fast and easy

Steak With Miso Butter Sauce
fast and easy

Make New York Strip Steak Slicked With Miso Mustard Sauce

Perhaps it was an influential trip to farm camp as a youngster, or maybe it was out of sheer stubbornness, but I've only come around to eating red meat in the past few years.
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Perhaps it was an influential trip to farm camp as a youngster, or maybe it was out of sheer stubbornness, but I've only come around to eating red meat in the past few years.

It's easy to understand a deep-seated fear of cruciferous vegetables (I still can't stomach broccoli), gloppy (or velvety, depending on your perspective) mayonnaise, or pungent hard-boiled eggs, but steak-phobia is a tougher sell.

Even the most ardent carnivores will respect one's choice to eschew animal flesh, but I'm still perplexed by my avoidance of red meat (and red meat only). Thankfully I've since learned the err of my ways and have taken to juicy steaks, tender braised short ribs, and silky carpaccio with alarming intensity.

Keep reading for the mouth-watering recipe.

Honey-Baked Nectarines
recipes

Off the Bookshelf: Honey-Baked Nectarines

Perfectly ripe and juicy nectarines, peaches, and other stone fruit practically beg to be eaten by the bushel out of hand.
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Perfectly ripe and juicy nectarines, peaches, and other stone fruit practically beg to be eaten by the bushel out of hand. But when a bowl of still-firm fruit sits in my kitchen, the wait for them to hit their sweet spot can be agonizing. Enter What Katie Ate, an inspiring Australian food blog and now a gorgeous cookbook by the same name — with an elegant (and easy) solution.

Nectarines transform from tough and overly toothsome to sweet and succulent when halved, drizzled with honey, and baked in a hot oven until tender. This brief turn in the oven is truly all that's needed to boost their flavor, but a sprinkling of almond praline and vanilla crème fraiche makes for an extraspecial touch. Serve them as dessert, for brunch, or at any time of day really; just make sure you try them while these glorious gifts of nature are in season. Once you're done devouring your fill, take a gander at what else lies between the pages of Katie Quinn Davies's What Katie Ate — it'll be worth your while.

Get the must-make recipe.

Mochi Stuffed With Kale
Vegan

Mochi Stuffed With Sesame Greens Is Magical and Meatless

Until recently, I thought of mochi, a Japanese glutinous rice cake, as an ingredient best suited to dessert.
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Until recently, I thought of mochi, a Japanese glutinous rice cake, as an ingredient best suited to dessert. Whether served atop tart frozen yogurt or wrapped around green tea ice cream, this irresistibly chewy, slightly sweet ingredient seemed squarely in the realm of sweets. That is, until I started noticing slabs of the brown-rice version nestled up next to tofu, miso, and other Asian delights in my supermarket. Curious as to what to do with this mysterious ingredient, I snapped up a package and flipped through our office's collection of cookbooks until I found an enticing contender.

Firm and unyielding to pressure, the mochi remained mysterious until sliced into cubes (tip: use a sturdy, sharp chef's knife) and heated through. After a turn in the oven, the cubes puffed up as if by magic, their tender, chewy innards exposed between layers of crackly crust. Sliced open and stuffed with savory sesame-glazed vegetables, these puffy bites made for a satisfying dinner that I'll be turning to when looking for a fast and easy meal.

Experience mochi's magic for yourself.

Olive Garden's Lasagna Recipe
fast and easy

Get the Dish: Olive Garden Lasagna Classico

Ultra-comforting, and packed with layers of meat sauce, cheese, and tender noodles, Olive Garden's Lasagna Classico is one of their bestselling menu items (and for good reason).
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Ultra-comforting, and packed with layers of meat sauce, cheese, and tender noodles, Olive Garden's Lasagna Classico is one of their bestselling menu items (and for good reason). Learn how to make this surprisingly easy dish at home, and bring a taste of Italian-American fare to your table. Gooey, gratifying, and fit to feed a crowd, it's a must-make for large dinner parties — for extra ease make it ahead of time and reheat it — or to keep on hand for leftovers throughout the week. Watch the video to learn how to make it, and then get cooking.

Mediterranean Layered Dip | Video
recipes

Give 7-Layer Dip a Mediterranean Spin

Crowd-pleasing, easy to make (the components can even be prepped ahead of time), and full of bold flavors, this Mediterranean take on 7-layer dip is just the ticket for casual Summer entertainment.
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Crowd-pleasing, easy to make (the components can even be prepped ahead of time), and full of bold flavors, this Mediterranean take on 7-layer dip is just the ticket for casual Summer entertainment. Serve this hummus and pesto-based appetizer with pita chips or crudités and be prepared for it to be devoured with relish. Watch the video to see how it's done, then print out the recipe and get dipping.

Easy Taco Salad
recipes

Time to Party With a Zesty Taco Salad

Taco night is a rarity in my house.
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Taco night is a rarity in my house. For some reason, I just can't wrap my head around getting all the ingredients prepared and laying everything out for easy assembly. Fortunately, I found a way to get my fill of taco night flavors in a fast and easy (and healthy!) salad form.

My recipes tend to be inspired by beautiful produce, and when I got my hands on some stunning purple radishes, I knew they would be a crisp and refreshing component of this salad. Jalapeño, garlic, and cumin bring a lot of flavor to ground beef, and it takes just minutes to come together.

For this simple recipe, keep reading.

Easy Fava Bean Pasta Recipe
summer

Fast Fava Bean Pasta For All Summer Long

This spaghetti recipe highlights the fava bean, a veggie that requires a somewhat fussy preparation to shell and skin but is revered in the food world for its fresh, slightly nutty flavor.
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This spaghetti recipe highlights the fava bean, a veggie that requires a somewhat fussy preparation to shell and skin but is revered in the food world for its fresh, slightly nutty flavor. Plan to cook and shell the beans the night before to make this pasta a quick fix for family, friends, or yourself.

The simple ingredient list actually contains a complex range of flavors: saltiness of the pancetta; acidity from the wine, lemon, and tomatoes; and buttery flavor from the fava beans. Take a look at the recipe now.

Moroccan Cucumber Salad
recipes

A Crisp and Cool Cucumber Salad That Comes Together in Minutes

Thanks to its mild flavor, cucumber plays well with others — even pungent flavors.
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Thanks to its mild flavor, cucumber plays well with others — even pungent flavors. Salt, vinegar, hot peppers, and spices like dill and caraway likely first come to mind thanks to its popularity as a pickled vegetable, but it takes to sweeter ingredients with aplomb as well.

Cinnamon, citrus juice, and orange flower water seem like odd bedfellows for the crisp cuke, but if you add a generous dose of salt and let them mingle briefly, the resulting salad is exceptionally cool, refreshing, and a perfect pairing for any manner of spiced meat. Or, if you're like me, the dish is a satisfying snack in its own right; I devoured the entire bowl of salad in one sitting, bite after addictive, sweet, salty, floral bite.

Get the fast and easy recipe.

Scallop Recipe For Beginners
fast and easy

Simple Seared Scallops For Beginners

With a seared exterior and soft, tender interior, scallops have a mild flavor that complement a rich, buttery wine sauce.
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With a seared exterior and soft, tender interior, scallops have a mild flavor that complement a rich, buttery wine sauce. There are a few insider tricks to ensuring that scallops come out crispy on the outside yet tender on the inside. First, preheat the skillet, so it is nice and hot before adding the scallops. This speeds up the cooking time to create a sear rather than simply steaming the scallops.

Second, be sure to add salt and pepper the scallops only just before throwing them in the pan. Salt draws out the moisture, but the scallops will steam if salted and left out for too long. And last — but not least — as soon as the scallops hit the pan, do not touch them or move them around with tongs. When you're finished cooking the scallops, don't overlook the fond (crispy pieces stuck to the bottom of the pan). That's concentrated flavor right there, so don't throw it all away! Instead, I recommend deglazing the pan with wine to make a speedy sauce. In addition to boosting the flavor of sauces, deglazing a pan also reduces cleaning time. So stop furiously scrubbing your pans at the end of the night, and start deglazing!

This particular scallop recipe goes with just about any starch. Stir in whatever leftover herbs you have, spoon over extra sauce, and let the starch soak up the gloriously buttery, herby flavors. See the scallop recipe.

Chicken Breast With Goat Cheese
fast and easy

Fast and Easy Dinner: Chicken Breast With Goat Cheese and Basil

This recipe requires only a few ingredients, takes five minutes to put together, and cooks up in about about 40 minutes.
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This recipe requires only a few ingredients, takes five minutes to put together, and cooks up in about about 40 minutes. It's the definition of a fast and easy meal, and also incredibly satisfying and comforting without being heavy.

Chicken breasts with the bone in and skin on are actually cheaper than boneless, skinless breasts at the grocery store (there was a $2 difference at the store!), and this recipe actually requires the skin to hold in the goat cheese and basil. The result is a moist, tender piece of meat, packed with flavor. Even if you're not the biggest fan of goat cheese on its own, know that once it's been cooked with the basil and chicken, it takes on a whole new flavor.

For this super simple recipe, keep reading!