Nick Evans

Memorize this surprising yet super-simple technique and you'll forever be rewarded with the crispiest skin and juiciest meat.

Summer is the perfect time of the year to cook with seasonal peppersstuffed mushroom sauté the peppers, stir them with cheese, pack the mixture into the mushrooms, sprinkle with panko breadcrumbs, and grill them for five minutes. The real debate with grilled stuffed mushrooms is whether or not you should chop up the stems and put them back in the mushrooms.

Cheddar- and jalapeño-flecked cornbread muffins are all too easy to love.

For me, there’s not much better than an ice-cold coffee on a hot summer day. One problem though: if you want to sweeten your coffee you only have a few options. Option one is to use sugar, which is hard to dissolve and can result in a pile of sugar gunk at the bottom of your glass. Option two is using a store-bought coffee syrup, but those tend to be cloyingly sweet and flavored with junk. The hidden third option is to make your own syrup at home.

I go back and forth on what I think is the most useful piece of equipment in my kitchen. My cast iron skillet is always high on the list, as is a good Dutch oven. But these days, as it gets colder, I think my slow cooker is definitely in the top spot. When you realize that you can make wonderful dishes like this vegan pumpkin curry while you are gone, it’s easy to see why the slow cooker is #1. See those lovely cubes of fresh pumpkin? That is seriously the hardest part of this recipe.

Maybe you’ve heard, but there’s a bit of a lime shortage happening these days, which is a real shame because this is the time of year that I love to use limes. Guacamoles, margaritas, and Tex-Mex all need loads of lime juice to work. …Or do they? In reality, any citrus can get the job done for a thing like guacamole. Bright and slightly sweet ruby red grapefruit juice is a welcome change to the basic guacamole and one that I think both you and your guests will love!

I went through a phase in my grilling education where I was convinced that you could cook almost anything in a foil packet. I’ve since moved on to other grilling obsessions, but potatoes have stayed firmly in their foil packets. Potatoes are quite possibly the perfect foil packet food, turning slightly crispy on the edges and tender on the inside. Adding a layer of melted cheese to these grilled potatoes near the end makes them irresistible!

While I love an afternoon snack of popcorn with just some butter and salt (and maybe a little Parmesan if I’m feeling frisky), this recipe is a completely different beast all together. This popcorn has big, crunchy clusters of dark chocolate, dried fruit, and pistachios. It will power you through an afternoon study session — and it works equally well as a party snack! Stick a bowl of this mix out on the table and watch it magically disappear.

Hey, did you know that butter makes everything better? Even pizza dough! In fact, folding a little butter into pizza dough is my favorite way to take any store-bought pizza dough to the next level — especially when I’m making a flaky, golden-crusted skillet pizza like this one for dinner. These days you can actually get pretty decent pizza dough at most grocery stores.

Snickerdoodles are such an underrated cookie. Sure, they aren’t laced with chocolate or other overly decadent ingredients, but they are a great all-purpose dessert. You can have them with tea or coffee, or just as a quick sweet snack. This pumpkin version is my favorite for this time of year. Mixing in some pumpkin puree gives the cookies a bit more moisture and also a great color. The pumpkin flavor is subtle, but noticeable.

There are two things that you frequently see in my kitchen if you happen to be over for dinner this time of year. The first thing is my cast iron skillet. I’m almost certainly using it for some part of the meal. The second thing is a big, sturdy round of cornbread. It’s great as a side with tons of fall meals, but I also just like snacking on the stuff!

I don’t know about you, but for my money, it’s hard to beat potato skins and jalapeño poppers when it comes to appetizers. So smashing them together in one layered, bite-sized appetizer just seems to make sense to me. Stuffed jalapeño poppers, and crispy potato skins? In one bite. One delicious bite. The starch from the potato and whipped, slightly sweet cream cheese calms most (most) of the heat from the roasted jalapeño peppers.

Whether they come from your grocery store, your garden, or your neighbor’s garden (if you’re lucky!), you will soon be overrun with zucchini. This time of year, zucchini are plentiful and that’s probably an understatement. These easy grilled zucchini boats stuffed with ground beef, cheddar cheese, and salsa are one of my favorite ways to burn through a big pile of summer zucchini.

Korean BBQ is such a fun meal out, especially if can find a place that has the individual grills in each table. You just pick out your proteins and vegetables, and then grill them over flames right at your own table! (I can’t imagine what those restaurants’ insurance bill must be.) My favorite dish is bulgogi — savory and slightly spicy grilled beef. The flavors are intense and completely addicting.

When I’m in a Tex-Mex mood, which is more often than I’d like to admit, I’ll frequently cook up a large batch of black beans. They are so versatile that it’s really hard to go wrong. They keep fantastically and it’s pretty easy to simmer a large pot of them and season them to your liking. How do I like to use these beans? One of my favorite meals is definitely these crunchy, cheesy pan-fried black bean tacos.