Smokey, spicy homemade barbecue sauce is perfect with chicken or pork. There's no reason to use bottled sauce when you can make your own! Served alongside grilled vegetable succotash, this is a great healthy summer meal.

Tacos are such a great weeknight meal. So much so, that "Taco Tuesday" is a common occurrence in so many homes. This spicy vegetarian recipe is easily adaptable for whatever veggies you might have on hand, and is great for either Meatless Monday or Taco Tuesday; or maybe even both!

On of the meals I remember eating countless times at my grandmother's house were pan fried hamburgers. Simple but delicious. She would make a few, sandwich them between super soft hamburger buns, and my brother and I would eat them paired with cottage cheese on TV trays in her living room while watching Nickelodeon. This is my homage to that recipe, pan fried burgers but updated with fresh ground meat and a great burger sauce. Served without a bun to let the flavor of the meat shine.

This recipe is inspired by a fantastic dish eaten in Las Vegas. It was probably the highlight of the trip. Spicy, and juicy with a flavorful roasted garlic sauce. This chicken isn't quite the same as the dish served at Mesa Grill in Las Vegas, but for an introvert it's perfect. Prepared in my own kitchen, without the glaring lights and noise of the Vegas strip. Vegas, sadly, I don't think we'll be back. But thanks for the inspiration for this great chicken!

This flatbread is spring. Earthy morels, crisp fresh fiddlehead ferns, it makes me think of the first warm days after a long Michigan winter. While we didn't experience the brutal cold of winter this year in the Pacific Northwest, Ryan and I are always looking forward to warm spring days.

I love turkey burgers. We live on the 10th floor of our building and we can't have a grill on our balcony so I'm always trying to find burger recipes that work well in a pan on the stove or baked. Ground turkey works so well in a pan. With a lower fat content, it cooks nicely without resulting in a greasy burger.

Typically made with potatoes, this gnocchi is instead made with beets! Tossed in a creamy goat cheese sauce with wilted baby spinach, it's great comfort food with those classic flavors; beets, spinach, and goat cheese!

Green papaya isn't any different from a regular papaya, it's just very underripe. Instead of soft orange flesh and black seeds, it's bright white inside and has a texture similar to a cucumber. It's very fresh tasting, not very sweet at this point, but fresh and crisp. This salad would be great in the middle of summer with an ice cold tea.

Rustic, loaded with great ingredients, every bite of this pizza is perfect. Sweet caramelized onions, creamy fontina cheese, and a crispy chewy herbed crust.

What do you do with an excess number of jalapeños? Poppers might be the logical route, but they're not my favorite appetizer. Jalapeño jelly would also be a good option, but I did not have any canning jars on hand. I did however, have a whole chicken and some potatoes. Roasting the chicken with diced jalapeño spread under the skin and folded into mashed potatoes used up a few of the peppers I had on hand and the result was a mildly spicy chicken with really great jalapeño flavor. If you don't like spicy food, this recipe is still for you. It is barely spicy, I would rate it a 1 or 2 out of 5 on a spice scale.

A great roasted red pepper tomato sauce and cannelloni baked in a cheesy mornay sauce. The cannelloni are bright and vibrant but creamy and comforting all in the same bite. This would be a great recipe to make ahead of time for a dinner party, heating up the dish as guests arrive or the first course is served.

Coconut milk and chicken stock become the poaching liquid for boneless chicken breasts. Seasoned with a hint of lime and jalapeño, this chicken is full of flavor but light and fresh. A hint of sweetness from the coconut, some acidity from the lime, and a touch of heat from the jalapeño, the chicken is moist and perfectly balanced.

Risotto made with other grains can be just as good but does need some finishing work. Farro is a great in soups or pilaf, but what about a creamy risotto? It retains an excellent bite or toothsome quality and with a little heavy cream and some parmesan cheese, farro becomes a tender creamy risotto. A quick pan seared black cod, perfectly flaky, goes so well with the tomato and saffron in the risotto.

These burgers are so good that this morning I wanted them for breakfast. I'm not kidding. This is the kind of burger I dream about. Juicy, spicy, a little sweet, all on a toasted bun. The fried egg makes them a bit messy, so have lots of napkins on hand.

This dinner is a back to basics meal. Something we've all eaten and cooked countless times. Steak and potatoes. There are so many variations and versions, sauces and accompaniments, ways to make this dish unique. I'm sharing my simple, basic dinner that anyone with a bit of time and some quality ingredients can pull off.

When you follow a vegetarian diet closely, you learn all the hidden animal ingredients in your favorite foods. For example, frosted cereals often have gelatin in the sugary icing. Certain beer and wine brands use animal products in processing. Many cheeses are not vegetarian. And of course, caesar salad can have anchovies in the salad itself but classic caesar dressing has anchovies in the dressing. This salad is really about the dressing. It's not as creamy as a classic caesar, made with greek yogurt, but it works really well with romaine lettuce and fresh homemade croutons. I've served this salad several times to friends and family and find that almost everyone goes back for seconds!

Sous vide cooking is by no means a new cooking technique but it has been popularized by the trend in molecular gastronomy. It has become a common technique in cooking television and is used in some really interesting restaurants. On a side note, dining at Alinea in Chicago is on my bucket list. If I ever get there I'm photo documenting the entire meal. Cooking at a consistent temperature in a water bath ensures even cooking throughout the entire item, lowering the risk of overcooking the food.

Red peppers and onions cooked low and slow with crushed tomatoes and garlic; super fresh shrimp from the market and mildly spicy sausage. This is comfort food and therapy all in one. With every slice my knife makes through an onion I can feel the stress release from my shoulders. Does that sound crazy? Cooking is my drug.

Brining pork is a breakthrough. It was by pure laziness that this pork tenderloin spent a full 24 hours in a salty sugary brine and it was totally worth it. l had planned to make this dish on a weeknight and hoped to brine the pork while I ran a few errands; maybe an hour or two tops.

I always have canned fire roasted tomatoes on hand; I think they are a far superior addition to chilis, stews, curries, etc. I had frozen chicken breasts thawing and olives left over from a charcuterie spread for a party. The mediterranean flavors worked well with each other; the heat of the tomatoes helping to cut the brininess of the olives.

I don't know about you but I've eaten my way through the holidays and I need a break. Something fresh, light, but still filling. This salad fits that bill. Crisp napa cabbage, warm chicken, and a slightly spicy dressing. It's a salad robust enough for dinner yet a great departure from the heavy comfort food we've been buried under the last few weeks.

Mmm....lasagna. Possibly one of my favorite comfort foods. I love all types of lasagna; traditional, white, vegetarian, even a little seafood thrown it. I love that feeling of satisfaction when you cut that first piece, pull it out of the baking dish and realize you have the perfect ration of ingredients; not so saucy that it starts to fall apart but not dry either. Lasagna is always a great way to feed a crowd, and in fact that's where this recipe started.

One year for halloween, my grandmother dressed as a piece of broccoli. It was spectacular. She wore a green sweatsuit, painted her face green, and used temporary colored hair spray to tint her then gray hair a celery green color. She was at the time working as an aid for the local elementary school, and her students called her Mrs. Broccoli.

Confession; I watch a lot of Netflix. Since moving to Seattle, I have not been working during the day, and other than bothering the cats there's not much to do in our small apartment except binge watch full seasons of my favorite shows on Netflix. I'm currently in the fifth season of Dexter (no spoilers please!) but I'm hooked on all my favorite Food Network shows. Particularly Cutthroat Kitchen. What an entertaining show! The contestants have to cook a specific dish but have the option to purchase sabotages to pass along to a competitor. Anything from not being able to taste their food to having to build a campfire to use as the sole cooking heat can be a sabotage. Bonus, it's hosted by Alton Brown, one of my favorite Food Network personalities.

I love mushrooms. When I was a vegetarian they were often the center of my meal; grilled, sautéed, added to pasta dishes or soups. They have that great umami flavor that is so often missing from vegetarian cuisine. If you haven't tried replacing your burger patty with a nicely grilled portabello mushroom, some swiss cheese and maybe some caramelized onions for a mushroom melt, I recommend it!

You can't have a Thanksgiving dinner without turkey. Why do we eat turkey at Thanksgiving? It's not the cheapest way to feed a crowd, it's not the easiest to cook, and takes hours depending on method. It seems that with our modern access to meat and produce from around the world any time of year tradition would be set aside for convenience. Alas, like it or not, turkey is and will probably always be the center of a Thanksgiving dinner.

Thanksgiving is usually a family affair. Growing up we used to have a huge meal always hosted at my grandparents house. Your typical Thanksgiving spread; with so much love baked, stirred, and sprinkled in. Grandma would lead the charge and both her stuffing and pies were amazing. Grandma hardly ever cooked from a recipe and I like to think that I inherited her "cooking gene". I only wish that I had been old enough to help her out with those Thanksgiving dinners; most of my memories I'm still seated at the kiddie table!

This is my absolute favorite chicken noodle soup. It's the soup that I want when I have a cold or a sore throat. It's soothing, filling, and just delicious with the bright lemon. It's a great way to use up leftover chicken and comes together pretty quickly. I've been making versions of this soup for years, first with vegetable stock and TVP (textured vegetable protein) as a vegetarian. It's great in a vegetarian version but even better with leftover roast chicken.

I love a good hearty chili. Vegetarian, traditional, or this white chili it doesn't matter. I also love one pot meals. Hearty and satisfying; easy to throw together and heat up well for leftovers the next day. White chili is Ryan's favorite, and I've been working hard on a recipe that lives up to his expectations. I think I've finally got it.

These cupcakes are the memory of strawberry shortcake. Light buttery cake, sweet/tart strawberry rhubarb filling, and a creamy lemon buttercream frosting. A perfect use for the rhubarb at the farmer's market this spring.

Chocolate and booze. In excess, both are detrimental to your health and waistline. But in moderation, they can be incredibly decadent!

My experience with gluten free or flourless chocolate cakes is that they either require almond flour, which can be expensive, hard to find, and complicates this dish for someone who has a nut allergy, or they are intense and dense and one or two bites is all you want before it feels too heavy. This cake is neither. No almond flour and it is surprisingly light. With just the right orange flavor and the bright raspberry sauce it is decadent and refreshing.

Snickerdoodle cookies are really quite easy. Basic ingredients and a dusting of cinnamon sugar, these cookies come together quickly and have a great balance between soft and chewy. If you love cinnamon and sugar, these are a great treat.

Sometimes a long trusted recipe is just begging for an update. I have been making my mother's banana bread recipe for a decade and eating it for almost three.

These are the infamous Momofuko Milk Bar cookies. They are complicated. They are time consuming. They are also probably the best cookie I have ever made. You can't take any shortcuts with this cookie. They are an investment in your time, but a worthwhile one.

A yeasted fruitcake, Stollen is a great holiday bread. It's chock full of dried fruit and nuts and sweetened with honey. Dusted in a heavy coat of powdered sugar, to me a baked stollen invokes the crisp snowy mornings in Michigan this time of year.

Does this happen to you? You're up late, watching a movie, and your sweet tooth strikes. There's nothing in the pantry, and a handful of chocolate chips from your baking supply seems like a poor solution. I've tried easy microwave mug cakes, cookies, and brownies...something about them is just strange. They remind me of the end result of the 1980's Easy Bake Oven of my childhood. Sure it looked like a cake, but it definitely tasted like it was baked with a lightbulb. What I really want when this happens is something sweet that tastes like a lot of effort went into it.

This is my homage to pumpkin pie. A pumpkin pudding with a brown sugar meringue. A much smoother consistency with a light marshmallow meringue topping. The best part? The ginger snap crust. Seriously I'll never use graham crackers for a cheesecake ever again.

Pumpkin. Beer. Brownies. You read that right. In this case, pumpkin cappuccino beer brownies. OMG. These are insanely good. One of the things Ryan and I miss most from Michigan (apart from friends and family of course) is the beer. There are so many great microbreweries in West Michigan and we've found some great beers that we are very loyal to. Unfortunately, none of those beers make it this far west. As we explore the Pacific Northwest beer scene we get to sample some really great and unusual beers. One of these is Elysian Brewing's Punkuccino. A pumpkin cappuccino stout. It's like my two favorite beverages (coffee and beer) had a tryst in a pumpkin patch. I mean this in the best possible way. The beer is excellent and was the inspiration for this recipe.

This recipe is top secret, in fact this post will self destruct in 10 minutes...seriously though, this recipe is special. Everyone has that one recipe in their family. The one that's been passed down, talked about, maybe even kept secret? For my family it has got to be my Great Grandma Linsner's oatmeal cookies. This recipe has been passed down four generations now, and baking and eating these cookies feels like a connection to my Great Grandma. I can imagine Francis Linsner making these cookies in her own kitchen, mixing the batter, baking dozens of cookies for family and friends.

Oh...the holidays. So much fun but so much food! I don't know about you but I'm already feeling like I've eaten and imbibed a bit too much and we still have weeks to go. Can I start my New Years resolutions early this year? Hit the gym...eat salads more often...put down the craft beer? I love holiday food, all of it really. Cookies, hot spiked cider, roast meats, cheese. It's all so good, but leaves me feeling bloated and my pants a bit ill fitting. Thank goodness for oversized sweaters and leggings to hide my holiday indulgences!

Ryan and I are what you would call "fair-weather fans". Not really into any sports at all, when our friends in Michigan were all watching the Michigan/Michigan State college football game yesterday, I honestly didn't even know it was going on until I logged into Facebook! Instead of watching football, we spent the day in Portland at the World Beard and Mustache Championships. It was awesome. I learned so much about mustaches and beards! Although we don't care for sports much, I do love a good game day party. It doesn't really matter to me what sport is television or what team we're cheering for, if I get to eat good party food, drink a couple of microbrews, and spend time with friends then I'm in. And it's a great excuse to make a double batch of my favorite guacamole recipe.