Megan Gordon

Sorrel is one of my favorite spring and summer farmers market finds; I make sure to scoop up a couple bunches anytime I find it. But when I get home, even though this leafy green is no longer new to me, the same question always pop into my head: “What to make with sorrel?

It comes together in just 5 minutes.

Millet is an ancient seed, originally hailing from Africa and northern China, and it remains a staple in the diets of about a third of the world’s population. Rich in iron, B vitamins and calcium, millet has a mild corn flavor and is naturally gluten-free. Sure, on first glance you might be tempted to think that raw millet looks like birdseed.

I had a few realizations over the holidays this year with family. There were the usual suspects, of course: travel mayhem, gifting stress, and family drama. But this year there was a new player on the block: bad casseroles. I’m not sure if it was just chance or if my mom and sisters were digging through old late 1980’s cookbooks, but we had some very heavy, flavorless casseroles during the Christmas holiday.

In the summer I’m always planning meals around what produce is in season at the farmers market. Gone are the days of cheesy casseroles and braised meats or stews — summer’s all about celebrating fresh, colorful produce. And this salad does just that. I actually set out to make a cold succotash salad with sweet corn and lima beans and a nice, summery vinaigrette.

We all have holiday traditions we remember from growing up. When I think about my own, I think about my mom spending hours on Baked Alaska for my father’s company Christmas party each year. I think about stockings and lottery tickets on Christmas Eve and new pajamas. And I think about baked custards. In our house, baked custard wasn’t reserved just for the holidays.

Start the holiday off right.

In a matter of weeks, depending on where you live and if you’re having a particularly lucky moment, sour cherries will be making their debut at a farmers’ market near you. If you’re a pie baker, this is an exciting time of year because these little red beauties make exquisite summer pies. But really, there’s no need to restrict sour cherries to just pie! Sour cherries are a tart version of the plumper table cherries you’re used to seeing at the supermarket.

When in doubt, make coconut whipped cream.

I’ve long been a fan of Heidi Swanson’s natural food blog, 101 Cookbooks. Simply put: she cooks the way I cook at home so I’ve always related to her in that way. We also both currently call the Bay Area home and, apparently, love raw kale salads.I was a vegetarian for fifteen years and then, one day out of the blue, started selectively eating meat.

I fondly remember the days when Ben & Jerry’s made Coconut Almond Fudge ice cream by the pint — my parents would buy it and hide it towards the back of the freezer so we wouldn’t know it was there, but I’d always manage to tuck into it quietly and slowly so they wouldn’t notice. When Ben & Jerry’s discontinued it, I eventually discovered a natural foods brand made with coconut milk, but it just wasn’t quite as velvety and delicious.

We had a legitimate heat wave in Seattle last week — which, as you can probably guess, isn’t all that common. I didn’t feel much like cooking, and instead found myself reaching for simple salads, popsicles, and sparkling water — with a few scoops of ice cream thrown in for good measure. That’s how the idea for this recipe was born.

Many people tend to get excited about smoothies in the summer, when fresh berries and stone fruits are at their best. Not me. My blender usually gathers dust in the summer months (I never let those fresh berries sit long enough to make it into a smoothie), but in the winter, my body craves cool, creamy, fruit-laden drinks. And this smoothie in my current go-to. Smoothies don’t need much of an introduction. In general, they’re a dump-in-the-blender-and-blend kind of affair.

A simple puréed soup is something I turn to often. Lately, I’ve been relying on a lightly spiced cauliflower soup to tide be over between the richness of the holidays. The nice thing about this recipe is that it takes very little time to pull together. You simply cook down the onions and garlic with cauliflower, broth, and warm spices and ready your favorite toppings (I like crispy parsley, toasty cashews, and spicy red pepper flakes — all with a dash of olive oil).

We are well into the time of year when holiday cooking and baking is on everyone’s radar. Last year around this time I became so caught up in planning our holiday menus that I started to lose inspiration for simple, everyday fall cooking, and I’ve vowed not to let that happen this season. The good thing about this warmly-spiced, nutritious grain salad is that it fills both roles: everyday side (or main) dish as well as truly beautiful contender for the holiday table.

There are recipes that you make once in awhile. Then there are recipes you make because you’re inspired by a magazine or a blog. And then there are recipes that you developed through trial and error that you eat at least once a week. This is one of those — one of the good ones. I generally look right on past recipes for macaroni salad because they usually rely on huge spoonfuls of mayonnaise or another creamy dressing.

Hello, and welcome to the first recipe in my new column, But First, Breakfast! I’ve been thinking about the idea for this series for a long time, probably ever since I started touring to promote my breakfast cookbook, Whole Grain Mornings, and readers told me how much they longed for really simple weekday breakfast ideas. This series is about real-world, make-ahead breakfasts that you can actually fit into your busy, everyday life.

This recipe came about as many do: in an effort to clean out the fridge before a little getaway. We had a bit of ground turkey in the refrigerator, some leftover feta and ricotta, and some Italian parsley. I remember reading about lentil meatballs on Sprouted Kitchen months back and have been dying to add lentils to my meatballs ever since. So, here we are:the Mediterranean turkey meatball was born.

We are grasping for a little color around here in Seattle lately; spring can’t come soon enough. I know most of you are feeling the same way, and this salad of fennel, collards, sesame seeds and freekah was really born from a need for a fresh, bright, easy lunch that would allude to the fact that outdoor picnics are maybe — just maybe — not that far away.

When I’m working from home, hearty salads are a lunch staple. I don’t often allow myself enough time to make a full meal with meat or fish, but I also find cold sandwiches to get old and repetitive. What solves that old and repetitive problem? A colorful, fragrant, seasonal grain salad.

You know those recipes that makes beautiful lunches and feel like a special treat, but that actually don’t take all that long to make if you plan in advance? The ones that graduate to dinner in a snap, and then family and friends begin requesting it? This spring grain salad is just that — it combines hearty einkorn wheat berries with sweet mango, fresh cilantro and parsley, crisp sunflower sprouts, crunchy toasted pepitas and a creamy avocado dressing.

We are now at the height of tomato season, which means it’s a common occurrence in our house to make a simple meal of good crusty bread, tomatoes, and salty cheese. Maybe a few soft boiled eggs or some cold potato salad. I always look forward to this season of effortless cooking and impromptu meals that almost make themselves.

Right around this time of year, the early summer salad boredom sets in. Potato salad? Eh. Another green salad? Maybe later. So without fail in mid to late June, I start experimenting with different salad and dressing combinations to keep it interesting. Right now, this mixture of crisp napa cabbage, carrots and radishes mixed with a velvety peanut dressing is my absolute #1 go-to salad. This summer side dish is not quite coleslaw, and definitely not green salad.

This time of year in the Pacific Northwest, we can use all the color we can get. I know many of you live in regions that are quite dark too. It still astounds me to look up before 5:00 p.m. and feel it already growing dark. So I find myself really seeking color and brightness in other places — mainly food, as well as in bright rooms or nooks around our house. This wintery coleslaw has become a real mood booster, with its purples and oranges and reds.

I’ve recently moved from California to Seattle, Washington. And I’ve made many observations in these past few weeks, one of which is that the grey, wet rumor is true. According to everyone I speak to, it looks like soup and chili weather will stick around for quite some time. We were having friends over for dinner last weekend and sat down with some of our favorite cookbooks to decide what sounded fun to cook.

Summer brings us outdoors more and more. For most of us, that means occasional (or frequent) grilling and picnicking. While burgers and hot dogs are a given, for vegetarians or for folks just looking to mix it up this year, homemade veggie burgers are the way to go.I was a vegetarian for many, many years and for most of that I lived on those soy-based fake meat products in the grocery stores. While easy and tasty, they’re overly processed, a bit expensive, and often not that nutritious.

Thanksgiving is less than one week away! You’ve got your turkey taken care of, and mashed potatoes practically make themselves. But do you have a recipe for my very favorite holiday condiment: cranberry sauce? My family have always been pretty staunch cranberry relish people. We’re all about raw cranberries and orange rind just because it’s what our mom does and what her mom did. No one really questions it; no one would sing the praises of the relish either.

In our house, frittatas, the Italian egg dish that’s often made in a skillet, are usually reserved for a Sunday clean-out-the-fridge night. They’re simple to throw together, satisfying, and you can use almost any vegetable or cheese you have on hand. But lately, they’ve been making their way onto the breakfast table. Actually, to be truthful, I’ve been doing a portable version for busy weekday mornings.

There’s nothing I love more than a breakfast recipe that can double as lunch or dinner fare, and this super-herby, substantial frittata does just that. We do a lot of very simple cheese frittatas around here, but recently before a weekend camping trip, I thought about making one that had a bit more heft to take on the ferry for lunch. I sliced some potatoes, found a little log of goat cheese in the refrigerator, and cut up all the herbs we had on hand.

I have a friend here in Seattle who is starting his own rosewater company and I’ve learned quite a bit about what it takes to make the special, fragrant extract. It’s had me thinking about using it more and more in breakfast recipes like oatmeal, porridge and yogurts. And of course, the simplest of recipes: the seasonal smoothie. If you’re not familiar with rosewater, it’s used in sweet and savory cooking to infuse dishes with its delicate, sweet aroma.