Chocolate French Toast starts with homemade chocolate bread, griddled until it’s crispy on the outside and pudding-soft on the inside, then drizzled with dark chocolate sauce and dolloped with mascarpone cream.

Black Bean Soup is thick and chunky, warmly spicy, and rib-sticking. Topped with cool and creamy sour cream and avocado it’s an entire meal in one bowl.

The easiest, most flavorful fried chicken ever, Pickle Brined Fried Chicken is great on its own but even better in a sandwich that blows the fast food version away.

Homemade Stovetop Mac and Cheese is just as quick and easy to make as the stuff in the blue box, but so much creamier and cheesier.

This untraditional corned beef is slow cooked and then baked with a mustardy, red currant and ruby port glaze until it’s burnished and glossy. No cabbage required.

This sunny golden peanut butter granola tastes almost like PB&J, with soft, sweet raisins and salty/sweet, peanut butter-coated oats and nuts.

This Southwestern take on a grilled cheese sandwich is crusty on the outside and gooey on the inside, with a boost of bright color and healthy fiber from shredded zucchini and carrots, and a dollop of spicy salsa.

On Valentines’ eve I made a romantic, French-themed menu for two, featuring a small but elegant cheese board, crispy-skinned chicken with a mustardy white wine pan sauce, and mini Boston Cream Pies for dessert.

Chicken Paillard is a boneless chicken breast with crispy, golden skin, served on a bed of roasted red onions and green beans and topped with a silky Dijon mustard pan sauce.

Jazz styles can be hard to define, and I’m not an expert – but most of the tracks in the playlist are by artists that are officially “Cool”, others just fit the vibe, and they’re all great.