Grilled Asparagus

This grilled asparagus recipe is my favorite spring and summer side dish. Simply seasoned with olive oil, salt, and pepper, it's fresh and delicious.

Grilled asparagus is the best spring and summer side dish! It’s tender, juicy, and lightly charred, and it cooks in minutes on the grill. Seasoned simply with olive oil, salt, pepper, and maybe a squeeze of lemon juice, it pairs perfectly with almost any meal. Below, you’ll find my easy method for cooking asparagus on the grill, along with my favorite ways to serve it. Even if you’re an asparagus skeptic, I hope you’ll try this recipe. My husband Jack used to claim he hated asparagus, but once he tried it grilled, he became a convert. Who knows? You might…

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Strawberry Spinach Salad

This strawberry spinach salad is filled with pecans, feta, and a tangy poppy seed dressing. Perfect for spring or summer, it's simple and fresh.

This strawberry spinach salad is perfect for spring and early summer. It starts with a base of fresh spinach—one of the first vegetables to appear at my farmers market each spring—and is topped off with juicy strawberries, crisp red onion, toasty pecans, and salty feta cheese. My sweet and tangy poppy seed dressing ties it all together. I think it’s fair to say that this combination is pretty classic (doesn’t Panera have a strawberry poppyseed salad on its menu?), but I still wanted to share this recipe because it’s so simple and fresh, with a wonderful pop of sweetness and color…

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Poppy Seed Dressing

This poppy seed dressing recipe is easy to make with 6 ingredients. Lightly creamy, sweet, and tangy, it's delicious on green salads, slaws, and more!

I can already tell that this poppy seed dressing is going to be the star of my spring and summer salad dressing rotation. It’s lightly creamy, sweet, and tangy, perfect for adding a pop of bright flavor to green salads, slaws, and more. I first started making it to use on my strawberry spinach salad, but once I had it in my fridge, I found that it went well on SO many different combinations of fruits and veggies. This poppy seed dressing is one to make on repeat. Like all my homemade salad dressings, this poppy seed dressing is easy…

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How to Make Hard Boiled Eggs

Learn how to make hard boiled eggs perfectly every time! With this easy method, they'll be easy to peel and have vibrant yellow yolks.

Here’s the good news: perfect hard boiled eggs are easy to make. …And the bad news: so are less-than-perfect ones. I don’t know about you, but I’ve certainly cooked my fair share of the latter. When you try to peel away the shell, half the whites come along with it, or when you cut it open, the yolk is slightly green instead of brilliant yellow. Pretty disappointing, if you ask me. See, cooking perfect hard boiled eggs is easy, but that doesn’t mean that the process you use doesn’t matter. After years of trial and error, I’m happy to say…

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25 Best Easter Brunch Ideas

I've rounded up my best Easter brunch ideas to help you plan the perfect menu! They include hearty egg dishes, spring salads, muffins, and more.

With Easter just a few weeks away, I’m busy planning my Easter brunch menu. If you are too, you’re in the right place! Below, I’ve rounded up my best Easter brunch ideas, including crowd-pleasing favorites like breakfast casserole, cinnamon rolls, and the perfect spring salad. You’ll find savory brunch recipes like quiche and breakfast potatoes as well as sweet ones like coffee cake (and carrot cake, which I think we can go ahead and call dessert). At the bottom of this post, I’ve also shared a sample Easter brunch menu. Try the whole thing (it won’t disappoint!) or use it…

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Eggs Benedict

This eggs Benedict recipe tastes like it's from a restaurant, but it's easy to make at home! My rich, creamy hollandaise sauce takes it over the top.

This eggs Benedict recipe is guaranteed to impress. It consists of crisp English muffins topped with perfectly poached eggs, creamy, dreamy homemade hollandaise sauce, and juicy tomato slices (instead of the traditional Canadian bacon). I love to make it when I host friends or family for brunch, because even though it tastes like something from a restaurant, it’s surprisingly simple to make. You can even do some of the prep ahead! You can find the complete recipe at the bottom of this post. Along the way, I’m sharing my best tips for how to make eggs Benedict as well as serving…

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Hollandaise Sauce

This classic hollandaise sauce recipe is easy to make in the blender! Rich, creamy, and tangy, it's delicious on eggs Benedict, vegetables, and more.

Have you ever made homemade hollandaise sauce? I won’t judge if you say no. This classic French sauce is an emulsion of egg yolks, melted butter, lemon juice, and cayenne pepper. For YEARS, it was something I only ate on eggs Benedict at brunch restaurants. It seemed way too fussy to make at home. But a while back, I wanted to serve eggs Benedict at a family brunch, and I decided to try my hand at making hollandaise sauce from scratch. Turns out, hollandaise sauce is actually easy to make in the blender (5 minutes! 6 ingredients!), and I’ve been…

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Easy Carrot Cake

This easy carrot cake recipe is one of our favorite desserts! It's wonderfully moist and warmly spiced. Tangy cream cheese frosting takes it over the top.

Jack declared this carrot cake recipe the best he’s ever tried. Coming from him, that’s high praise, because carrot cake is his favorite dessert of all time! I don’t disagree with him though. I think this carrot cake recipe is just about perfect! It has a wonderful moist crumb and warm depth of flavor from spices, vanilla, and brown sugar. This cake is chock-full of freshly grated carrots, and while it’s delicious plain, it really shines with a thick layer of tangy cream cheese frosting on top. This carrot cake recipe is easy to make with basic ingredients. It’s simple enough to…

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Roasted Asparagus

This oven roasted asparagus recipe is an easy, delicious spring side dish. The spears are tender, juicy, and flavorful. Ready in 15 minutes!

This roasted asparagus recipe is my favorite spring side dish. I love how the spears become tender, juicy, and lightly browned in the oven, with frizzled, crispy tips. I think they’re delicious straight off the baking sheet (I’ve been known to eat half a pan while putting the finishing touches on dinner…), but they’re even more flavorful with seasonings like Parmesan cheese, garlic, fresh herbs, or a squeeze of lemon juice. Another reason to love roasted asparagus? It’s so easy to make. It only bakes for about 15 minutes, meaning that you can throw it together on a weeknight or…

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Homemade Granola

There's a lot to love about this homemade granola recipe. It's easy to make, it's healthy, it's delicious, and it will make your kitchen smell amazing!

If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent hours in the granola aisle at the grocery store, trying to find just the right kind. You know the one—it has lots of fun mix-ins like nuts and dried fruit; it’s sweet, but not too sweet; it’s spiced with cinnamon; and it’s filled with big clusters of oats and nuts. …And if you’re anything like me, you’ve come to realize that it’s nearly impossible to find the perfect granola at the store. Enter: my homemade granola recipe! Instead of using white or brown sugar, I sweeten it naturally with maple syrup (honey works…

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Creamed Spinach

This creamed spinach recipe features tender spinach in a rich, creamy sauce. It's one of my family's favorite side dishes for holiday meals!

This creamed spinach recipe is the most luxurious way to eat your greens. Inspired by Jack’s mom’s famous creamed spinach (a staple at Thanksgiving, Easter, and other family gatherings), it’s ultra-creamy, rich, and cheesy. If you ask me, it’s just as good as any steakhouse creamed spinach…if not better. While many creamed spinach recipes call for frozen spinach, this one uses fresh. I love the silky texture of the whole, just-wilted leaves in the cream sauce. I think it makes this classic side dish feel a bit brighter and fresher. Make it for a holiday or a simple weeknight dinner.…

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A food blog with fresh, zesty recipes.
Photograph of Jeanine Donofrio and Jack Mathews in their kitchen

Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.

We love to eat, travel, cook, and eat some more! We create & photograph vegetarian recipes from our home in Chicago, while our shiba pups eat the kale stems that fall on the kitchen floor.