Menu No 5: Beef, Mustard, Crab, Fresh Chilies, Dried Chilies, Butter

Brian Voll's Menu series is a collection of small books (5" x 7", 36 pages), that offer a charming combination of practicality, hospitality, and style, all in the form of, yes, a menu for dinner, with recipes, a shopping list, and a few thoughts on not being wasteful with ingredients while still offering your guests something out-of-the-ordinary.

The core ingredients for Menu No 5 are beef, mustard, fresh chilies, dried chilies, and butter. With some supplemental ingredients, time, and culinary effort, they become:

• Agave cocktail
• Tomato and crab soup with sweet potato and chiles
• Cornmeal molasses rolls
• Bloody beef with arugula, mint, and mustard
• Carrot mash with brown butter and spices
• Paste di Meliga (cornmeal sandwich cookies with Italian meringue buttercream)

The food isn't revolutionary; it's not meant to be. But it's smart and thoughtful and it might just get you out of a rut.