My mother-in-law, an artist, put this plate together. I'm so glad Nora likes asparagus. I was quite a deal older than her (by, like, 20 years) before I tried asparagus, and it's a big favorite of mine. Glad she's getting an early start.

The hair spikes are cut asparagus. Not surprisingly, the mop of curls is wheeled pasta in a vegetable sauce. The neckline is squares of homemade ciabatta bread dotted with butter.

The Geometry of Pasta even got on the New York Times' radar in December. Besides being a truly beautiful and fun book to look at with its black and white renditions of the varieties of pasta you can and sometimes can't find at your local grocery store, it's filled with historical explanations like where the pasta got its name and when or how it was invented.

This week's Splendid Table on NPR was a repeat of a previous show, but since Orlando's 90.7 just recently began to play the show, I happily listen to reruns because they're new to me. This time, two big vegetarian ideas: Watching your "cookprint," which is the footprint you leave when you cook. And cold soups, which are most often vegetarian. I encourage you to listen to the show, in part or in full, at Splendid Table.org.

Last week was a surprising challenge due to the fact that I had a slight relapse and wasn't feeling up to playing around in the kitchen as much as I had desired. Paul had pity on me more than one night by eating bagels with carrot sticks or other veggies a couple nights and taking me out to eat one night. That being said, I have a much fancier menu planned this week just to pay him back for my slacking week and to allow my creativity to be uncanned for a while.

Yep. It's for real. I still like roasted red peppers. Only took me 28 years to learn this. This time I tried it chilled. Nope. Warm to room-temp is best. But still like it. Paul called it perfect. Wow! Don't think he describes much I make as perfect. Can I serve it every day?

The concierge at our hotel needed to direct us to a reasonably fast dinner location. Paul said Italian pizza sounded good, and she made a reservation for us at Salute! on Madison Ave. and then directed us on the best way to get a cab to Carnegie Hall for a beautiful, but long performance of Handel's Messiah. (In case you never knew, the Hallelujah Chorus is not the end of the program, only of Part 2.)

Obviously, the dirty dishes pictured aren't from this past week. We dirtied very few additional dishes in our effort to empty out the fridge, which was lovely for my aching feet and tough work schedule this week.

Click on the photograph to go to Paul's Flickr page for a closer-up view of the monkeys. There's nothing like sitting in a boat having a picnic lunch and watching the monkeys watch you and wonder how they can get across the river to partake, too. We had quite a show. One of the best times was when a piroux came by with a dog and three adults. The dog watched us 'til he saw the monkeys. He got in really big trouble for barking and scaring them. Thanks, Connie and Jack for a great day!

Although you can get a wheat pasta for cheaper sometimes, I purchased a box for $1 when it was on sale and thought it was a good idea to try it since we do like pasta a lot. Our first use was with a basic spaghetti sauce. I like to always make a basic spaghetti sauce when I am tasting a new pasta product.

Yesterday James, a new drug rep that I had not previously met, had lunch catered for the office. I suspect it could have been the best catering job we've ever experienced. It came from Sweet Tomatoes, and although I don't think much of them since they chewed me out for photographing their food, I can't say I was sorry for the delightful lunch. There were two ladies delivering the food, and I have never seen a faster set up and nicer arrangement of a meal for 60 people in our small kitchen.