Blistered Shishito Peppers

Looking for a fun summer appetizer or snack? Make these blistered shishito peppers! Tender, charred, and occasionally spicy, they're always a hit.

This blistered shishito peppers recipe is the simplest summer appetizer. It relies on just 3 main ingredients—shishito peppers, salt, and oil—but it’s still flavorful, satisfying, and totally addictive. You might think you’re going to eat one pepper, maybe two, but before you know it, you’ll have devoured half the pan! Um…yes, I’m speaking from experience. If you’re not familiar with shishito peppers, they’re small, thin-walled peppers that are traditionally used in Japanese and Korean cooking. These days, you can often find them at farmers markets and at major grocery stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. Most of the time, shishitos…

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Easy Peach Cobbler

This easy peach cobbler recipe is one of my favorite summer desserts! It has a fresh peach filling and a buttery, from-scratch biscuit topping. Delicious!

Peach lovers, this easy peach cobbler recipe is for you! It features a buttery biscuit topping over tons of sweet, juicy peaches. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and you have a perfect summer dessert. If you’ve been following for a while, you know that peaches are one of my favorite parts of summer. I add them to salads, serve them with cheese, top them onto pizza, and, of course, devour them plain. But nothing beats using them in this homemade peach cobbler. The peaches become juicy and jammy in the oven, almost creating a sauce for the biscuits and ice cream. It’s…

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Air Fryer Zucchini

This air fryer zucchini is tender and flavorful, tossed in a delicious garlic and herb seasoning. Ready in 10 minutes, it's a perfect weeknight side dish!

This air fryer zucchini recipe is a quick and easy side dish for busy weeknights. It cooks in about 10 minutes and requires just 6 basic ingredients, but it still comes out tender, caramelized, and flavorful every time. I think of it as my summer shortcut for making roasted zucchini. Unlike the oven, the air fryer won’t heat up your entire house, which makes this recipe a lifesaver in hot weather. It’s also faster (no preheating required!), and with a four-year-old running around, I can’t complain about saving a few minutes in the kitchen. 🙂 If you have an air…

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No-Bake Protein Balls

This no-bake protein balls recipe is one of my favorite healthy snacks! It's easy to make with simple ingredients like peanut butter, oats, and flax.

When I need an afternoon energy boost, these protein balls are the perfect bite-size snack! Made with peanut butter, honey, and mini chocolate chips, they’re lightly sweet, nutty, and delicious. They’re super satisfying too—oats and ground flaxseed add plenty of fiber, and a couple scoops of protein powder give them a nice protein bump. They’re similar to the energy balls I’ve shared in the past, but with one key difference: you don’t need a food processor to make them. You can just stir together the ingredients in a bowl before shaping the mixture into balls. So easy! I always get requests for…

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Pasta Puttanesca

This pasta puttanesca recipe stars a flavorful tomato sauce packed with garlic, olives, and capers. Perfect for weeknights, it's ready in 30 minutes!

Pasta puttanesca is a perfect example of what I love about Italian cooking. This Southern Italian dish features a garlicky tomato sauce spiked with briny olives, capers, and anchovies. It requires simple ingredients and minimal prep, but it still delivers rich, bold flavor. I shared a puttanesca recipe with zucchini noodles in Love & Lemons Every Day, but since this classic pasta is one of my weeknight favorites, I thought it was about time I shared a more traditional recipe too. It calls for 10 ingredients, cooks in under 30 minutes, and is absolutely delicious. I hope you love it as…

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Homemade Salsa

Break out the tortilla chips! This homemade salsa recipe is zesty, fresh, and super easy to make. Enjoy it as a dip, or pile it onto tacos, nachos, and more.

If I learned one thing from living in Austin, it’s that homemade salsa is infinitely better than any kind in a jar. I loved sampling salsas at restaurants and taco trucks. Each one was different—some were made with roasted ingredients, others got a smoky, spicy kick from dried chiles, and still others were nice and fresh. This variety inspired me to start experimenting with making homemade salsa. I might pull out dried chiles in the winter, when good tomatoes are hard to find, or roast tomatillos if I see them at the farmers market. But on hot summer days, this…

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Corn Salsa

This corn salsa recipe is easy to make with fresh corn, peppers, cilantro, and lime. Zesty, sweet, and spicy, it's delicious on tacos, burritos, and more!

This corn salsa recipe is full of fresh summer flavor! Sweet, juicy corn kernels play off crisp bell peppers and red onion, spicy jalapeños, cilantro, and zesty lime. I love to serve it as a summer appetizer with tortilla chips, and it’s also great on burrito bowls, taco salads, and more. Think Chipotle’s corn salsa, but better. Like many of my favorite summer recipes, this corn salsa is easy to make. Simply dice up the veggies, chop the corn kernels off the cob, and stir everything together. If you’re doing the math, that means that I use raw corn in…

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30 Best Summer Vegetable Recipes

These summer vegetable recipes star veggies like corn, tomatoes, eggplant, and zucchini. Try one to make the most of the season's best produce!

These summer vegetable recipes are my unofficial summer cooking bucket list. They’re the dishes I come back to every July and August, when zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, corn, and more are in full swing and I want to make the most of them. If you’re looking for ways to use your latest farmers market haul or garden bounty, I think you’ll love these summer vegetable recipes too. Most of them are super simple—think quick sautés and salads you can throw together on a weeknight. A few are a little more involved (looking at you, tomato galette), but I think they’re well…

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Affogato

An affogato is an Italian dessert made with two simple ingredients: hot espresso and cold gelato. It's the perfect easy, delicious treat for a hot day!

Let’s make an affogato! This classic Italian dessert is a delicious marriage of two simple ingredients: espresso and gelato or ice cream. You barely need a recipe to make one (it’s as easy as pouring hot espresso over cold ice cream). But because I think an affogato is the best way to enjoy coffee on a hot day, I couldn’t resist sharing this simple affogato recipe—my preferred ratios and variations included. I hope you’ll take it as an invitation to enjoy this delightful Italian treat for the rest of the summer, no trip to Italy required! How to Make an Affogato…

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Air Fryer Corn on the Cob

Air fryer corn on the cob is the fastest, easiest way to cook corn! It's ready in minutes, and it comes out tender, juicy, and flavorful every time.

Air fryer corn on the cob has been a total game changer for me. It’s the quickest, easiest way I know to cook corn on the cob! This recipe takes just 10 minutes from start to finish, and it yields perfectly cooked, tender sweet corn. Bonus: it doesn’t heat up your kitchen in the process. I won’t lie—I still make boiled corn on the cob and grilled corn on the cob for summer cookouts and BBQs. But when I want to make a small batch in as little time as possible, this air fryer method can’t be beat. It’s perfect…

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Cucumber Tomato Salad

This cucumber tomato salad is a refreshing summer side dish! A tangy vinaigrette brightens juicy tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, onions, and herbs.

This cucumber tomato salad recipe is the simplest summer side dish! Making it is as easy as tossing sliced cucumbers, juicy tomatoes, crisp onions, and herbs with a tangy 5-ingredient dressing. I make some version of it every week in the summer, changing up the herbs to use what looks best in my garden or tossing in fun add-ins like avocado or cheese. Bright and refreshing, it pairs well with almost any meal, from fresh summer pastas to veggie burgers off the grill. Whether you make it as written or make it your own, this recipe is a great one…

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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.