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.

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.

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.

My favorite way to order a grilled cheese is with added onions. Sometimes it's a few slices of raw red onion, sometimes it's onions cooked on a flat top griddle before they're added to my sandwich. If it's on the menu, caramelized onions are a definite. Sweet, buttery, almost like an onion jam, they just melt into the cheese. Yum!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.