Unripe pears are bitter, tooth-bending rock of fruit; overripe ones are a grainy, mushy mess. They are life-changingly awful.

Eat a pear when the flesh near the stem, at the pear’s neck, just begins to soften. Ripen at room temperature, refrigerate when they’re ripe. The best pears are not tree-ripened, so don’t be afraid to buy hard pears at the market.

Autumn Pear Salad is crunchy and sweet and bitter and creamy and you can’t stop eating it. A fabulous side dish, welcomed potluck offering, and perfect light lunch (just toss in cooked chicken).

Autumn Pear Salad

2 Bosc Pears (or really, any kind you like)
2 heads Belgian endive (long, skinny, torpedo-looking vegetable)
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons walnut oil or olive oil
2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
3 ounces crumbled blue cheese

Slice the pears and endive into uniform, long matchsticks. Toss with walnuts, oil, vinegar, mustard, and cheese. Eat under large oak tree, breathing in the warm Indian Summer air.

Sesame Tuna Crispy Wonton w/Wasabi Drizzle
Fresh Chicken and Avocado Spring Roll w/Thai Chile Sauce
Open Faced Mini Pulled Pork w/ Vermont Cheddar

1st Course Bartlett Farm Tomatoes w/Fresh Mozzarella
Chiffonade of Basil, Micro Greens & Balsamic Reduction

2nd Course Panko Crusted East Coast Halibut
Nantucket Corn & Lobster Risotto w/Grilled Asapagus

Dessert Mocha Cappuccino Crème Brule

This Labor Day weekend, it’s blue cheese coleslaw. This is not the healthiest way to enjoy cabbage, but you’ll never eat anything more delicious. Particularly good as a burger topping. The secret a combination of tangy buttermilk, smooth sour cream, and creamy mayonnaise with a little Dijon mustard to cut the richness.

Make sure to look for smaller heads of cabbage – which are usually more tender and sweeter – with no wilting or yellow spots.

Blue Cheese Coleslaw
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
6 oz. blue cheese
2 tsp. ground black pepper
6 cups total of shredded stuff (cabbage, carrots, broccoli stalks)

Mix all ingredients except shredded stuff in a large bowl. Add shredded stuff and toss to combine.

But some days, the 4 pm apple won’t cut it. You eye the vending machine for something sweeter, chewy, crunchy…and that’s where my snack bars come in. All whole grains, sweetened with honey and applesauce, and even a vegetable tossed in. Perfect to make with kids, because it’s a simple measure-and-stir recipe.

My original recipe had 22 ingredients…but busy fall cooks need 22-ingredient recipes like they need a hole in the head. Additions I love: ¼ cup of any/all of the following: finely chopped almonds, shredded coconut, raisins, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries. For kids, top with coarse cinnamon sugar – a little sugar on top convinces them it’s a real treat. When I served them as samples at a farmers’ market demo, people couldn’t believe I was giving away the recipe for free.

Back-to-School Snack Bars
1/4 cup applesauce
1/3 cup finely grated zucchini, water squeezed out
1/3 cup canola oil
2 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup honey
2 tbsp. whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Combine all remaining ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine. Pour into an 8” square, greased and floured baking dish. Bake for about 20-25 minutes, until golden brown, and remove from oven. Cut into squares but do not remove from pan – let cool in the pan before removing or they will pull apart. They freeze well too.

Behold quinoa’s light, fluffy texture and deep, nutty flavor when you substitute it for plain rice in any recipe. And here’s my public health background poking out – quinoa is a complete protein, containing all 9 amino acids essential for human growth. So if you’re a vegetarian, quinoa is where it’s at.

The muffin recipe below is featured in Food Network Star: The Official Insider’s Guide, published last week. I’m signing books today at Barnes & Noble Tysons at 2 pm — come say hi!

Quinoa Savory Breakfast Muffins
2 tbsp. olive oil
½ medium onion, finely chopped
1 small garlic clove, minced
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup cooked quinoa
3/4 cup grated Gruyere cheese (substitute any hard cheese you love)
1 tbsp. fresh thyme leaves

Set oven to 350 degrees and grease 6-cup muffin tin. Heat 1 tbsp. oil in a skillet over medium heat and sauté onion, garlic, and tomatoes until onions are soft and tomatoes are light brown and caramelized (8-10 minutes). Season and set aside to cool slightly. Transfer to a bowl, add remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Spoon into muffin tins and bake for about 20 minutes, until eggs set.

Or use mini muffin tins for a one-bite, high-protein and high-fiber breakfast. Just store muffins in the fridge, microwave a couple for 10 seconds, and you’re out the door.

The Most Delicious Creamed Spinach Ever

2 lbs. fresh spinach leaves
1 tbsp. olive oil
2 medium shallots, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
¼ cup cream cheese
½ tsp. nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
Grated Parmesan cheese

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil and totally submerge ½ pound of the spinach into the water. Let it cook for about 30 seconds, drain in a colander, and rinse with cold water. Press your hand on top of the drained spinach to get rid of as much water as possible. Puree this spinach in a blender and set aside.*

In a large skillet (it’s a LOT of spinach), heat the olive oil, garlic, and shallot over medium heat until soft. Add the cream cheese and heat until it melts. Add the spinach leaves and pureed spinach, nutmeg, and salt and pepper. Cook until the spinach leaves are wilted. Transfer spinach and all liquid in the pan to a small baking dish, sprinkle with parmesan cheese and bake for about 10 minutes.

*Tip: It’s tough to puree such a small amount of spinach, so don’t cut the recipe unless you have a mini chopper, like a small Cuisinart.

Anyone who has visited my website knows that every week, a few days after Food Network Star airs, I post my thoughts about the show. I’ll miss doing it now that the show is over.

Some people have expressed surprise that there was tension between Jeff and me shown on the reunion show, and that I didn’t handle it well. Genuine apologies to anyone who was disappointed by my stammering and not hugging. I imagine it’s very difficult to condense thousands of hours of footage (per episode) into a one-hour show that follows a coherent storyline. It’s probably like turning War and Peace into a movie: You simply can’t include all of the subplots and nuances, even if the storyline is generally the same. I ask that disappointed people consider that the situation is more nuanced than an hour affords.

My stammering at being asked about Jeff’s show reflected my surprise at the question – it was literally the first thing I was asked when I walked in the room and I just didn’t expect it. I stammered because I was trying to figure out how to answer it, given that Susie and I were very good friends. That’s why I said, “It’s tough to separate the personal from the professional.”

My previous FNS blog post lists things I learned from the show. Before I posted it, I deleted two things from that list, because I thought the post was too long. Those were:

1. When life gets crazy, don’t shut down, open up.

2. It’s never too late to be the person you always meant to be.

Funny, because those are two of the most important things I learned from watching the reunion and the finale. I guess somehow I knew I hadn’t really learned those lessons and needed to save them for this post. Being afraid and closed off is one of the reasons why I’m not interested in hugging as my dream dies before my eyes. Being afraid and closed off is why I gave a performance in Episode One that Bobby Flay (now one of my favorite people) called “mediocre.” Only when I decided that I wanted to really open up, be courageous, and be myself could I deliver a performance that would get me to the Final Four.

But old habits don’t die easy, which brings us to Lesson Two – I am still trying to be the person I always meant to be, including being someone who opens up rather than closing down. Hence this post. I am still growing and learning, and hope to do that until the day I die. And it is the flat-out craziest thing in the world that it took a reality show to help me understand that. For everyone who became supporters throughout the show, THANK YOU! I promise, the best is yet to come.

Yesterday was The Day of 1,000 Interviews — here’s my weekly Let’s Talk Live dish on my thoughts about the show.

I’m overwhelmed by the support you’ve sent…the comments here on the blog, on Facebook, on Twitter. And the email! It’s enough to make a woman blush.

My horoscope from yesterday: “There is beauty in unfinished business. It’s still ripe with possibility. Dont’ be too quick to get things done and over with. Linger in the lively, creative land of limbo for a while.” I choose to believe.

This thought occurred to me yesterday, while sitting in the exact same spot where I got the call for Food Network Star, a million years ago. One of my pals who competed on a similar show advised, “Expect to see someone who looks 100% like you, but not someone who acts 100% like you.” My reality show avatar. How 21st century.

Of course I wish I had won. But I can live with not excelling at seat-of-my-pants cooking, cooking in an unfamiliar kitchen, etc. FNS is a show about surprises and time limits, and even the winner would probably say that she or he didn’t get a full opportunity to show off. But when my phone rang with a FNS offer, I said yes immediately. You don’t go out naked just because your pants don’t fit quite right.

Iron Chef is real. They reveal the secret ingredient and boom, you’re on your way. One hour, three dishes, no idea what’s in the pantry, the refrigerator, the equipment rack. I’m so honored to join the select group of people who have gone through it. Already Chefs around town treat me differently, like we’ve been hazed into the same fraternity.

After I was eliminated, I wandered around New York City for a few hours determined to make sense of the experience and make sense quick. If I didn’t win, wasn’t it all just a waste of time?

Nope. Because even if I had won the show, if that door had opened, it was just the first of a thousand doors to walk through. For the 14 of us who didn’t win, there is still a ton of work to be done in better living through good food. It will just be different from having a cooking show one week from tonight.

What I learned on FNS:

1. When I’m given the opportunity to be great, take it, even if I might fail hugely and publicly. I’m sad that my dream slipped away, but so much better off than if I hadn’t given it any oxygen at all. Onward to a refined dream.

2. Revise my definition of success. When I saw the amazing talent on day one of FNS, I knew the competition would not be easy, and that I might not win. So my new definition of success was: allow myself to be changed by the experience. I asked myself at the beginning of each challenge: What is this challenge here to teach me? Answering that question ensured that I would keep growing, and that was success.

3. Creativity Has to Catch Me Working – Jose Andres (James Beard Foundation Outstanding 2011 Chef of the Year) said this to me during an interview, meaning that great ideas amount to nothing without execution. I could have sat around forever thinking about having a Food Network show, but I ‘m proud that I went for it.

4. My biggest competition is me. We were asked a lot during the show, who is your biggest competition? I’d always say me. I didn’t pay much attention to what others were doing, just tried my best.

5. Bring positive energy to difficult situations.

6. Have a mantra. I knew I’d need to be my own cheerleader on FNS, away from my family. So I decided that whenever I looked at a clock, I’d say to myself “I am a great cook and I can help people,” to remind myself of my strength and my intention for being on FNS. It helped. A lot.

7. Say grace. My family does it before every meal, listing what we are grateful for, and I did it even through the tough times at FNS. It got me through.

Food Network has given shows to Final Four finishers from previous seasons, even though they didn’t win – cooking, hosting, and traveling shows. I fully plan on being the Jennifer Hudson of Food Network Star.

Congratulations to the Final Three – Vic, Susie, and Jeff are wildly talented food lovers, and the winner’s show will be appointment TV for me.