Ever try something that is so perfectly ready for adaptation that you instantly begin dreaming of ways to make it better?  A chocolate chip cookie leads you to a dark chocolate cherry cookie.  Or a piece of pumpkin pie leads you to spiced sweet potato pie.  Well, that was my experience with zucchini boats.  So versatile.  So healthy.  So easy.  So many possibilities!

Zucchini makes a perfect vessel for a variety of fillings.  The insides of the zucchini are easy to scoop out, leaving a sturdy shell that is just asking to be heaped full of delicious goodness.  Choose from an Italian filling with tomato sauce, peppers and topped with mozzarella cheese or a Southwestern filling with black beans, green chilies and topped with cheddar cheese (and sour cream!).  With all these flavor combos, you will never again be screaming “What can I do with all this zucchini?!?!”

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Meet my new favorite side dish.  In case I haven’t mentioned it lately, I’ve been a little short on time these days.  An elaborate side dish that requires lots of dicing and chopping and stewing is beyond my realm of thinking at the moment.  Give me something fast, deliciously creamy and oh, can it please be relatively healthy too?  Awesome.

A simple side dish that is packed with protein, fiber and happens to be incredibly flavorful, this will quickly become a staple in your recipe arsenal.  The sauteed garlic and rosemary paired with the smooth, creamy white beans create a dish that will rival plain ol’ mashed potatoes any day.  I hate to say it, but this may be the mistress that breaks up the eternal marriage of Steak and Potatoes! Gasp! Oh, the horror!

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You will never guess the secret ingredient in this moist, fudgy, not-quite sinful chocolate brownie cake.  Never.  Besides, when I tell you what the secret ingredient is you probably wont believe me.  At least my lovely family that got to eat this cake didn’t believe me.  It wasn’t until after a few “Really?” “No way!” “Seriously?”s that it began to sink in.

Except, of course, for the birthday girl.  When you have an extraordinary cousin who is probably one of the coolest people around and you are lucky enough to call her family, you relish the opportunity to bake her a birthday cake and help her eat it on her birthday.  Now, what of the fact that she is a recycling vegetarian, sustainable-living, slow-food loving, farm friendly girl who knows her way around all corners of the food growing world? Clearly, bacon cupcakes were out of the question.  Did I mention that she was the only one who could guess the secret ingredient after just one bite?  Yep.  I told you, she’s awesome.

Lest this challenge seem easy, let’s not forget that her birthday also happened to fall on Passover this year thus removing the possibility of using leavening, flour or any variety of other baking staples.  An extraordinary challenge for an extraordinary girl … to that I say: Bring it!

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Having never worked with leeks, I was always so intrigued to hear them described as “creamy” on cooking shows (ok, mostly Top Chef).  How can an over-sized scallion be creamy?  It seems counter intuitive, against nature, and frankly, unbelievable.  Thoroughly intrigued nonetheless, I began inspecting leek recipes for one to sufficiently spark my interest.  As someone who doesn’t eat a lot of cream-based soups, the idea of using this allegedly creamy vegetable to achieve a smooth soup base was very appealing.  Plus, I’ve been dying to try out the new immersion blender my boyfriend just bought me!

The most common pairing I came across was leeks and potatoes.  I generally try to avoid potatoes (they aren’t South Beach friendly!) and I wasn’t happy at the idea of wasting these creamy leeks in a mess of pureed potatoes.  After reviewing a couple different leek soup recipes, I decided to venture out on my own.  The resulting creating is a hybrid of a couple different recipes, with my own added twist.  I’m proud to report that the result was utterly delicious!!

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After relocating from Southern California to a much colder climate a few years ago, every winter when the temperature would dip below my comfort level I would find myself developing the most inexplicable craving for chili.  Despite having attended several chili cook-offs during my childhood (yes, I am actually admitting to that), I never developed much of a taste for chili.  It was either too spicy, too bland, too meaty, too tomato-y.  Now, I’m a fan of tomatoes, meat, spices and beans but it was always too something and I was never happy with the result.  Plus, it inevitably called for hours of cooking and loads of specialty ingredients which felt horribly wasted when the result was such a let down.

These predicable disappointments aside, every winter I would bravely ventured into chili recipe territory in the hopes that some new recipe would set my chili streak straight and each year I was again sorely disappointed . . . until this year.  I came across this gorgeous photo at Smitten Kitchen and was suddenly optimistic that this might be the chili recipe to cure my years of bad chili luck.  When my boyfriend informed me that he is a major chili fan, that was all the encouragement I needed.

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