I recently had a “meatball sandwich” from an establishment that shall remain nameless. My friend got one too, and we were both a little confused when our sandwiches came out with lettuce, tomato, and onion on them.

What??

Is this a Bay Area thing? This has happened to me here before, and I don’t get it.

Hot meatballs and marinara sauce + cold, bland toppings… does not compute.

To top it all off, the food from said establishment left us both with stomach aches all afternoon.

It goes without saying that I needed to make this right, so a few days later I cooked up my own meatball sandwiches.

We definitely have some of the usual suspects here, although I used goat cheese where I normally use parmesan. And the meat mixture is beef and pork sausage; apparently I needed some really fattening meatballs to get over the previously mentioned atrocity.

I think the most important thing to keep in mind when making meatballs (and I could make a lot of jokes here, but I’ll spare you) is to not overwork your meat! I know you’re worried that it won’t get mixed properly, and that’s why I always thoroughly mix everything but the meat first. That way you’re combining the meat with one homogeneous mixture instead of 10 different ingredients.

These meatballs are baked because dammit, it’s just easier that way. You still get a nice outer crunch, they all cook evenly, and you don’t have to tend to them at all. While they bake, a simple sauce (with even more goat cheese) gets made and they’re ready to go at the same time. At that point you could always leave them in the sauce on very low heat to keep warm until you’re ready to eat!

I mean really, as Ina would say, how easy is thaaaat?

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Ah, the humble burger.

Sometimes I get so caught up in kitchen experiments that I forget to just cook a damn burger once in a while.

We have a red-meat-intolerant hubby in the house though, so burgers here are generally made from alternative meat sources.

And since a plain chicken, pork or turkey patty can’t even pretend to compare to beef, I dress them up a little.

Sometimes a lot.

It starts with broiling some peppers. Really blacken the crap out of ‘em.

The smoky flavor this creates will make you forget all about grilling.

They’ll also keep the turkey from drying out. A dry turkey burger will make you so sad. Believe me.

If you’re feeling adventurous, you can also make an exciting topping or two.

This time I made one of my favorite instant meal boosters of late: a quick pickle.

Toasted spices, some salt and sugar heat up with vinegar and get poured over their soon-to-be delicious victim.

I used red onions, but you could apply the same technique to basically anything you want to pickle. And it only takes 20 minutes! Woop!

Apparently I was very excited about this burger, because I also made a Lemon Rosemary Mayo.

Homemade toppings are totally optional, but quite delicious!

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I really feel that if I keep making fish tacos, summer will never end.

This would be a welcome phenomenon because I also feel that I didn’t get to do nearly enough summery activities this year.

You know, the lounging beach/poolside, BBQing, and general carefree frolicking that comes with the summer months.

So if you’re also feeling that scarves and boots are trying to take over way too soon, I suggest making some fish tacos.

We can all be in denial together!

There are two types of fish tacos, and whether it’s grilled or fried, I want the same topping: cilantro crema. A creamy, tangy, spicy blend of sour cream, cilantro, lime juice and serrano chiles.

This crema is also a welcome punch to any other kind of taco, or chili, eggs… anything that looks like it could use a li’l dollop of something extra.

Or maybe I’m just biased because it showcases one of my favorite herbs.

By the way, I’ll never be able to grasp how cilantro tastes like soap to some people. That’s an unfortunate trick their taste buds are playing on them.

I suppose if you’re a cilantro hater you could use parsley instead, or skip the crema all together and just garnish with sour cream and a squeeze of lime juice.

As long as we’re making fish tacos and pretending that there are more than two days of summer left (!), I’m happy.

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On Wednesday we celebrated what would’ve been the 100th birthday of one of my biggest inspirations in both food and life: Julia Child!

As a kid, I’d watch her shows less for the cooking instruction – as I was still in the Easy Bake Oven stage – but just because I found her fascinating and hilarious.

Once I was able to reach the counter tops, her fearlessness and honesty taught me that there’s nothing to fear in the kitchen. You’re going to mess up, it’s going to be OK – you’ll learn from that mistake and be a better cook because of it.

Whether it’s as simple as steaming mussels or as fancy as croquembouche, she believed in making food the right way – from scratch, using real ingredients.

And as she stated in one of my favorite books, My Life in France, “…nothing is too much trouble if it turns out the way it should.”

And making these mussels was really no trouble at all!

There is a bit of prep involved, but it happens to be the kind I find quite relaxing. I’ll go over it in case you aren’t familiar with preparing mussels.

First, you’ll want to put the mussels over ice to make sure they stay cold while you’re working. Now the inspection and cleaning phase begins!

A good mussel in one that’s closed tightly and not cracked or chipped in any way. If you come across one that’s open, give it a good tap against the counter. If it closes immediately, it’s still alive and good to go – if not, it’s already dead, throw it away!

Scrub the mussels with a brush to remove any sand, and if what they call the “beard” is present you’ll want to yank that out (see photo above).

Once cleaned, drop those dudes in your prepared soaking water (I’ll go over that in the recipe) and have a glass of wine with a friend!

You don’t necessarily have the dress up like Julia, but I feel it helps.

Also I think I need to have a kitchen towel affixed to my waist at all times. So useful!

Once you’ve done the prep, you’re 90% of the way there! Throw those beauties in a pot with some shallots, butter and wine, and go to town!

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I know that braising isn’t exactly what comes to mind at the start of summer, but hear me out.

This isn’t one of those cold weather, giant hunk of meat cooking all afternoon kinds of braises. Nor is it loaded down with heavy flavors.

If a summery braise ever existed, this is it: fast, light and packed with bright flavors.

This comes from the “need to use up some odds and ends” recipe collection.

It started with a single tomato, some leftover white wine and fresh herbs on their last leg. Then I had these chicken thighs staring at me.

(If you had some different chicken parts staring at you – say breasts or drumsticks, you could certainly use those instead. Just adjust the simmering time accordingly.)

I had some pink peppercorns left from those lovely pickles and thought they might play nicely with the other odds and ends I’d gathered.

I love when things come together like this.

The rest is pretty much pantry staples!

This could be served family style on a bed of herbed rice (which I highly recommend), or with a side salad or veggies of your choice!

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We’re having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave…

And unlike in Marilyn’s case, no amount of dudes in striped pants and matching suspenders can help with this situation.

There are two things I usually turn to in sweltering heat: the beach and/or a grill.

Unfortunately, I’m a bit of a drive from the beaches these days.

I also find myself without a grill, so more creative measures had to be taken to rid myself of the heat wave blues. And I wanted ribs!

Super tender ribs without the use of a grill? Yes, it can be done!

Now, don’t freak out – I’m going to tell you to turn on your oven. It’s only to 300 degrees though, and in the interest of delicious ribs! Cooked with beer! This can’t be bad!

Some toasted and freshly ground spices couldn’t hurt the situation either.

A day of the ribs getting friendly with a dry rub? Definitely a good idea.

At this point pretty much all the hard work is done. A beer gets poured in the baking sheet, you pop it in the oven, wait, flip it over, wait some more.

Let a handful of ingredients bubble away in a pot and you’ve got BBQ sauce! There’s even enough left over for a super delicious pizza.

What comes out of the oven isn’t grilled, but if you close your eyes you can totally pretend it is.

Toasting the whole spices, then adding ground chipotle and pimenton in the rub add a smoky base, and a chipotle in adobo added to the sauce reinforces the faux-grilling factor.

I wonder what else I can faux-grill in the coming summer months…

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There’s always an exception to every rule, isn’t there?

Normally, I’m a pizza minimalist. I don’t want too many toppings or much sauce. Sometimes no sauce. Throw some thinly sliced asparagus and pecorino romano on a slab o’ dough with some salt and I’m happy. Well, bake it first please. Then I’m happy.

But… BUT! When we’re talking about the BBQ chicken variety, that all goes out the window. I want that pizza loaded with toppings. Loaded I tell you!

In other rule-breaking news: I’m a thin crust girl all the way, but not for this. Not that I really have a choice… Pounds of toppings + thin crust = failure and sadness.

I use my go-to pizza dough recipe for this, which – I’m slightly ashamed to say – I got from… somewhere… years ago. I have no idea where, but it’s a pretty basic recipe; I found a bunch exactly like it while searching for the author. So I apologize mystery person(s), for not being able to properly credit you for this amazing dough recipe.

Rolled out the size of a standard pizza stone, this will make a pretty thick crust. I also use the same recipe to create two smaller thin crusts, or one delicious focaccia on a sheet pan.

For right now though, I’m pretty excited about this loaded, thick-crusted BBQ chicken pizza. So excited in fact, that I kind of forgot the all-important finishing drizzle of BBQ sauce at first. Wtf!!

Thankfully I remembered in time for my second piece. Phew!

That was a close one.

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I have some partially completed projects floating around right now:

An advertisement that’s finished in my mind, but not on my computer screen.

A pile of merely thumbed through magazines sitting next to the new ones that won’t stop arriving.

A stack of manuals for a new camera that I made a weak attempt at starting.

I’m guessing… 5 loads of laundry I only got down to 3.

Multiple lists of things to cook - at least I’m at 9 out of 16 on that one.

Getting to this point in this very post was done over the course of 2 evenings.

And now you’re looking at some beautiful fresh peas that are in no way part of this recipe, but were going to be at one point!

Last week a friend and her daughter came over for an afternoon of foodieness, during which the peas would become a puree, served with the pan seared cod and rainbow chard.

As we started shelling them, we noticed them getting smaller and smaller. Slightly discouraged, we kept on shelling. Then some got crushed at the hands of a hilarious 2-year-old. We were left with barely a handful and figured, “eh”.

I just couldn’t let their lack of involvement sentence them to the “whoops” folder where my failed recipes (& their accompanying photos) go to die. Live on through the photos, you lovely little peas, LIIIIVE!

And so, this recipe also goes on my growing list of partially completed things.

Maybe it’s best this way. With my brain in a million different places at once, a two-part dish is a little more my speed. Pea puree can be done another day.

For now, simple pan seared cod with sauteed rainbow chard that is exploding with flavor. Mmhmm!

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Sometimes you make something once and know that you’ll never try any other version of it; it’s just too perfect to stray from.

Ina Garten’s chicken stock comes to mind. Sure I’ve made variations on it, but this is my base recipe for chicken stock. I’ve seen plenty of chicken stock recipes that look/sound great, but I can’t bring myself to make them. I’ll always be loyal to Ina’s stock.

This is now the case with Spoon Fork Bacon’s Boozy Bacon Jam. It’s just unreal. Spicy, rich, complex, boozy… and most importantly, bacony. Oh so wonderfully bacony.

I’ve had bacon jam in restaurants before (I’m looking at you aged cheddar grilled cheese with bacon jam and tomato *insert Homer Simpson drooly noise*), but when I made this version I knew I was sold for life. Once all the bacon jam crostini were gone, it was time to apply this to basically everything else I could think of.

First stop: bacon jam roasted chicken & vegetables.

Check it out, it’s this easy: smear some bacon jam under the skin and on the underside of some bone-in chicken thighs, lay those babies on some chopped veggies and you’re ready to party. The veggies end up swimming in a sea of bacony goodness. Bacony. I can’t say it enough.

Originally,  I made this with onions, potatoes, and carrots for a lazy Sunday supper that needed to be done before The Walking Dead came on. (Is that show getting insane or what?!? I LOVE IT.) It was delicious, but I knew for this post I had to step it up by including bacon’s best vegetable friend: the brussels sprout.

Now if you’re someone who doesn’t like brussels sprouts and you’re somehow at peace with that (I’m looking at you now Patrice…), then I suppose you could substitute carrots or some other hearty vegetable. But come on. Brussels sprouts and bacon were just made for each other.

To freshen everything up after their roasting and caramelizing and marrying, I added some lemon juice and parsley.

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My calendar just informed me that it’s March. Apparently this has been the case for a few days now.

It also informed me that there’s this holiday coming up where we all pretend to be Irish for a day, so I guess my recent craving for shepherd’s pie worked out pretty nicely.

Any dish where you have meat, veggies, mashed potatoes, wine, AND cheese all in one sloppy package is an instant winner in my book. And when you’re as busy as we’ve been lately, a dish that provides a family of two with instant comfort food for a week is a huge bonus.

Like yesterday for example, when I was trying to start working on this post, photographing the next one, preparing for a cocktail party, and talking on the phone all that the same time. Doesn’t work, in case you were wondering. At least lunch was taken care of – we had leftover shepherd’s pie.

Speaking of life and time saving phenomena, have I ever expressed my love for potato ricers? Absolutely 100% perfect, lump-free mashed potatoes every time. Or perfect, lump-free anything else you want to mash. Best $7 I ever spent.

So since I have literally nothing I need to accomplish today beyond relaxing and scarfing down leftovers from last night’s party, I’m just gonna cut to the chase.

Buy potato ricer.

Make shepherd’s pie.

Receive bacon.

Eat really, really well for a week.

Click here to view this recipe.