter” at Gilda’s Club Wednesday evening, February 10, from 6:00 to 8:00 P.M.

I'm no different than most and stopped by to pick up a few staples yesterday. Thanks to my mom, here is a way to help combine and consume your oversupply since Blizzard '10 seems to have skipped us.

CINNAMON SYRUP
1c. sugar
1/2 c. light corn syrup

1/4 c. water

1 c. chopped walnuts

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 c. whipping cream or evaporated milk

I'm a dressing maverick. I've taken my own dressing to Thanksgiving for years, ostensibly because I needed a vegetarian version. My dirty little secret though, is that I just like mine so much better than any other dressing. Ever. Better than anybody's mother or grandma (sorry Mom). I've been making this dressing since before I'd heard the word foodie, much less considered myself one. It's foolproof. It will make your vegetarian guests happy.

One of my favorite things to do when I travel is to take cooking classes. But somehow I’d never managed to take one here in our own fair city. And honestly, some of those I’d heard of seemed not quite my style – I don’t need to learn how to use chicken breast five ways. More up my alley is discovering how to make high-end cuisine in my own kitchen. The Italian cooking class at the Brown recently had my name written all over it.

Many of us who grew up in Kentucky may have memories of going down into our grandparents' cellar to retrieve a jar of green beans, canned the previous summer. I know I do. I also remember the sinister hiss of the pressure cooker as my grandma went about the mysterious business of transforming summer's bounty into winter's sustenance. While it was a familiar sight, the activities themselves were foreign and mysterious. I never understood the alchemy that preserved food.

Tis the season to bring home food I would never purposely buy, and figure out what to do with it. Our farm share with Misty Meadows Farm (http://www.mistymeadowsfarm.vpweb.com/) has started up again. This means that instead of planning menus and then grocery shopping in search of ingredients every week, my husband and I plan recipes around what we receive in our share that week.

I usually buy spices at Lotsa Pasta. I like that you can buy them in small quantities – they’re more affordable, and less goes to waste that way. But armed with a spice shopping list a mile long last week to make a Moroccan tomato jam, I came up nearly empty-handed at Lotsa Pasta. Not since I lived in the foodie wasteland of Somerset have I felt so let down while food shopping. I’ve come to expect that living in Louisville I can get nearly any food item I want, not matter how obscure.

Farmer’s markets are starting to swing around Louisville now. I can’t stay away, even when it’s just eggs, over-wintered greens and green tomatoes. But I was gone for a couple of weeks and voila!

Nothing beats a plate of carbohydrates after you’ve overindulged. If you’re going to try the starch cure after Derby you may as well do it in style with a fun crepe brunch. Every culture in the world has its take on crepes – I happen to like the French version best, and after all, we are in Louisville.