Recipe #24 - Grilled Scallops with Pesto Drizzle and Roasted Corn-Chickpea "Succotash"

You need to rush out to get some fresh-picked corn before the summer season is gone. There's nothing like corn that was growing in a field earlier that same day. And try to find some dry-packed day boat sea scallops instead of those which have been sitting in a chemical bath.

Makes four servings.

12 large sea scallops
Olive oil
Salt & pepper

1/2 cup prepared pesto (recipe follows)
2 Tbsp. half-and-half

3 ears fresh corn

2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
6 green onions, rinsed, trimmed and thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small zucchini, trimmed and diced
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 15 oz. can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
Salt & Pepper
1/4 cup shredded basil

Pull aside the husks from the corn and yank out all the silk. Cover the ears with husks and soak in water for an hour. Then grill the corn until heated through and charred, about 15 minutes. Set aside to cool, then cut the kernels off the ears with a large knife.

Put the scallops in a bowl and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan and add the green onions. Saute for a few minutes, add the garlic and saute for another minute or two. Add the zucchini and tomatoes and saute for a few more minutes until heated through and soft. Remove from heat and stir in the chickpeas, salt, pepper, vinegar and basil. Add the corn kernels and mix gently.

Put the pesto in a small bowl and add the half-and-half. Whisk until well blended.

Get the grill preheated and spray it liberally with no-stick cooking spray. When it's hot, add the scallops and grill on both sides for several minutes until grill-marked on the outside and opaque on the inside.

Place a mound of corn/bean salad in the center of each serving plate. Put three scallops at the edge of the plate in a triangle pattern. Spoon some of the pesto drizzle onto each scallop and around the edge of the plate.

BASIL PESTO

Fistful of fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
2/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
8 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
1 cup extra virgin olive oil

Place all the ingredients in a food processor and buzz it until it becomes a smooth paste, stopping to scrape down the sides as necessary. Adjust flavors as appropriate. (If you want a more pronounced garlic flavor, throw in a few extra cloves. Same goes for the other ingredients.) If the pesto seems too thick, add more olive oil. Store in an airtight jar or sealed plastic bag in the refrigerator, or freeze for later use.

Recipe #23 - Pumpkin Penne Pasta with Mushrooms & Pumpkin Seeds

This is a perfect autumn dish but can be enjoyed anytime. We take the easy way out here by using canned pumpkin, although you can make it even better by roasting sugar pumpkin (or butternut squash) in the oven until very soft, and then pureeing it in a food processor with some of the vegetable stock.

We like to serve this pasta with seared yellowfin tuna and some green vegetables (broccolini, asparagus, green beans, brussels sprouts, etc.) on the side.

Makes four servings.

1 15 oz. can pumpkin
3 cups rich vegetable stock
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 cup mascarpone cheese (Italian cream cheese)
Salt & pepper

2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1/2 lb. mixed wild mushrooms (oyster, portobello, shiitake), stemmed and thinly sliced

1 cup raw pumpkin seeds

1 lb. penne pasta

1/2 cup freshly grated pecorino romano cheese

Place the pumpkin, one cup vegetable stock, mascarpone and cinnamon in a blender or food processor and buzz until blended and smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Melt the butter in a large saute pan and add the mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms are slightly browned and have given off most of their liquid. Add the remaining two cups of stock and boil until most of the liquid has been evaporated. Stir in the pumpkin mixture and keep on low heat.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Spread the pumpkin seeds on a cookie sheet and toast in the oven for about 8 minutes, checking often to make sure they're not burning. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes.

Cook the penne pasta in boiling salted water until al dente according to package directions (about 11 minutes usually). Drain the pasta and put it in a large serving bowl. Pour in the pumpkin-mushroom sauce and the toasted pumpkin seeds. Mix gently and serve, with the grated pecorino romano cheese to be scattered on top of each individual serving.

Recipe #22 - Grilled Yogurt-Marinated Shrimp & Halibut with Orzo Salad

Marinating fish in yogurt tends to cut the "fishy" nature of the seafood as well as adding a slight tang. The lemony orzo salad is best served at room temperature.

Makes 4 servings.

1 lb. halibut fillets, skinned and cut in 1" cubes
12 large shrimp, shelled and deveined
1 cup lowfat plain yogurt
2 Tbsp. fresh minced herbs (rosemary, oregano, parsley)

1/2 lb. dried orzo pasta
8 oz. fresh spinach, stemmed
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 lemon
3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1.5 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted and sliced
3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 cup toasted pine nuts

Mix the fresh herbs into the yogurt and stir in the seafood. Cover and refrigerate for about an hour.

Boil the orzo in salted water until cooked al dente. Drain and toss with a little olive oil to keep from sticking.

Saute the spinach in olive oil until wilted.

Put the spinach, tomatoes, olives, feta and pine nuts in a large bowl. Zest and juice the lemon and add to the bowl. Add the olive oil and stir in the cooked orzo. Toss gently to mix well.

Heat the grill. Put the halibut chunks and shrimp on skewers and grill until the seafood is cooked through, turning often to prevent sticking to the grill.

Serve the seafood skewers alongside the orzo salad. You can make it a more substantial main dish salad by adding some salad greens dressed with lemon vinaigrette and decorating the edges of the plate with grilled asparagus and halved cherry tomatoes.

In Praise of Great Films - Harold and Maude (1971)

Fifth in a series.

Many books, movies, articles and even song lyrics over the years have featured varying takes on the legendary Hollywood "pitch meetings," wherein a screenwriter or team of aspiring filmmakers throw their unique idea for a film at an industry/studio insider in the hope that some money will be allocated to their project. Sometimes known as an "elevator pitch" (get your idea across in the time it takes to take an elevator ride with your subject), they boil a story down to a sentence or two.

Now, imagine the following movie idea: "A suicidal teenage boy falls madly in love with an 80-year-old woman..." Um, end of meeting, thank you very much, don't let the door hit you on the way out.

And yet, that's the core of the story in the film Harold and Maude, released in 1971 and a cult fave to this day. The greatness of this movie isn't due to its cast (Bud Kort and Ruth Gordon in the title roles) nor special effects, nor cinematography, nor sound, nor any one thing. The magic of Harold and Maude is the story and the message contained therein.

We first meet Harold, a young lad with an obsession with death. He fakes his own suicides (in increasingly creative ways), partially as a way to confound his overbearing mother, who is in turn obsessed with finding her son a mate. Harold also attends the funerals of strangers, which is where he ends up meeting Maude. Over the course of the film, he falls head-0ver-heels in love with the old lady, and if you haven't seen the movie and are thinking this is just plain yucky, you're probably not alone.

But it works. Not only does the viewer buy into the love story, but we also are witness to the transformation of Harold -- from freaky loner to self-aware grown-up (sort of). Maude teaches Harold many lessons, not the least of which are to dare to dream, not be afraid of love, embrace life fully, and don't deny yourself happiness.

In today's legal environment, if such a storyline played out for real, Maude would be jailed for statutory rape and Harold would be committed to a mental institution, and that would be that. But perhaps 1971 was a different time with different attitudes (the Vietnam war was still going full-bore, and Harold and Maude is unabashedly anti-war).

Much of the credit for the story goes to Colin Higgins, who wrote the script. Higgins was a gifted writer of comedy whose life ended far too soon; he died of AIDS in 1988 while still in his 40s. The director of Harold and Maude was Hal Ashby, a former film editor who turned to directing and made some of the most memorable films of the 1970s (Coming Home, Bound for Glory, Shampoo, The Last Detail, Being There). Alas, Ashby also lost his life too soon and also in 1988, to cancer, while still in his 50s.

As for the cast, the great Ruth Gordon was the standout of course. She died in 1985 but in her case you can't say she was taken away prematurely. She was pushing 90, after all. (Gordon's first role was as an uncredited extra in a 1915 silent film called The Whirl of Life!) Gordon earned five Oscar nominations during her career (including a win for her role in the classic 1968 Roman Polanski film Rosemary's Baby), but only two of them were for acting. The other three were for screenwriting, as she turned out some great scripts with her husband and writing partner Garson Kanin. Bud Cort never became a big star but has been working steadily in small roles in the ensuing decades. The British actress Vivian Pickles is wickedly wonderful as Harold's mom. And watch for a hilarious scene where Maude messes with the head of a frustrated motorcycle cop, played by a then-little-known Tom Skerritt.

And last but not least, the movie has a soundtrack of songs by the artist who was at the time known as Cat Stevens. Whether or not you like his music, you'll have to admit that here they just work beautifully.

Even if all the above doesn't persuade you to give this movie a try, there's one more thing to seal the deal: This is quite possibly the only time in your life you'll get to see a sleek Jaguar sports coupe turned into a Hearse funeral car.

Recipe #21 - Addictive Cereal Snack Mix

A recent visit to brother Ace and sister-in-law Sallie brought back memories - and a recipe - of the age-old snack mix made up of various cereals, nuts and pretzels. There are many variations of this snack, and we change it virtually every time we make it. The main alteration we've instituted is a reduction in butter and salt from the original recipe, just because we believe less fat and sodium is a good thing. We also crank up the heat factor with the addition of some hot sauce.

1/3 cup unsalted butter
2 Tbsp. worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1 Tbsp. Tabasco "chipotle" pepper sauce
3 cups Crispix cereal
3 cups Corn Chex cereal
2 cups Wheat Chex cereal
1 cup cashews
1/2 cup peanuts
2 cups pretzel or pretzel chips

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Melt the butter carefully in a microwave oven. Stir the worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, onion powder and Tabasco sauce into the butter. Pour this mixture into a large baking dish and add all the rest of the ingredients. Stir well to coat everything completely.

Bake in the oven for about 45 minutes, stirring thoroughly every 15 minutes. Immediately spread the mix on parchment paper or paper towels and let it cool completely before storing. After the snack mix has cooled, store it in an airtight container.

Recipe #20 - Mediterranean Pizza

Pizza is one of those foods which can be endlessly altered and never needs to be done the same way twice. But once you try this variation, you may just want to duplicate it.

We're offering up a recipe for pizza crust here, but you can also skip that step and purchase a pre-made crust, such as Boboli thin-crust or a store-bought flatbread.

1 pizza crust (recipe follows)
1 Tbsp. olive oil

1/4 cup shredded fresh basil
3 fresh roma tomatoes, sliced thin
1 red onion, sliced thin
3 cloves minced garlic
1 Tbsp. olive oil
6 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
1 cup kalamata olives, sliced
1/2 cup pepperoncini, sliced

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Brush the pizza crust with olive oil and prebake it for 5 minutes. Spread the shredded basil and tomatoes across the pizza. Saute the red onion and garlic in olive oil until caramelized. Spread the onion and garlic evenly across the pizza. Scatter the feta cheese, olives and pepperoncini across the pizza.

Bake for about 8 minutes. Enjoy with plenty of good red wine!

PIZZA CRUST

1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 cup warm (110 to 115 degree F.) water
1 package dry yeast
3.5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup olive oil

You'll need a dipping thermometer to make sure you have the correct temperature water. Dissolve the sugar in the water. Add the yeast and stir it in gently. Over the next five minutes, the yeast will activate and create a beige-colored foamy look on top of the water. If it doesn't, get rid of the mixture and start over.

In a standing electric mixer, combine 3 cups of flour, yeast mixture, salt and oil in the large mixer bowl. Beat at medium speed for about a minute. Then knead at medium speed with a dough hook for about five minutes.

Shape the dough into a ball and put it into a well-oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm spot for about an hour.

Take the dough from the bowl and punch it down with your fist. Put the ball of dough on a well-floured flat surface and roll it out to a desired thickness. Place the dough on a preheated pizza stone and add all your desired toppings.