Valentine's weekend (2005) in Las Vegas saw launch of celebrated New York chef Rick Moonen's rm restaurant.

Overhead spot lighting is flattering, and easy listening jazz plays unobtrusively in background. Booths and tables, arrayed with white linen tablecloths & napkins and deep dish votive candles, seat 80 people. Mahogany is everywhere, and pinpoints of light reflect on a glass wall separating bar from restaurant. In middle of a window overlooking shopping mall, water cascades down glass to pool above entrance below.

This striking design was created by Cass Calder Smith, a San Francisco-based architect. Perhaps that's why clean, modern look could be reminiscent of a swank yacht club with both a tranquil and intimate feeling. You get idea that no detail has been overlooked by Smith and Moonen, right down to square water glasses and square white china plates.

Brett, our waiter, in simple black shirt and slacks, brings menus and fresh-from-the-oven-tasting crusty rolls with a tiramisalada. The spread consists of almonds, potatos, lemon, oil and carp roe. We remind ourselves not to fill up on this delicacy—there's much more to come.

We begin with an Amuse of Yellow Fin Tuna finished in champagne vinaigrette, which perfectly sets off salty flavor of tuna's spicy crust.

The first of six courses that constitutes Chef's Tasting Menu is flash-seared Hamachi, a white fish surrounded by honshimiji mushrooms and green onions. At table, Brett pours over it a warm lobster consommé.

Since I ordered Chef's Tasting Menu and my husband, Cork, ordered an entrée, his salad of choice is served at same time. It's a cold Hamachi Ceviche, with ruby grapefruit and yuzu. "Yuzu is a spicy sweet and sour sauce," Brett says. It's lemony and sweet at same time, but doesn't overpower tender morsels of hamachi.

That's when you notice that it makes enough to feed a small army, but you only need to feed two.

Or perhaps, it only makes enough for two; and that's just not going to cut it for your family of five.

You REALLY want to prepare that recipe for your family and/or friends. So what's a cook to do?

Well, you'll be happy to know that it's a cinch to reduce a recipe or increase a recipe. And most of time you only need to reduce ingredients by half for less or double ingredients for more.

Reducing Recipes to make half a recipe...

It's pretty easy to reduce a recipe by half, you just use half of each ingredient. If recipe calls for 2 tablespoons, you would use only 1 tablespoon.

It can get a little tricky with ingredients like eggs though. I mean, it seems kind of hard to come up with half of 1 egg, at first. But here's trick...