Tzatziki Sauce

This Greek sauce is a must-make for our house, especially in mid-summer when the number of cucumbers coming off the vines means we’ve got to get creative in how to eat them. We slather it over falafel, serve it alongside tabbouli, sometimes even pour it atop a salad or a tomato sandwich. And when we do make tzatziki in winter, it’s like sneaking aContinue reading “Tzatziki Sauce”

Creamy Potato Salad With Fresh Herbs

Late June/early July is dig-the-potatoes season (or find freshly dug potatoes at your favorite farmers market). It’s also the season for picnics and potlucks and backyard eating. This recipe makes the most of fresh potatoes and fresh herbs with just a bit of mayonnaise (or a vegan substitute) to hold it all together. You’ll beContinue reading “Creamy Potato Salad With Fresh Herbs”

In-Season Veggie Pasta Salad

  When early spring begins to show her face and salads are again appealing, it’s time to throw together this dish. In summer, cherry tomatoes, banana peppers, cucumbers and green onions can easily be subbed for the veggies listed below. But just now, asparagus, kale and chives are all I’ve got growing, so olives and dried tomatoes orContinue reading “In-Season Veggie Pasta Salad”

Mediterranean Green Beans

  We grow several varieties of green beans in our garden and in a good summer, we harvest more than we can eat. I happily blanch, cool and freeze our garden bounty knowing that come January, I’m going to be thrilled to pull this taste of summer from our deep freeze. The olives and sun-driedContinue reading “Mediterranean Green Beans”

Lemon Cream Cheese Scones

My oldest daughter has really found her baking groove this year. After a long week of school or whenever she has a moment, she’ll ask me: “Mom, can I bake?” And I, who will take all the help in the kitchen I can get, quickly make room for my cooking buddy. Her specialties are desserts: cookies,Continue reading “Lemon Cream Cheese Scones”

Lemon Pudding Cake

I remember loving this dish from my childhood. It was a standard familiar enough to be included in the scrapbook of recipes my mom made for me and my sisters after we’d left home, but not so ever-present that I had made it for my own kids. My girls and I baked it this week as a springtimeContinue reading “Lemon Pudding Cake”

Cast Iron Skillet Spatchcocked Chicken

Some time in the last year or so, the concept of spatchcocking your chicken or turkey (think of butterflying a pork chop) has taken off. Why? Just like the Instapot craze, spatchcocking turns whole food ingredients into dinner in a fraction of the time more tried and true methods take. In the case of spatchcocking, it’s easierContinue reading “Cast Iron Skillet Spatchcocked Chicken”

Classic Lemon Bars

I love cookies. I really do. More than cupcakes or cheesecakes or pies or … well, maybe not more than doughnuts. The point is that if you love cookies as much as I (and, thankfully, my children) do, then you need a long list of cookie recipes to choose from. These lemon bars are aContinue reading “Classic Lemon Bars”

Lemon Zucchini Bread

As the weather’s been turning cooler, I’ve found myself craving something sweet. Sweet, but not ice cream and not chocolate, something light and, say, lemony. So I dug through my recipe files and found this. It calls for zucchini, which is long gone from our garden but plenty present in our deep freeze. When I madeContinue reading “Lemon Zucchini Bread”

Baba Ganoush

I’m realizing as I compile this online recipe collection that I owe so many of my favorite recipes to my garden. If I’d never grown tomatillos or okra or sun chokes, I would have likely never cooked with them. And even if I had picked up a few at the farmers market and made myContinue reading “Baba Ganoush”