Serve these tacos with a big mound of lightly dressed greens or slaw.

This is one of my favorite simple, quick dinners. It's made from whole, healthy ingredients and comes together in a snap. The beans provide protein and fiber, and the sweet potatoes balance the earthiness of the beans and onions.

I usually leave the cheese off this one, but it would be delicious with some aged cheddar, crumbled cotija or even a smear of fresh goat cheese. Serve these tacos with a big mound of lightly dressed greens or slaw.

Look, I'm not going to do that annoying thing where I try to lead you to believe that these zucchini strands taste remotely like pasta. I'm not stupid, and neither are you, so let's just go ahead and acknowledge that we both know they obviously taste like zucchini.

That said, these just might be your new favorite summer side dish. They take just a few minutes to prepare, and are just as tasty hot as they are cold. Thin strips of zucchini soak up the flavorful olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper added to them, and a sprinkle of Feta cheese adds just enough pungent tang. They'd also be great with crumbled goat cheese, or even something drier, like cotija or Parmesan.

There are 2 ways to turn whole zukes into the thin ribbons pictured. You can cut them into a long julienne them by hand, or you can use a julienne peeler (my method of choice). 

See how easy? All you do is peel, and you're left with perfect, even vegetable ribbons. 

Serve the finished dish alongside burgers, sandwiches or sausages, or use as a low-carb base for meatballs (but be sure to assure your guests that you have absolutely NO intention of passing it off as spaghetti).

So, I've been sort of busy lately.

Between starting a new job and finishing a new cookbook, 100 Delicious, Unexpected Things to Make with Pizza Dough (which you should TOTALLY pre-order!), in the past few months, I haven't found much time to pay attention to what started it all: This. Here. You. 

But please don't think I forgot about you. I actually think about you all the time. Recipes I want to write for you, tips and tricks I want you to know about. But, I'm embarrassed to admit I haven't really been cooking a whole lot lately. My office brings food in during the day, and then by nighttime, I'm usually way too exhausted to cook anything worth posting here. I know. Lame.

But that's about to change because guess what? That second book? It just went off to the publisher, and will be in your hot little hands come November. It features 100 different things to do with my very favorite ingredient, pizza dough, and will have a hard cover and the most absolutely gorgeous photos I have ever seen, courtesy of photo-genius, Frankie Frankeny. Here it is--I'm stoked, to say the least.

But like I said, it's done now, and that means I have a little bit more time in my day to cook delicious things for you. 

So, like any good meal, I'm starting with soup. 

The secret to making the carrots in this soup smooth and creamy is simple: cook the bejeasus out of them. No need to strain them--just cook them way past when you think they're done. 

I like to serve this soup with crusty wholegrain bread and a crunchy green salad or slaw for a simple lunch. You could top it with a dollop of plain yogurt, or creme fraiche, but i like to add a drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil and a few grains of flaky sea salt for added luxuriousness. 

You may have clicked on this link, thinking I was referring to Marilyn Monroe. I'm not. But don't go away--this is even better.

Because I'm talking about an even MORE glamorous, even MORE mysterious, knock-out gorgeous lady. That's right, folks: I'm talking about my grandmother, Marilyn Moskowitz.

Full disclosure: I am pretty sure my grandmother never actually made kreplach (Eastern European dumplings, boiled or fried, filled with either meat or cheese). Traditional kreplach are pretty work-intensive, as you must mix, roll and cut the dough, and make the filling from scratch. Grandma's kitchen style tended toward the less-is-more school of thought, when it came to prep. Once, when I was about twelve years old, I watched her cover a lasagna with pre-shredded cheese. I had never seen bagged, shredded cheese before.

"How come you don't grate it yourself?" I inquired.

"Because, sweetheart, I have better things to do with my time than grate cheese," she answered, pinching my cheek. I saw her point: spending time with me was definitely more fun than grating a block of mozzarella.

Though my approach tends to be the opposite of hers (I'd rather do more work and spend less money), I've had Grandma on my mind recently, so I decided to take the Marilyn approach to homemade kreplach: fresh, simple filling made from cooked chicken, onions, garlic, parsley, dill, salt and pepper stuffed into eggy dumpling wrappers, rather than the traditional fresh, eggy, time-consuming noodle dough. I floated them in simple, seasoned chicken broth with a bit of sliced, wilted kale, and nobody suspected the meal was made from anything less than scratch. 

Wasn't she beautiful? My grandfather was a looker too.

The recipe is easy. First, you mix up the filling:

Then put a little on a dumpling wrapper:

Dab some water on the edges, then fold one side in like so, making sure to seal tightly:

Seal all the edges so it looks like this:

 

Make a bunch:

Cook them in chicken broth with sliced kale:

Ladle it up:

 

 

When I don't need the whole thing, there is no better chicken part for my money than whole legs.

This is one of those glorious one-pan meals. I usually add a green salad or a cooked vegetable, but it's not necessary. Served with a cold beer or a glass of Chardonnay, this is one of my favorite ways to end the day--and it's just enough for 2 (or 2 nights worth of dinner for 1).

When I don't need the whole thing, there is no better chicken part for my money than whole legs. Comprised of both the thigh and the drumstick, these tender, deeply flavorful chicken pieces work well in nearly every way--on the grill, cooked in mole, or roasted. They also feature a slightly higher fat content than chicken breasts, and therefore are ideal for cooking along with a root vegetable, as I've done here, since the extra bit of fat coats and flavors the dense veggies. I've used garnet yams here, but regular potatoes, peeled, cubed butternut squash, beets, turnips, or a combination would work nicely as well.

And the best part: one pan means fewer dishes!

Note: This isn't a requirement, but it's one of my favorite tricks: as soon as I open the package of chicken, the first thing I do is trim the excess fat. I saute it along with onions, garlic, ginger, Chinese Five Spice, fish sauce, a dash of soy sauce, water and whatever vegetable scraps I have laying around to make broth for pho. Even if I'm not planning on eating the pho the same day, it's a great, flavorful broth to have on hand, and it takes only a couple of minutes to get started. I let it simmer for a couple of hours, usually while I prepare and serve the chicken, and then simply strain, cool and refrigerate or freeze in an airtight container until I'm ready to use it.