May is usually the month when your local CSA starts gearing up for the soon-to-come avalanche of summer bounty.  Whether you live in warmer climes and are in the throes of strawberries, peas, asparagus from your year-round box or you're just starting up again after having the winter off, it's an exciting time for fresh, local produce.  But it can be a challenging time, too, especially when unfamiliar or overly abundant vegetables show up.  Read on for a roundup of tips to help you manage your CSA experience.

When Cambria asked Faith and myself for some help coming up with a main course for her Spring Vegetarian Dinner Party for Six, at first we couldn't decide. Faith thought it should be creamy and green. Cambria wanted a vegetarian dish that wasn't just another platter of pasta. I advocated for something satisfying and hearty, but still light enough for a spring meal. The final vote was unanimous: a pureed soup of peppery spring watercress served with warm goat cheese dumplings. Done and done. This recipe is a winner.

Hello! Erin from The Forest Feast here, bringing you the second recipe in my series of Farmers Market Feasts for the month of May. There is a fantastic little seasonal farmers market that recently began down the road from me in the mountains. I try to go every week, and I've been getting to know the farmers, which is fun! This week I picked up some green garlic and fresh basil to make a creamy avocado pesto.

A few months ago we launched a new monthly series, Gatherings from The Kitchn, showing you the real-life parties we host in our homes, large and small. We started off with Faith's cozy Italian polenta party, followed by Anjali's charming book club brunch. This week I'll be sharing a spring dinner party I hosted in my small Brooklyn apartment. You'll read about my light, fresh vegetarian menu — centered around soup, not pasta! — the simple ways I arranged a few bouquets of store-bought flowers, and how I transformed my living room for the occasion with some clever rearranging and a few twinkling lights.

Are you in the mood for a sparkling spring dinner for six? Then come along to mine!

If you're feeling a little uninspired lately, you aren't alone — we call it the springtime slump. It seems to peak around dinnertime, when the contents of our fridges and pantries just look so...boring. Injecting a new recipe or two into the repertoire just doesn't seem to cut it. Instead, we're here with a whole week of weeknight-friendly dinner menus, with options for vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free eaters, too. Ready to shake up your weekly dinner rotation?

I grew up in a household of musical-lovers. My sisters and mother and I spent hours snuggled up under blankets on the couch, watching Singing in the Rain and Brigadoon and other classics. One of our favorites was a 1935 piece of sparkling fluff called Naughty Marietta, with Jeanette MacDonald as a French princess who flees an loathsome marriage — all the way to the New World, where she meets the handsome Nelson Eddy, a militia captain who of course falls for her bubble-headed charm. 

Where is this going, and what does it have to do with roasted vegetables? There is a punchline in Naughty Marietta we loved to quote, giggling, where the practical captain indignantly instructs the princess in disguise, who has no idea how to cook a meal: "You don't cook a radish, you eat it alive!" Sorry, dear Nelson — you could sing the moon out of the sky, but you didn't know too much about radishes. 

As I was spooning my way through a bowl of strawberry-rhubarb ice cream this past weekend, I got to thinking. Strawberry and rhubarb are old pals, of course, and rhubarb is definitely great all on its own — but there are so many late-summer fruits that totally miss out on the rhubarb party! Rhubarb-peach? Blackberry-rhubarb? I want these combos in my pie! The best solution is to start freezing.

Yesterday Emma and I shared a little peek into my new cookbook, Bakeless Sweets, and today I'm going to give you the goods: a recipe! I had a hard time choosing which one to share with you (Pistachio pudding? No-bake creme brûlée? Raspberry yogurt squares? Tiramisu?) but I settled on this tart lemon icebox cake for a very particular reason. 

Chiffonade is a very pretty word for the very simple process of slicing basil or any other delicate herb into very thin ribbons. The word sounds as light and airy as the spirals of basil themselves. A chiffonade of basil is also an easy way to add a bright touch of green — and the fresh taste of basil — to your spring and summer dishes. If this is technique is unfamiliar to you, this guide will take you through each step.

I love May when all the seasonal farmers markets start to open. For the next 4 weeks, I'll be visiting the markets weekly near where I live in Northern California and buy ingredients to make a simple, vegetarian dish to share with you. This week there were gorgeous rainbow carrots at the market, along with lemons from a neighboring table. A fresh veggie fettuccine was definitely on the menu.