Yesterday, the temperature plunged and the sky turned gray. It rained a lot. It was a perfect day to fire up the oven. A supplement in the newspaper had an article about a woman who bills herself as "The Pioneer Cook." She had moved from San Diego to a ranch in Oklahoma, and apparently the media think that when she moved, she not only traveled miles but went back a century or so.

Well, she offered a recipe for curried cauliflower, which is baked in a 450-degree oven. (That's really hot.) How she could think that the pioneers had access to curry powder, kosher salt and red wine vinegar is a mystery, but she did. Nonetheless, I made the recipe and it was good.

I made the usual modifications. Didn't add salt; in our house, we never put salt in anything because of the DH's blood pressure. If you want salt, you can use the salt shaker. I cut the amount of curry powder, and the food still burned my mouth.

The recipe said to bake the cauliflower for ten minutes, then take it out, turn it over and bake it a further 10 minutes. I decided "the heck with that". A 450-degree pan is dangerous to handle, and opening the oven loses a lot of heat. So I just let the food cook for 20 minutes, let the pan cool some, and it came out fine.

In the nice, warm kitchen the DH made chicken salad with poppy seeds in it, and we served it over cut-up garden tomatoes. It worked well.

So there are two ideas for you: curried cauliflower and chicken salad with tomato.