Peperonata with Pheasant

Peperonata is normally a side dish of sweet peppers, onions and tomato; it's like an Italian stir-fry. It is a perfect dish for late fall, when everyone's peppers come ripe. I boosted this recipe up to a main course by adding a little shredded poached pheasant breast. Clean, tasty and easy.

Grilled Salmon Salad

Salmon salad. Pretty ordinary, right? My version, as you might expect, comes with a twist: It's not made from salmon fillets. I make my salmon salad by grilling the bones after I've filleted the fish, then stripping the meat from the ribs for this salad. Thrifty, and awesome.

German Bacon

Germans eat a lot of smoked meats, including bacon. But I failed to find "authentic" German bacon recipes, so I made up my own. This bacon turned out so well it made me want to dance around in a dirndl. OK, maybe not. But it is damn good.

Pheasant Wings Buffalo Style

If you love buffalo wings made from chicken, all it takes to do this with pheasant wings is a little bath in some nice stock. This, my friends, is wild game football food.

Smoked Salmon Deviled Eggs

Deviled eggs are one of those foods I have a hard time controlling myself with. I've been known to eat a dozen at a sitting, and even though I know I'll feel ill afterwards, I can't stop eating them. These deviled eggs, made with smoked salmon, are especially good.

Grilled Octopus, Greek Style

As we close out summer, I refuse to give up the grill just yet. And while I did not actually catch these little octopi, I just had to share with you one of my favorite appetizers of all time: Grilled baby octopus, a Greek classic.

Salmon Tartare

I always order salmon at sushi restaurants, but I am no sushi master so at home I stick to easier preparations, like salmon tartare, which, if you've never heard of it, is chopped raw salmon. My version has a Northern European flair to it, with dill and a special pumpkinseed oil the Austrians use a lot.

Fig Jam with Ouzo

My fig tree is exploding with fruit right now, so I decided to revise my recipe for an old favorite: Fig jam, spiked with ouzo, lemon and bay. I don't eat too much jam and jelly, but this one is absolutely worth your effort.

Salmon Head Soup

In case you hadn't noticed, I actually like the rest of the salmon as much - if not more - than the fillet. This is salmon head soup, done Japanese style. And don't worry, there will be no eyeballs staring back at you: You only use the salmon heads to make the broth.

How to Make Elderberry Wine

If you want to make your own fruit wines - wines worthy of the snootiest wine snob - this is how to do it. I've been making fruit wines for 20 years, and here is my method. It requires some special equipment, a lot of patience, and a little math. But the result is more than worth it.