The Everyday Cafe

This week, Rick attends law school orientation and I am busy writing chapter 10 while starting a phat new consulting job. It’s hot outside and produce is plentiful, even if not in my backyard. So we’re doing lots of grilling and veggie action:

Grilled Tomato Linguine from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast, the cookbook that goes with Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food magazine. I didn’t grow any tomatoes this year, but I will next year — Rick built me some raised beds in the backyard, complete with drip irrigation.

Greek-style Mini Lamb Burgers with Pitas and Tzatziki, yet another from Great Food Fast. Think gyros-style sandwiches but grilled. Tzatziki is a cucumber-yogurt sauce flavored with fresh mint.

Zucchini Stuffed with Garlic and Herbs from The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook. That’s one of my favorite cookbooks, vegetarian or not. Beautiful recipes, beautiful pictures.

Italian Sausage and Spinach Scramble from The Dinner Doctor. My husband isn’t a huge egg-lover, but he does like sausage and spinach, so that might tip this recipe into a thumbs-up category for him. I’m actually using Italian-seasoned ground turkey instead of sausage, because it was on sale at King Soopers this week.

Caramelized onion and garlic tart from The Dinner Doctor. Generally, I think Anne Byrn should stick to desserts (she’s The Cake Mix Doctor). But I do like her mushroom tart that uses canned crescent rolls for a crust, as does Rick, and this tart uses the same crust. The mushroom tart crust often comes out soggy but this recipe bakes the crust beforehand, which may solve that problem.

Braised Chicken with Mushrooms and Oven-Baked Polenta, also from Great Food Fast. Yes, I know that sounds more like fall than summer, but it just sounded good. Plus I have some leftover fresh thyme.