Planning dinner is often a serious affair, complete with furrowed brow. So many choices, so little time, and an abundance of temptations awaiting consumption. But I can't go very long without my mushroom fix, so how could I resist combining them with the nutty flavor of quinoa in a simple savory dinner cake, especially combined with some of other favorite tastes — sun-dried tomatoes and tangy goat cheese? This is a fun dish for cooks fond of experimenting with flavor combinations. You might consider using goat cheese's saltier cousin, feta, instead.

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If you've ever woken up coated with a coarse and perversely intimate film of overnight-fermented perspiration, there's a good chance you were in southwestern Ontario during the summer. Quite possibly you also spent the night in my apartment, where the otherwise kind and solicitous landlady downstairs considers it a matter of policy never to turn on the air conditioner until July regardless of the weather. If there is one redeeming quality to this policy it is that even the cat can't lift himself up enough to drag himself around on his daily annoy-the-human rounds, but that's a poor compensation when I haven't the energy to appreciate it, assuming that I'd have the energy to get annoyed in the first place.

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Inspired by a request for a recipe for gazpacho, and further encouraged to find a meal solution for a scorchingly hot day, complete with suffocating humidity, I came up with a somewhat spicy version of this classic uncooked soup. This proved to be a refreshing choice, and I was pleased to have the opportunity to share with a friend who stopped by for a visit. This recipe makes a very large quantity of soup, but it can easily be cut in half for smaller units of diners, which I should have done, as there are only two of us here, not counting the cat, and I can't stand eating the same dish for more than three days running. On the other hand, this gives me an good excuse to distribute some nourishment. Specifically, I have my landlords downstairs in mind who have yet to turn on the air conditioning. Serve with some crusty bread, or some simple buttered rice for a light, but satisfying meal.

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Little should need to be said about this plate except that the length of the name is matched by the ease of the dish's preparation and by the breadth and delight of the flavors. And if asparagus in season is not incentive enough, the mushroom yogurt sauce is simply too good to be believed. After you've tasted it, you'll be tempted to make another batch just to spoon up on its own.

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