Recipe Deal Breakers

Recently, there was an interesting article in The New York Times about recipe “deal breakers” — those instructions or ingredients or equipment requirements that make you walk away from a recipe or even a whole cookbook. This got me (and much of the rest of the food blogosphere) to thinking about what my recipe deal [...]

Tortellini With Lemon & Herbs

Tortellini with fresh herbs, originally uploaded by shannon_turlington.
Last week I posted a wintry pasta dish, so this week I am countering with a pasta that is all about summer. This sauce is light and tangy, perfect for a hot summer night, especially if you can use herbs right out of your own garden. It pairs [...]

Rotini with Swiss Chard & Sausage Ragu (Sara Foster’s Casual Cooking)

Rotini with Swiss Chard and Sausage, originally uploaded by shannon_turlington.
Please forgive me for posting this rich, hearty, warming pasta recipe in the middle of summer. Yes, this is truly a wintry dish, but it was so good that I couldn’t wait to share it with you.
This is the first recipe that I have tried from [...]

Glazing Vegetables

Glazing vegetables is an extremely useful technique for punching up an otherwise boring vegetable side dish. I used to avoid recipes that used this technique, because I associated glazed vegetables — specifically, carrots — with a sugary, syrupy sweet dish. If I wanted to eat dessert, I’d have ice cream.
But I was wrong. The traditional [...]

Caprese Salad

Melon Caprese Salad, originally uploaded by shannon_turlington.
A classic insalata caprese hardly needs a recipe. Just layer tomato slices, fresh mozzarella slices and basil leaves, and drizzle with olive oil and vinegar. For me, this simple Italian salad is one of the best ways to enjoy the goodness of summer.
But what about when the tomatoes aren’t [...]

Raspberry Sherbet (The Perfect Scoop)

I bought David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop last summer, but for some reason, I didn’t make any ice creams out of it last year. I don’t know why — the book is gorgeous, filled with tempting color photographs of Lebovitz’s unique ice cream recipes.
I have decided that this year I am not going to be [...]

Mark Bittman Shows Us How to Make Crustless Quiche

Here’s a great little video from Mark Bittman showing how to make quiche without making the time-consuming pie crust. I personally don’t make pie crust, but I love quiche, so this is an attractive idea for me. (I also love pie, but that is an example of where I appreciate it more when someone else [...]

Farmers Market Vegetable Soup

The problem with going to the farmers market is that it is all too easy to yield to temptation and grab up way too many fresh vegetables than you can possibly eat in a week. What better way to take advantage of all that bounty than to make a huge pot of soup? You can [...]

Hummus: Simple and Easy

Hummus and other Middle Eastern/Mediterranean foods have become very popular lately, and with good reason. They are not only delicious, but usually chock full of things that are good for you, while low in fat. But I have to say that grocery stores and Mediterranean delis have a good scam going selling prepared hummus. If [...]

Making Muffins

Banana-sunflower seed muffins.
It is so hard when you go into a Starbuck’s or the coffee bar in the bookstore, and you just want a little something, to find anything that’s reasonably healthy. All those gigantic portions of cake, cookies as big as your head, oozing cinnamon buns, danishes and croissants look good, but they’re usually [...]