Making the most of a bumper crop: Turkey Zucchini Stir Fry

Cantonese-inspired, Turkey Zucchini Stir Fry is weeknight quick and a delicious way to take advantage of your garden’s (or farmers market’s) sudden zucchini bounty. Recipe below.

Turkey Zucchini Stir Fry

The wayback machine is reminding me of the summer when everybody I knew, absolutely everybody, was growing zucchini. It was the first time any of us had grown zucchini, so no one really knew what to do—how to plant it, when to plant it and, most critically, when to harvest it. Continue reading “Making the most of a bumper crop: Turkey Zucchini Stir Fry”

Getting playful with pesto: five recipes improvise on a summer standard

Pesto is a quintessential summer meal maker—garden fresh, versatile and requiring little or no cooking. Here are five pesto recipes, from the traditional basil to creative takes using sage, cilantro and even kale.

Fettuccine with Pecan Pesto

A sudden abundance of basil in our garden has us enjoying quick weeknight—and lazy weekend—dinners of simply prepared pesto with pasta. But it doesn’t always have to team up with pasta. It can be tossed with cooked potatoes and green beans, spooned over grilled meats and fishes—even smeared on crusty bread as a snack or appetizer. And it doesn’t always require basil, as some of these recipes demonstrate. Continue reading “Getting playful with pesto: five recipes improvise on a summer standard”

Mustard’s delicious disappearing act: Roast Chicken Breasts with Mustard and Sage

Chicken breasts are briefly marinated in olive oil, sherry vinegar, Dijon mustard and fresh sage, then roasted. The mustard quietly blends in, taking on a subtle role. Recipe below.

Chicken Breasts with Mustard and Sage

Mustard is pretty much our favorite condiment. At any given moment, we have five or six varieties in our fridge. We give each other mustards as stocking stuffers. We love its brash, tangy brightness when slathered on things and all the ways it can be transformed by various makers—a current favorite is Edmond Fallot’s Walnut Dijon Mustard. But a curious thing happens when you cook with mustard. It disappears. Continue reading “Mustard’s delicious disappearing act: Roast Chicken Breasts with Mustard and Sage”

A twist on weeknight-easy: Campanelle with Mushrooms and Peas

Elegantly shaped campanelle pasta scoops up peas, cream, bits of bacon and even mushroom slices in this weeknight-quick meal. Recipe below.

Campanelle with Mushrooms and Peas

In moving into our new old house and trying to organize our large, messy pantry—still very much an ongoing project—we discovered one thing. We buy a lot of pasta. Long pastas, from slender capellini to spaghetti to linguine and fettuccine. And a dazzling array of short tubes and twists, from prosaic penne rigate to exotics like Vesuvio and trofi to in-betweens. Like the campanelle in this recipe. Continue reading “A twist on weeknight-easy: Campanelle with Mushrooms and Peas”