Category — Fast and Easy Recipes

The other night, my sister graciously invited me over for dinner and asked me to bring a salad. She told me she was making potato and chorizo tacos from this fantastic Tacolicious recipe featured in Food & Wine, and I hemmed and hawed over what kind of salad to make, since I can never figure out what salad goes with Mexican food. I decided to take a little creative license and throw a bunch of things in a blender to create something akin to a Mexican Green Goddess dressing–a tangy, creamy blend of pepitas (raw green pumpkin seeds) from the local Mexican market, coriander, cilantro, and lime.

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Is there anything more satisfying than a perfectly seasoned steak cooked to your exact liking? For a meat-lover like me, there is not. Unfortunately it can be hard to get that steakhouse taste at home, unless you know a couple of culinary secrets. Here is my tried and true method for cooking steaks. Once you start making them this way, you will never go back to your old habits!

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Chicken Tikka Masala is one of my favorite dishes to order at an Indian restaurant, but I had never dared to try and make it at home. Recently our friend Ehab cooked up a batch for a dinner party and I fell in love with it. The best part is that the recipe is surprisingly simple and requires very little prep time.

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I shared a recipe from Nancy a few weeks ago, and this is another one of her hits. This is a dessert that is definitely more than the sum of its parts. Plus, it’s a great make-ahead dessert if you’re pressed for time.

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The last of the strawberries are in season, so I thought I would share this easy and delicious summer salad with you. It’s colorful, fresh, and always a crowd pleaser! The sweet strawberries, creamy avocados, salty feta, and earthy arugula are a great combination.

I like to make my balsamic vinaigrette with a creamier texture than I can get with just a whisk or a fork. To achieve that effect, I mix the dressing ingredients in a blender. The oil emulsifies and makes the dressing thicker and creamier. Delicious!

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Recently a friend was coming over for dinner, and asked if he could bring some fish over for me to cook. I loved this idea because a) fish is hella expensive, and b) I loathe going to the store. He very kindly went all the way across town to Yum Yum Fish Market to get the most delicious, high quality, enormous hunk of tuna for me to make this. (Future dinner guests: take note. If you come to my house, a large piece of high quality fish is an excellent hostess gift.)

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I like my blue cheese salad simple and I like it chopped- with iceberg lettuce, lots of tomatoes and avocadoes, and if I’m feeling gluttonous (which I almost always am) croutons and chunks of bacon.

Homemade dressing is the final piece in the perfect salad puzzle. The Smitten Kitchen recipe is my favorite. It’s easy to make and tastes divine, without any of the funky multisyllabic ingredients that store-bought dressing is full of.

Get the recipe here!

This recipe is:

• super easy
• gluten-free
• dairy-free
• eaten up in mere moments
• good for passover, as they are not leavened (I’m not Jewish, but I know how that stuff works)

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I saw this post on Good Life Eats about all of the easy things you can do with feta, and I realized I’ve never shared one of my favorite last-minute appetizers: feta with stuff on it.

My mom taught me this trick to transform a boring ol’ block of feta into a somewhat shmancy-seeming appetizer in like 10 seconds. All you do is take a block of good quality brined feta out of the brine. Put it on a plate or in a shallow bowl. Drizzle it with good olive oil and sprinkle it with chopped herbs (oregano or mint are my two favorites.) Sprinkle coarse salt on top (I used black salt from Hawaii but any salt will do) and a cracking of pepper. Serve it with a baguette, crackers, or pita chips. People will not realize how little work you put into this, because it looks good and tastes even better!

Some of my favorite meals start out by throwing a bunch of tasty things into a food processor or blender and adding oil and cheese. It’s reasonably hard to go wrong and it’s insanely easy and fast to make. In fact, the most difficulty I encountered when making this recipe was walking 2 blocks to the market to buy the ingredients…

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