These recipes are not "polished." Also, they assume a certain amount of proficiency in the kitchen.

House Aperitifs

Our huckleberry and apricot liqueurs are a snap to make. You can use many other fruits aside from the two we do. Bing cherry and peach come quickly to mind. A general rule of thumb is to match the color of the wine to the color of the fruit.

Process the food lightly in a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Place in a non-reactive container with wine, cover, and let stand overnight.

Pass the fruit and wine through a strainer into a two quart saucepan, pressing down on the solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Compost the remaining fruit pulp. Add the sugar to the saucepan and stir. Place the saucepan on a medium flame and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally to help the sugar dissolve. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Let cool a bit, and pass through a fine-meshed sieve. Let cool to room temperature, and add brandy. Cover and refrigerate. Keeps indefinitely.

Add one shot of the liqueur to a 5-6 ounce glass of wine. Again, we generally match the colors (wine to wine used in the liqueur, but this is not a hard and fast rule. Huckleberry in a glass of Champagne, for example, would be delicious).

Our summer tasting menu has been a tremendous hit. You'll probably find no greater representation of summer flavors in a simple, three-course menu anywhere else. The one course which stands out, however--because it's attractive, flavorful, refreshing and a surprise presentation--is the heirloom tomato dish. Serendipity played a major role in its creation.

Each summer we've had an heirloom tomato starter on our menu…a peeled, fresh tomato, sliced and layered with fresh mozzarella and basil…surrounded with smaller oven-roasted heirlooms garnished with basil oil. This year, we bought a bunch of yellow heirlooms and roasted them in the oven. Several days passed, and we didn't have the time to work with them, so we pureed them and froze them. When we finally got around to pulling the puree from the freezer, we wondered what it would be like as a granité, and bingo!…there was the dish:

Granité of Heirloom Tomatoes
with Shaved Mozzarella and Basil Chiffonade

We use yellow to yellow/orange tomatoes. You can use red, but red is what you expect from tomatoes, and doesn't make the presentation as surprising. If you use orange, the impression in the finished dish is unripe red tomatoes.

People often comment on how intense our flavors are (often some of our dishes are perceived as "rich," when it's really the flavor intensity), and this is by design. This is one recipe that will give you a clue as to how we go about what I like to call "saving flavor."

(very roughly, yield is one cup of purée per pound of tomatoes, » 2-3 servings)

Preheat the oven to 400º . Line the bottom of a roasting pan or baking dish with parchment and drizzle with olive oil. Core the tomatoes. Slice the tomatoes in half crosswise into a colander set over a bowl, leaving the halves in the colander. Seed the tomatoes over the colander, and place them, flesh side down, on the oiled parchment.

Sprinkle the tomatoes with sugar and salt. Rub the thyme sprigs between the palms of your hands over the tomatoes to distribute the leaves, and sprinkle the remaining leaves and stems over the tomatoes. Crush several cloves of garlic and sprinkle the pieces over the tomatoes. Anything that misses the tomatoes and falls onto the pan is fine. . . the juices will still be flavored. Place the pan in the oven and roast until the tomatoes are soft, and it seems that the skins can be removed easily. Tomatoes should not be roasted to the point of browning, in order to maintain their fresh taste. Remove the pan from the oven and let cool till you can "pinch" the skins off the tomatoes. Put the tomatoes in the bowl of a food processor, blender or small immersion blender, and process to a purée. Be careful not to put any large pieces of garlic or thyme stems into the blender. Thyme leaves are fine.

Pour the pan juices into the colander. Let the colander drain over the bowl, and discard the solids. Pass the contents of the bowl into a saucepan. Reduce the liquid over a low to medium flame until it's a bit thicker than the puree. Stir as necessary to keep from browning. The liquid will be a little darker than the puree, but again, you don't want caramelization to occur. This is the "saving flavor" technique that intensifies the dish. Most chefs don't take the time to do this, and virtually all recipes in cookbooks leave out such steps.

Add the reduced liquid to the puree, whisk to incorporate. Season to taste with salt and white pepper, bearing in mind that freezing dulls flavors. Don't overseason dramatically, but be sure not to underseason. Add lemon juice to taste. The idea is to sharpen the acidity, but not to taste the lemon juice. Done properly, the mixture should taste like fresh tomatoes with mouth-watering acidity.

Pour into a non-reactive dish and freeze.

Chill serving bowls well. Frozen doesn't hurt. "Shave" the fresh mozzarella: slice it so thinly that the slices don't hold their shape, producing very thin shavings. Chiffonade the basil. Scrape the surface of the tomato puree to produce the granité. We use a heavy, two-tined meat fork. Place about a cup of the granité in each bowl, garnish with cheese, then basil, and serve immediately.

Apple-Butternut Squash Soup

So simple to make, so tasty.

In a large saucepan or small stock pot, cook onion and garlic in oil till translucent. Add squash, stock and half the cider. Bring to a boil and simmer 20 minutes. Puree and pass through a strainer. Return the puree to the pot, add the rest of the cider. Bring to a boil. Add the cream. Season to taste with salt and white pepper.

Bread Pudding with Rum Raisin Sauce

People love our bread pudding because it's very light. Part of the reason is the custard mixture we use but--more importantly--it's the bread. Use the least expensive white bread you can buy. A 24 oz. loaf will make the recipe twice. Use half and freeze the rest. We use Safeway bread. Half a loaf should be about 10-12 slices.

Put the milk and butter into a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Meanwhile, tear the bread into bite sized pieces and place into a large mixing bowl. In another mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar, spices, eggs, vanilla and cream.

Pour the scalded milk over the bread and mix gently. Add the custard mixture and mix gently again. Pour into a buttered 8 x 10 baking dish (it will be quite full), and bake at 400º till golden brown.

Whisk yolks, sugar, milk, vanilla and rum in a saucepan. Cook over a medium flame, stirring constantly, till boiling. Add cornstarch mixture and continue to cook, stirring, till the mixture comes back to a boil and thickens. Add raisins.

Both the bread pudding and the sauce can be covered and refrigerated up to one week. To serve, reheat separately and pour the sauce over the bread pudding.