Enchilada Sauce

Flavorful and easy to make, this homemade enchilada sauce is so much better than the canned kind. Use it in your favorite enchilada recipes!

When I’m craving enchiladas on a weeknight, I first make this red enchilada sauce recipe. It’s the perfect starting point for fast, flavorful homemade enchiladas. It takes minutes to make, and it calls for simple pantry ingredients. Still, its balance of tangy, earthy, and savory flavors really packs a punch. Swap it in for the store-bought stuff, and I promise, you’ll taste the difference. Homemade Enchilada Sauce Recipe Ingredients Growing up in the Midwest, I thought of enchilada sauce as one thing: the tomato-based stuff that comes in a can. But when I moved to Austin, I learned that in…

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Cinnamon Apples

These sweet, spiced cinnamon apples are just as good for breakfast as they are for dessert. Serve them over oatmeal, pancakes, or ice cream!

Sweet, soft, and nicely spiced, these easy cinnamon apples taste like the inside of a warm apple pie. But unlike a pie, which requires hours of chilling and baking and cooling, this cinnamon apples recipe is ready in under 30 minutes. I love its simplicity. Its lack of crust, batter, or crumble topping allows it to be just as at home at breakfast as it is at dessert. It also means that this recipe is 100% about the apples. If you have a craving for cozy, apple-y fall flavor, there’s no easier or more satisfying way to indulge it than…

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Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

This peanut butter banana smoothie is thick, creamy, and packed with sweet and nutty flavor. Make it for an easy, delicious breakfast or snack!

This peanut butter banana smoothie is the kind of breakfast that makes you excited to get out of bed in the morning. It calls for 4 simple ingredients, it takes minutes to make, and it tastes so good that it could almost pass as dessert. The peanut butter, banana, and whole rolled oats make it thick and creamy, and they infuse it with the BEST sweet and nutty flavor. They also happen to add fiber, protein, potassium, and vitamin C, meaning that this delicious breakfast is a healthy one too. I think you’ll love it! Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie Recipe…

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Eggplant Caponata

Silky, sweet, and sour, this eggplant caponata recipe is a delicious summer appetizer. Serve it on crostini with lots of fresh basil for garnish!

summer / appetizers

These days, our neighborhood farmers market is basically like a caponata cooking kit. Mounds of eggplants, tomatoes, and multicolored peppers fill every stall. I’m pretty pleased about it, because this Sicilian vegetable stew is one of my favorite late summer dishes. It’s tangy, briny, and lightly sweet, with a rich, silky texture that’s absolutely irresistible. I first fell in love with caponata years ago on a trip to Italy. Jack and I ordered it as an appetizer with crusty bread and a glass of white wine almost everywhere we went. When we got home, of course I had to learn…

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How to Make Crostini

Learn how to make crostini! Topped with fresh garnishes or a creamy spread, these crisp, golden little toasts are the perfect party appetizer.

If you ask me, everyone should learn how to make crostini. These little Italian toasts are at home at any party or gathering, and they’re an absolute breeze to make. Thinly slice a baguette, brush the slices with olive oil, and toast them in the oven until they’re crisp and golden. Once they’re toasted, they’re the perfect base for all kinds of toppings. Creamy spreads, fresh veggies, herbs, fruit, or cheese… You’ll find over 10 crostini recipes in our recipe index and another 4 in my cookbooks. What can I say? The crostini topping possibilities are endless! How to Make…

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Roasted Zucchini

Learn how to make easy roasted zucchini! It's beautifully caramelized, golden brown, and seasoned to perfection with lemon, herbs, and cheese.

summer / side dishes

I’m finally coming around to roasted zucchini. You’d think, given how much I love pretty much all zucchini recipes, that I would have been a fan of it forever. But no. Roasted zucchini and I got off to a rocky start. See, I have a strong aversion to anything mushy. Before I worked out this game-changing recipe, that’s how my roasted zucchini always ended up. It was too soft and too watery, basically mush. But this summer, I decided to give roasted zucchini another chance. Instead of slicing the squash into thin rounds like I had in the past, I…

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Italian Seasoning

Instead of using store-bought Italian seasoning, make your own at home! This simple blend of dried herbs is delicious in sauces, soups, and more.

Italian seasoning is one of those kitchen basics, like bread crumbs or a simple vinaigrette, that I prefer to make at home instead of buying at the store. I keep all the ingredients in my pantry anyway. I may as well combine them myself instead of picking up an extra spice! More importantly, making my own Italian seasoning allows me to control the balance of flavors. My homemade blend has a mix of sweet, earthy, and aromatic notes that I absolutely love. I’ve shared my favorite Italian seasoning recipe below. Try it as written, or experiment with the ratios to…

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Zucchini Brownies

You won't taste the zucchini in this easy zucchini brownies recipe. It melts into the rich chocolate batter, making them amazingly gooey and moist.

As soon as I finish writing this post, I’m heading to the kitchen and making more of these zucchini brownies. It’s impossible for me to sit here, looking at photos of their glossy tops and gooey, chocolatey middles and NOT start to crave them. Tell me they’re tempting you too? The really fun thing about this zucchini brownies recipe is that even though is has 2 WHOLE CUPS of zucchini inside it, the zucchini is almost undetectable. It melts into the rich chocolate batter, giving the brownies an amazing moist and gooey texture. I’ll admit that they’re slightly cakier than…

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Eggplant Rollatini

In this eggplant rollatini recipe, bubbly marinara surrounds tender eggplant slices rolled around a rich ricotta filling. It's SO comforting and delicious!

Ok, saucy, cheesy comfort food fans – you’re going to love this eggplant rollatini recipe! “Rollatini” is an Americanized version of the Italian word “involtini,” which describes small bundles of food made by rolling thin slices of meat or produce around a filling. In this eggplant rollatini recipe, I wrap delicate planks of roasted eggplant around a rich blend of lemon zest, pecorino, and ricotta cheese. I nestle the rolls in a dish of marinara sauce and bake until the filling is hot and the eggplant is tender. The combination of flavors and textures is fantastic. The filling offers a…

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Tabbouleh

This version of tabbouleh - the Middle Eastern herb and bulgur salad - is zingy, fragrant, and SO refreshing. Perfect for a mezze platter or picnic!

Herbs are arguably my favorite fresh ingredients, so it should come as no surprise that I love tabbouleh. Alternatively spelled tabouli or tabouleh, this Middle Eastern salad consists of finely chopped parsley, mint, tomatoes, and bulgur wheat. Don’t let the bulgur’s presence fool you – traditional Lebanese tabbouleh isn’t so much a grain salad as it is an herb salad with grains. The parsley and mint are the real star ingredients, making the salad pungent, fragrant, and intensely refreshing. You’ll find my go-to tabbouleh recipe below. If you love bright, herbaceous flavors, it’s one you have to try. Pack it up…

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Muhammara

This recipe is my take on muhammara, the Syrian red pepper dip. Nutty, zingy, spicy, and sweet, it's best enjoyed with warm pita and fresh veggies.

This recipe is my take on muhammara, the Middle Eastern red pepper and walnut dip. I love to make it in the summer, when peppers are abundant and a cool dip sounds like the perfect starting point for a meal or snack. In case you’re not familiar with muhammara, here’s a little background: this punchy dip originated in Syria, and it’s now common throughout the Middle East. Its key ingredients are roasted red peppers, walnuts, breadcrumbs, chile flakes, and pomegranate molasses, which combine to make it thick, nutty, zingy, spicy, sour, and sweet. I still remember the first time I…

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Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.