The path to great cuisine begins with a lawn mower.

Byline: HOME COOKING By Randi Bjornstad The Register-Guard

You never know what's going to turn someone into a good cook. For Eugene homemaker Sharon Howard, it was - in an unusual way - marriage.

"When Ron and I first got married, we had this crummy old lawn mower, and I didn't want to use it," Howard remembers.

"So I said if he would do the yard, I'd do the cooking."

Her part of the deal led to an evolution through the decades from simple meat-and-potato meals to a variety of ethnic cuisines - "especially Italian, Thai and any kind of stir-fry," she says - and always plenty of seafood.

Specialty: Entertaining - a lot. Her husband used to make an annual trip to Alaska to fish, "and he'd come back with a cooler full of salmon or halibut or crab, and we'd have a big neighborhood barbecue," Howard said. Apparently their fame spread, because the couple was asked twice to appear in local ads for barbecues.

Cooking experience: She started young, "when my little sister started school - I was about 10," Howard recalls.

"My mom worked past dinnertime, so I was in charge. At first, it was '2001 ways to cook hamburger.' '

Biggest cooking success: Hosting a Christmas party - just one week after moving into a new house that still had almost no furniture - for now-retired Ron's 85 employees at Ivy Hi-Lift.

That was nine years ago, "and I couldn't have done it without my mother," Howard says. "She unpacked everything and got it put away."

For her part, Howard made mountains of hors d'oeuvres and pulled off a successful fete.

Biggest cooking failure: Cooking a wild turkey her husband came home with after a hunting trip.

"Ron came home with this thing and said, 'Deep-fry it,' so I did," Howard says.

"It came out like a freak show - the carcass had legs sticking out, and it was all dry. It definitely wasn't a Butterball. It was so terrible, I had to find something else for dinner."

She's had great luck deep-frying more conventional turkeys, though.

"They're good - really good - and it takes only about 3 minutes per pound," a fraction of the time for an oven-roasted turkey, Howard says.

Favorite cookbooks: Where to begin? Howard has more than 300 cookbooks - "I'm a collector," she admits - as well as plenty of cooking magazines.

But she rarely makes a recipe that she doesn't change around somehow.

"If it's really difficult, I might do it verbatim, but generally I add something or take something out and make it different," Howard says.

Of course, the Internet has made finding new recipes really easy - she usually logs onto www.allrecipes.com - but it's not the same as leafing through a cookbook.

Her all-time favorite cookbook is the "America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook," probably followed by "Jacques Pepin Celebrates."

"I read cookbooks like novels," Howard says. "It's ridiculous."

Why these recipes: They're simple and they're favorites, among both family members and guests.

Caprese Salad

4 medium vine-ripened tomatoes

1 pound buffalo mozzarella cheese

20 to 30 fresh basil leaves

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 

Salt and pepper, to taste

Slice the tomatoes in 1/4 -inch slices and arrange on a platter or on small individual plates, 3 to 4 per plate.

Slice the cheese in 1/4 -inch slices, and place one slice on each slice of tomato. Top each piece of cheese with a basil leaf. Drizzle the oil over all.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper, if desired.

Serves 4 to 6.

Warm Sea Scallops

With Mixed Greens

4 tablespoons butter, divided

1 pound sea scallops

1/2 pound mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

1 clove garlic, minced or pressed

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar 

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Zest of 1 lemon

Salt and pepper, to taste

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

8 cups fresh mixed greens

1 to 1 1/2 cups grated dry Jack (aged Monterey Jack) cheese

Melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat in a saute skillet. Add sea scallops; saute 2 to 3 minutes, until tender and slightly browned. Remove from skillet.

Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter and saute the mushrooms until the liquid they release has evaporated.

Whisk together the garlic, olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice and zest, salt, pepper and parsley.

Arrange mixed greens on a large platter or individual serving plates or bowls.

Top with scallops and mushrooms, and drizzle dressing over all. Sprinkle with grated cheese.

Serves 6.

To nominate a cook for this feature, send mail to Home Cooking, P.O. Box 10188, Eugene, OR 97440; fax [phone]; contact Randi Bjornstad at 338-2321 or [phone], Ext. 2321; or send e-mail to rbjornstad@guardnet .com. Include the nominee's name and phone number, your name and phone number and what makes your choice an interesting cook.