In the summer, when food revolves around salads and grills and fresh vegetables, I often forgo things that seem fancy or fussy. We eat whole foods that don't require much in the way of chopping, or even turning on the oven. But I am also interested in using up every shred of food in my ...

A frittata is basically a crustless quiche. I make them often because it's a quick way to make a nice breakfast for several people, or to make a dinner out of really inexpensive ingredients. They are great for "refrigerator cleanout" because you can add whatever veggies or meat or cheese ...

Every time I tell someone I'm making sweet corn ice cream, I'm met with suspicious stares or, on occasion, downright anger. "Why," they cry, "would you ruin perfectly good homemade ice cream by putting a *vegetable* in it?" My 6-year-old son nearly cried when I first asked him to try ...

Summer, for me, is pools, hot dogs, garden salsa and strawberry pie. Not necessarily in that order. I am not much of a dessert eater, but I have never in my life turned down a piece of strawberry pie, no matter what version was put in front of me. It is one of the few sweet treats that I ...

Your mother probably made this in the '70s, and it might have been a dish she considered upscale enough to don her hostess dress and make for company. Chicken divan is a casserole that over the years has taken on many forms (most of which are unacceptable bastardizations that include cans of ...

Pizza is a fallback dinner at our house. When the cupboard is bare, I can still almost always pull together some sort of pizza-like concoction that pleases everyone and also uses up the random leftovers languishing in my refrigerator. Pizza, in my mind, doesn't always have to have red sauce ...