4 cups fresh spinach, coarsely chopped
2 ripe pears, cubed
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
salt and pepper

1. Arrange spinach and pear on a plate.
2. Whisk together vinegar, sugar and mustard, then gradually whisk in oil until fully incorporated. Stir in poppy seeds and season to taste with salt and pepper.
3. Pour dressing over the salad and serve.

Makes 4 servings

16 ounces egg noodles
3 tablespoons butter
4 scallions, chopped
2 teaspoons poppy seeds
water
salt and pepper

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add the egg noodles, cooking until just tender.
2. Drain noodles of all but a tablespoon of the water. Add butter, scallions and poppy seeds to the pot. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve.

Makes 4 servings

1 small onion, chopped
1 tablespoon ginger puree
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup almonds, chopped
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cinnamon stick
3 cardamom pods
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed
1 tablespoon ground coriander seed
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup button mushrooms, sliced

1. Place onion, ginger, garlic, almonds and poppy seeds in a blender. Add yogurt to make a smooth sauce.
2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat and add the cinnamon and cardamom, cooking until fragrant.
3. Brown the chicken, then stir in the yogurt sauce, coriander and nutmeg.
4. Add the mushrooms and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook covered until chicken is cooked through to center and tender.

Makes 2 servings

Today is Remembrance Day, or Veteran's Day to our neighbors down south. I figured I'd do a poppy seed themed dinner in honor of this. Poppy seed foods are actually quite difficult to come by! Other than a selection of cakes and muffins and other such desserts, I wasn't really sure what to do for a poppy seed theme. Poppy seed dressing made sense, so I went with a Spinach and Pear Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing. The pears are absolutely delicious right now. The dressing was a little tart and the seeds kept getting stuck in my teeth. I actually don't really like poppy seeds, it just seemed like it was time for another theme dinner.

For my next trick I made Poppyseed Noodles. Since they're so simple (basically noodles tossed in butter with poppy seeds) they would've been very good, had it not been for the poppy seeds. Sometimes when I make dinners like this people ask me why I made something knowing that I wouldn't like it. Well, there are two reasons. The first is because, like with my cilantro escapade, I like to try things I previously disliked and try to acquire a taste for them. The second is because I run out of ideas for new dishes. I tried to scrape off the poppy seeds and douse this in Parmesan, which worked fairly well.

The Mushroom Poppyseed Chicken Curry was fun because I've never had a white curry before. Contrary to the horrible picture it actually looked quite pretty. The sauce is comprised of yogurt and ground almonds which gave it a nice texture. It was also a good excuse to make use of my new blender that my mom bought me and had shipped across the country (thanks, mom!) I thought for sure we'd make lime margaritas as our first blender creation but tequila is out of the question because Shannon is sick. The flavor of this is sort of like butter chicken without tomatoes and the poppy seeds are disguised somewhat well. I wonder if I'd test positive for opiates if I did a drug test right now?