Southwestern Corn Salad

I got a little bit excited when I saw sweet corn in the grocery store. Yes, I get excited about a lot of different foods, but there's something extra exciting about seasonal produce. I tend to go a little overboard at farmer's markets and produce stands. How am I supposed to resist perfectly ripened produce? I think part of it is genetic (at least that's my excuse) since my dad has been known to buy a dozen avocados when it's just him and my mom at home. I'm not complaining though since my produce overloads generally lead to many kitchen experiments. This one, luckily, was a success.

I've been wanting to try out a chipotle-lime vinaigrette for a few weeks now. I researched a bunch of recipes and found one that seemed like it would be the best (with a few little tweaks of course). And what would go better with a chipotle-lime dressing than a grilled corn salad? Ok there's probably a lot of other great options, but this is what I came up with. It's the perfect side dish for any summer barbecue. You could even add some grilled chicken to the salad make it a light summer dinner.

For the salad I just combine a lot of my favorite Southwestern ingredients. You could omit or add anything you want to this salad and it would still be great since it's the vinaigrette that really makes it amazing. It has chipotle peppers in it, but the sugar takes away that really spicy flavor and leaves you with all the delicious chipotle and lime flavors. If you're planning on throwing some steak or burgers on the grill anytime soon, don't forget to make this salad as well.

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Indian Cilantro Chicken (Dhaniya Murgh)

Indian food used to intimidate me. I thought every dish would be made up of lots of spices I'd never heard of and ingredients that would be hard to find. Luckily, I was wrong. Very, very wrong. This chicken was one of the first Indian dishes I ever made and it continues to be a favorite. It's easy to make and is so flavorful. I never thought Indian food could be easy, but some of it is.

Serve this over some rice, preferably basmati or cardamom cilantro rice, along with cucumber raita on the side and you have yourself a very satisfying dinner. It tastes like you went to a gourmet Indian restaurant, but it only takes you 40 to 45 minutes. Make your rice and raita while the chicken is simmer and everything will be ready around the same time. This also re-heats really well, so don't worry if you have leftovers.

The kitchen has been smelling like spices for 45 minutes and I want to dig in. I have a one track mind when it comes to food, so I will leave you with this amazing recipe. Just take my word on this one and try it out! It's not what I call spicy, but it has a tiny kick to it. If that's not your thing, just reduce the crushed red pepper flakes by half.
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Lemon Curd Pecan Bars

Have you ever been told about a recipe that a friend or family member cannot stop raving about? When my mom first had these lemon bars, she sent the recipe to my sister and I. All the email said was, "These are the best lemon squares." I instantly knew these lemon bars must be worth baking, and they needed to be baked soon.

With Passover coming up on Monday night, the Passover friendly dessert recipe experiments began in the past week or two. There were many average and pretty awful recipes I tried out (let's say my baking and dessert making with coconut milk is going to be on pause for a while).  Luckily, there are things like Passover cake meal that make some forms of baking possible and still really good.

This recipe does not taste like a stereotypical Passover dessert, which would be bad if it did. I'm listing both the standard ingredients and the Passover variations, so you can make this all year round and for pretty much any occasion. This is a really easy dessert if you use store bought lemon curd, which is what I did. I also use my hands and avoid things like pastry blenders. With this change, anyone can make this recipe, whether you own kitchen gadgets or not. If you only have whole pecans and aren't sure how to chop them, put them in a Ziploc bag and smash them with a rolling pin. I also used a round spring form since I didn't have a 9"x9" baking pan. Either option works fine, they just result in different shaped lemon bars (slices vs. squares vs. rectangles).

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Scalloped Tomatoes

One of my favorite signs that winter is over is that tomatoes start to look good and taste homegrown. There's nothing better than cutting into a tomato and it actually has red flesh and tastes great on its own. Somehow, in a jumble of trips to the grocery store, I realized there was a surplus of tomatoes in the house. I looked around for a tomato based recipe for a while, but kept coming back to this one. The ingredients are pretty simple and didn't require yet another adventure to the market (you have to realize that I'm incapable of buying only things on my shopping lists. Impulsive food shopping is my weakness).

Even though this recipe calls for bread for a French boule, I used challah and it was still delicious. I'm guessing almost any French bread would do, but because I used challah (which has a soft crust) I didn't remove the crust. The flavor in this recipe is similar to a warm bruschetta, so you really don't want to slack off and use unripe or canned tomatoes. This recipe is really summer friendly, even though it's baked, and would be an awesome side dish for most meals.

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Blueberry Pound Cake

I bought some blueberries the other day, only to realize that they were not nearly sweet enough and weren't at all enjoyable as a snack. I hate when this happens with produce, but luckily there are recipes that can handle the less than perfect fruits and veggies. This pound cake recipe is one my mom has been making for years. The first time I ever had it, my mother's friend had made some and my mom brought home leftovers. It was an instant hit with everyone in my family and it's been in my mom's recipe binder ever since. And having recently bought some adorable mini cake forms, I quickly started whisking the ingredients together.

This recipe comes from a 1998 edition of Cooking Light magazine and asks for some low-fat ingredients. Half the time I use full fat ingredients since I'm not the biggest fan of things like light butter. I also just throw in whole eggs since I find it wasteful to throw out half an egg just to be healthy (and let's be honest, that egg yolk is the least of you worries when it comes to baking). But I also know this recipe tastes good either way. You can use fresh or frozen blueberries, but keep in mind that the frozen ones can end up coloring your entire cake a blueish color.

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