Sometimes I want a cocktail that’s on the savory side, but don’t quite feel up to tackling a meal-sized bloody mary. That’s where this Green Gimlet comes in.

And for those wondering if that near radioactive green hue is the product of food coloring: nope! It’s alllll natural – a combination of lime juice, basil simple syrup and celery juice.

…And gin. Of course gin.

I think my fascination with the lighter side of savory drinks was sparked by a cocktail I had last year at Wayfare Tavern. It was called the Urban Garden and it was out of control. Radish, cucumber, fresh herbs, lemon – it really is a garden in a glass.

When I set out to create this cocktail, celery was the first thing on my mind. This could have something to do with my deep and eternal love for all things celery: root, stalk, leaf, seed, salt, and now juice! In fact, a celery salad may or may not be the very next post you see on this blog.

(It will be.)

Next up in the juicing process: lime! It is a gimlet after all; we’ve got to represent the lime.

The limes I used when I shot this were being very stingy with their juice. If you don’t have a juicer, my favorite trick is to jam a fork into the flesh of a lime half and twist the lime and fork in opposite directions. That lime won’t stand a chance at holding on to its juice.

Basil is a long-time hero of many cocktails, both sweet and savory. It’s herbaceous and peppery punch is welcome at any party of mine. In this drink I use a basil simple syrup, as well as fresh basil in the cocktail shaker.

This is the cocktail I wanna be sipping on a porch on a lazy summer day while some meat is cooking on a grill.

I need to get some friends that have a porch. And a grill.

Click here to view this recipe.

This is the type of recipe I don’t normally write down – an impromptu side dish that came together because I happened to have some broccoli and an itch to break out some of my favorite condiments.

In fact, this applies to most things I cook; I don’t make many dishes quite the same way twice. I just make things up based on what I have on hand, then taste and adjust as I go along.

It’s like my own little episode of Chopped. Except for some reason Ted Allen never shows up…

While this is all fine and good, it means I never write anything down! So when it comes to recreating a dish to post it here, I have a small issue in that there is no exact recipe beyond what I can struggle to remember.

Well this time, I was smarter than the broccoli.

Welcome to what is hopefully the first of many recipes that I didn’t have to make 8 times before I remembered to write it down for you!

This snazzy side dish comes together in a snap. It’s basically a stir-fry without the wok! You still want to prep your ingredients ahead of time, and get your pan stupidly hot.

Once the broccoli gets nice and toasty you add the sauce, simmer for a couple of minutes and chomp away.

Any glaze ingredients you might not have should be easy to find in the Asian section of your grocery store. They’re all great ingredients with a lot of versatility  - good ones to have around!

Click here to view this recipe.

You know that point when you’re about to go out of town and trying to whittle down the produce in the house? And then you end up with a potato and a handful of arugula and think, well I guess I’ll try to make a meal out of this…

It could just be me. Other folks might go for take-out at that point, but I like a good food challenge.

I especially like it when an attempt to use up some random food ends up being really, really delicious.

My baked potatoes normally get ALL the fixin’s thrown on top. Why not, right?

Well, think of this as the minimalist baked potato. Minimal effort and ingredients that yield huge flavor in return.

It starts out in the usual manner. Rub some oil on the potato, sprinkle it with salt, stab it with a fork a few times.

The fork part can double as a way to relieve some stress if you need it to.

The potato gets thrown in the oven and forgotten about for the better part of an hour. Once it’s done, you’re 2 minutes away from potato magic.

Have you sautéed arugula before? I hadn’t until I made this dish. It’s crazy how much 30 seconds in a pan can change the flavor. Especially if there is butter and garlic in said pan. It mellows out a little and becomes more like spinach’s funky cousin.

Arugula and garlicky butter taste really nice with parmesan cheese, so that goes on top. Going out of town or not, I’ve always got some Reggiano in the fridge!

Click here to view this recipe.

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!

Click here to view this recipe.

I guess I can see why some people aren’t down with beets.

They’re a bit funky looking, and most people seem to have some unpleasant childhood beet memories. Just like peas, lima beans and brussels sprouts before them, beets get tossed in the mental “icky healthy food” bin without a fair fight!

You can’t just slop some plain boiled peas or a pile of raw shredded beets on a plate and expect your kid (or anyone, for that matter) to rejoice.

Beets deserve a bit more attention.

A little time and love, that’s all they’re asking for.

I like to do a roast/steam situation for my beets. You put them in a dish with a little olive oil, cover it in foil and forget about them until they’re done! If you aren’t working in bulk, you can always roast one beet in a foil pouch, much like you would for roasting garlic.

But today we aren’t stopping at beets. There’s a whole salad to be made! One that I think could convert a beet hater or two. I’m curious to find out if it would change the mind of my mom, who swears beets taste like dirt.

There is an earthiness to them, yes. But dirt?!

Well, if there are people who think cilantro tastes like soap… who knows.

These earthy beets get paired with earthy lentils, because they’re friends like that. It’s all going to get tossed in an extremely acidic dressing, so never fear.

The salad gets mixed with fresh celery, then topped with salty feta cheese and crunchy walnuts.

The really great thing about this salad is that each of the two main components can be prepared ahead of time and left to chill in the fridge for a good week. So if you happen to roast beets or cook lentils in large batches like I do, you’re in luck!

Click here to view this recipe.

Even though it was 80-some-odd degrees outside when I made this salad, I can safely say that I am now fully and officially into fall.

My tea supply has been restocked. I got a new pair of fuzzy pajama pants.

I’ve got my stack of Thanksgiving themed magazines piled up on my nightstand.

Did I mention that some of our family is actually coming up to see US this year and I’m HOSTING Thanksgiving?! Oooohhhh yeah. It’s on.

Spoiler alert to those that will be attending: You’re most likely gonna be eating this salad.

Let’s do this!

A fall without butternut squash is a fall that I want no part in. It’s always one of the first things I reach for when the leaves start to change.

It’s a bit of an odd looking character that seems to intimidate a lot of people, but if you have a knife and a vegetable peeler, you’re good to go.

Just cut off the top and bottom ends for stability, stand it up and slice the skin off with the vegetable peeler. From there you can cut it in half vertically, remove the seeds with a spoon, and chop as you like.

In this case, we’re cubin’ and roastin’.

This salad has a nice balance of flavors and textures. The butternut squash is roasted with a coating of brown sugar and cayenne pepper, for sweetness and heat.

We also have radicchio for bitterness, pepitas for a hearty crunch, apples for a mild sweetness, and tarragon for a fresh finishing punch of flavor. Blue cheese brings its famous funkiness to the party as well. It just isn’t a party without some funk.

All the fun of fall is hanging out in one bowl, just begging you to eat it and all its healthy glory. So dig in!

Click here to view this recipe.

Let’s consider this step one of incorporating real food back into my diet.

A week of awesome vacationing/eating in San Diego was directly followed by a week of sickness/sleeping, during which the most solid food I ate was an antibiotic.

Yesterday I was able to stand up long enough to leave the house, so I knew I needed two things:

-a burger, animal style

-a salad that took minimal effort and used some of those veggie type things I’d been missing out on all week.

Oh, and then I made this coffee cured pulled pork for dinner. I’m crazy. I know.

I guess I went into overdrive because I hadn’t really cooked at all this month. Not cool!

But you know what is cool? Summer veggies.

They almost make it too easy.

Gather up pretty much any grouping of summer’s bounty, throw in a bowl with some citrus and you’ve got yourself a meal.

If you can grill said bounty – well now we’re really talkin’.

If not, there’s always your old friend the cast iron skillet. He’s got your back.

I am out-of-control-obsessed with corn right now. It’s too damn good.

I swear, somehow this year’s corn is the sweetest ever! And it costs a pile of pennies! That’s always nice.

This salad would work great for backyard entertaining – it’s easy to throw together and it gives your guests the option to get some kind of health factor in there between all the margaritas and bbq ribs and burgers and whatnot.

Click here to view this recipe.

This has been an adventurous week over here. I crossed two, yes TWO, things off my cooking bucket list!

Whoa – big things!

On Wednesday I cleaned and prepared mussels for the first time. This one I’m almost ashamed to admit. For the amount of mussels I’ve consumed in my life, I feel like I should have gotten to this eons ago. Nevertheless, they were amazing. White wine, lemon juice, fennel seeds, garlic… you get the picture. (I used this recipe, just not on a grill.) And yes, I ate all of them.

The second kitchen feat was homemade pickled vegetables. Whaaat? I know. Crazy.

Or is it?

After making them, I say hell no!

I used to think of pickled veggies as one of those things that just… exists. You go to the salsa bar and boom – there they are. Like croissants. Those aren’t a thing you make, they’re just there!

So if you’re weirded out right now, I feel ya. But let me ask you two things:

1. Can you boil water?

2. Can you slice vegetables?

If you answered yes to both those questions, you’re on the road to pickle some veggies! Woooo!

If you answered no… then we’ll have to save that for another post I guess.

What cured my pickling apprehension was Ted Allen’s feature in a recent Food Network issue which highlighted his new cookbook, In My Kitchen. I looked at the recipe and thought, “Oh… that’s it?!”

So much of my life spent not pickling!!

As I mentioned earlier, it’s about as simple as pouring some hot liquid over sliced vegetables.

And according to Ted, you can pickle anything using this method. So if you’re a pickled veggie fan, I’ll let you get to slicing!

Click here to view this recipe.

This salad seems entirely appropriate coming off the heels of a serious Breaking Bad addiction in this household. Super serious.

Three weeks ago, the hubs innocently suggested we start watching it, probably thinking we’d be able to continue on with life as usual afterward. Oh no.

In that time, we blew threw all 4 seasons with pretty much every free moment we had. We. Could. Not. Stop.

Don’t worry – I do see the irony here. Hopelessly addicted to a show about drugs – lol.

Thankfully, this lead to a much healthier addiction: mango & jicama salad.

Let’s play out a scenario: you have no time to cook – duh – there’s more Breaking Bad to watch. It’s 89 degrees in your house, so you need something light and refreshing. You could probably also use some fruit in your life since the whole not cooking thing has lead to lots of takeout food and a lack of grocery shopping.

So… if you run to the store in the afternoon while hubs is still at work, you can whip this up and have the next episode queued up on the TV by the time he gets home. Genius!

No joke – that was the thought process.

Then, since I had chowed down near half of it by the time he did get home, I thought, “No worries – I’ll add the rest of that leftover chicken breast and make it a meal!” The genius is multiplying!

My brain chose to skip over the part where Josh is weirded out by meat and fruit together. And bread and fruit. There are some oddities surrounding fruit.

Leftover pizza for him – the rest of that salad for me!

This salad is beyond simple to make and packs a lot of flavor. Mango and jicama – two things that are perfectly tasty on their own – are given an extra punch of flavor from lime juice, fresh ginger, ground chile pepper and cilantro.

Eat it as is, or – if you wouldn’t freak out anyone you love – add some shrimp or chicken for a more well rounded meal.

Click here to view this recipe.

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.

Click here to view this recipe.