I can be a bit of a dessert purist, often reaching for fresh fruit desserts or good, dark chocolate rather than an over-the-top confection. But when I hear the words gin icing and gin glaze in connection with a warm lemon-lime cake, things change pretty quickly.

Something happens when you’re sick for many days. You lose your appetite, you watch a few bad movies, you entertain thoughts that you may never be well again. And then one morning, like magic, you wake up and have an appetite. The first thing that sounds delicious: a banana milkshake! This is a true story.

The days when you allow the farmers market to dictate what you make for dinner are kind of awesome days. To be quite honest, they’ve become rarer and rarer around our house as we’ve become busier during the weekends. But there’s something quite sweet about ambling around the market and chatting about what you could make with certain ingredients. This weekend, we had time to visit our local farmers market and found some beautiful looking sorrel, leeks, and farm eggs.

For anyone who’s made your own hummus, you know how easy it is. And if you’re like me, you feel silly for not having done it earlier, and excited by all of the ways to customize the dip to your liking. (More garlic and red chile flakes, please!) The nice thing about bean dips is the simplicity: for the most part, you throw a handful of ingredients in a food processor and call it a day.Sometimes when you’re rushing around preparing for a party, that alone can feel like a lot.

We had a housewarming party last weekend, and decided to start the party at 8 p.m. Lots of drinks were on the menu, and you know what happens when folks stay late and drink: they want to eat. So while we weren’t serving dinner, we knew we’d need to have a bunch of heavier snacks to sustain everyone through the night.Surprisingly, we had far more fun planning the food for this snack-heavy party than we have with many of our smaller dinner parties.

Pie It Forward by Gesine Bullock-Prado is a pretty, educational, and thorough collection of pie recipes and baking tips. Bullock-Prado owns the Vermont Pastry shop Gesine Confectionary and felt it was time to write a solid, complete pie book using many of the recipes she’s become known for in the shop.Now I bake a lot of pies, and I have to admit that I was struck by how much I learned after just a few minutes flipping through Pie It Forward.

I’ve discovered muesli. If you’re not familiar with muesli, it contains many of the same ingredients as granola, but instead of adding sweeteners and oil, you toast the ingredients as they are. No oil. Only as much honey or maple syrup as you’d like to serve it with. It’s certainly drier than granola and won’t have that characteristic clumping or crunch that some people love.

Some days you just have to go all out. Maybe you have soft cheeses and crackers before dinner, open a bottle of good wine, make spaghetti and meatballs and then decide that garlic bread is also important. When you can’t stop thinking about garlic bread, this is the recipe for you.There are two important things to remember when making garlic bread. First, use a good baguette that you like. I’m not a fan of using squishy white sandwich bread.

I realize that much of the country is experiencing a heat wave right now and the last thing you want to do is spend a great deal of time in your kitchen. But I also realize that summer squash and zucchinis are running rampant and it’s tough to think of creative ways to use them before you can give them all away or they start to go bad on your counter-top. So here’s a quick, oven’s-only-on-for-twenty-minutes soup that you’ll appreciate having around for a few days.

Eggplant can get a bad rap. Some people find it mushy while others may find it stringy or even tasteless. But if it’s prepared well, eggplant can be an extremely satisfying meat substitute and, when joined with a few tomatoes and fresh herbs, the perfect summer meal. I like this recipe a lot because it doesn’t try and dress up the eggplant with too much oil or gobs of cheese.

Right around this time every year, I start thinking of recipes I can make for my extended family when we’re all together over the July 4th holiday. Pies are always a given; cookies are always a must. So this year, I thought it would be fun to bake up some nostalgic favorites that the adults would fondly remember and the kids would just love because, hey, it’s a sandwich cookie.So where did I turn? Brandi Henderson’s lovely blog: I Made That.

This past weekend in San Francisco, the weather forecast was a bold one. Each news station insisted snow was on its way. People dug out their winter coats. Kids prepared for snow-man marathons. And I made a very fine casserole&mdash one with healthy whole-wheat pasta, Swiss chard, and goat cheese. It was definitely a casserole occasion as it hasn’t snowed in San Francisco since the 1970’s.

After the sugar-rush that is the holidays, I always find myself turning to substantial salads and homey soups for a change. And today I’m thrilled to share with you a recent favorite I’ve added to my arsenal of “best ever” soup recipes.This past fall, Emma posted a recipe review from the blog Orangette written by Molly Wizenberg. The recipe was for a Red Lentil Soup with Lemon, and boy it’s a stunner.