When confronted with these beauties at the local farmers market, what would you do with them?

Growing up, I never liked beets. I think that's true of a lot of people because we were used to bad canned beets. The best way to enjoy beets is to buy them fresh, roast them simply in the oven, peel them and serve them with just a little olive oil and sea salt. When I started reading Sunday Suppers at Lucques by Suzanne Goin, it inspired me to cook beets this way and I've loved them ever since.

So many people are looking for cherry ice cream recipes right now, I thought I would go ahead and share this wonderful version of the usual cherry ice cream we make. The combination of chocolate and cherries together is delicious. I paired this with a homemade cherry pie and thought I would go ahead and include that recipe for those of you who might want a good pie recipe. You can make any kind of berry pie with this recipe - blueberries, raspberries, huckleberries, or blackberries.

It has become a summer tradition for us to make a trek to the Pacific Northwest. For three years we have gone to Seattle, as you may have read in this post from last year and we absolutely love that area. This year, however, we decided to finally check out Oregon. We had heard and read about the great food and wine culture there and the beautiful coast. And boy, did Oregon deliver.

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

For this month's Daring Bakers Challenge, I was excited to see that we could make Milan cookies. I guess everyone is familiar with the classic Pepperidge Farm line of Milano Cookies, so these were fun to make using Gale Gand's recipe. The cookies are light and lemony with a layer of orange flavored chocolate sandwiched in between two cookies. Since the cookies have a lemon flavor to them, I thought a lemon ice cream would be nice to serve alongside. If you wanted something even lighter, you could serve the cookies with a lemon sorbet using the recipe from this post. Remember when making your ice cream or sorbet, it is so easy - make the mixture in the morning, stick it in the fridge to get well chilled and when you're ready for ice cream, it only takes about 20-25 minutes in your ice cream maker.

People really want zucchini recipes right now, and I'm glad to give them one. In the summer, we're all thinking of ways to use up zucchini but not keep making the same old boring zucchini bread over and over. So here are some ideas to help you consume all that zucchini.

If any of you have read the wonderful book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, you know how she writes about finding ways to use their out of control zucchini from their garden. She and her daughter provided some great recipes, including one for really good zucchini chocolate chip cookies and a great zucchini orzo. If you don't have the book, you can find those recipes here on their website.

When Brian and I took the boys to Italy, we wanted to eat lunch at a place near the Vatican that a lot of these Italian travelers recommended. It was a lunch we never forgot. We still talk about it and laugh. The place is Dino and Tony's and it is run by two brothers - Dino out front and Tony in the kitchen, neither of whom speak English. When we arrived for lunch, we were not offered menus at all. Dino told us he was going to bring out special antipasti for us and then asked if we like pasta. Well, sure, we said. Before we knew what was happening, he disappeared into the kitchen and then brought out two pizzas, a platter of prosciutto and salami, a platter of grilled vegetables, a platter of potato croquettes, fried olives stuffed with meat and a bottle of Chianti. This was just the antipasti! Then he delivered large bowls of radicchio risotto. "Where is the pasta?" I asked him. "After the risotto," he said. I knew we were in trouble. The risotto was so good, I couldn't believe it. Then the pasta came - Rigatoni Amatraciana. Delicious and perfectly cooked. Dino came to our table again and announced "Dolci!" and presented us with an assortment of desserts and dessert wine. We were all groaning.

When  you need a dessert for a lot of people, this is it.  This beautiful pie is baked in a rimmed sheet pan and serves at least 12 people.  It's perfect for the Fourth of July because cherries are in season right now.  If you have even more people to feed,you can even make two pies - one with cherries and one with blueberries for a real Fourth of July look.  

There are many ways to make garlic bread and I certainly make it different ways.  But this way is by far my favorite.  In Italy, to celebrate the first olive oil of the season, they make this simple fettunta - or "greased slice".   It's simply grilled bread, rubbed with a garlic clove, drizzled with the best olive oil you have, and then sprinkled with coarse sea salt.  You won't believe how great it is.  There is a very unique taste you get if you use a raw garlic clove on a slice of fresh bread.  If you want, you can add a topping to make bruschetta, but this is my favorite way to make garlic bread to accompany dinner.  Many times I buy a whole grain or multi grain loaf to make this with and it's delicious.  As always, with simple recipes with few ingredients you need to use the best ingredients you can - a good, fruity extra virgin olive oil and some outstanding sea salt.*

Panna Cotta is one of those great desserts that you can make ahead of time.  It's so quick and easy and can be served in any pretty glass.  When I make this recipe, I always have some mixture left over and I pour the extra into small ramekins.  You can also pour this into coffee cups or espresso cups for a really fun presentation.

Panna Cotta means "cooked cream" in Italian and is a very adaptable recipe and  can be flavored with just about anything.  If you want to leave out the cocoa powder from this recipe, you can add some vanilla bean and have vanilla panna cotta.  Or add a touch of honey or a little pureed blueberries.  You really can flavor it any way you like.  

In Italy, digestivos are commonly drunk after the meal and when we were in Sicily, we certainly had our share of Averna after meals. But this digestive is drunk in the Venetian region of Italy and is bright, fresh and clean. A sgroppino is made by whipping together Italian Prosecco, lemon sorbet and vodka. Sgroppino means "to untie" as in, to "untie your stomach" after a meal. So you have a great excuse to make these after dinner! But hey, these are so refreshing we drink them on a hot summer day before dinner.

The last time we were in Napa Valley, I drove by Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery and I couldn't believe the line outside the door.  But that makes sense because anything that Thomas Keller does is going to be wildly popular.  Thomas Keller loves to put his own modern spin on old cookie classics, like the Oreo cookie and this one - the Nutter Butter. 

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that every Tuesday night in our household is pizza night.  I love that because I never have to think about what to make that night.  I just get the dough going sometime in the afternoon.  I let it proof and then I punch it down, break it up into individual dough balls and then let those rise.  We all fix our own personal size pizza.  I usually fix a vegetarian pizza and if I have some good quality anchovies, I will pop those on, too.  But sometimes I want a little variety and that is the time to make a "Pizza Quattro Stagioni".  This means "four seasons" in Italian and you simply divide the pizza up into four sections. It's traditionally made with artichokes, mozzarella, tomato sauce, ham and olives, but you can play around with it and make it with any combination you like.  

This is the beginning of fava bean season and many people are not sure how to prepare this spring vegetable.  They are becoming increasingly popular and you can find them at farmer's markets and even some grocery stores.  Some people call them broad beans, but most likely they will be labeled as fava beans.  These beans are very popular in Italy and many Italians like to eat them in the most simple manner - young favas, peeled and raw with a slice of pecorino. The flavor combination is perfect.

Now that it's asparagus season, it's time to break out every great asparagus recipe and enjoy the freshest asparagus you can get. For me, there is a farm right across the street from our subdivision that grows and sells asparagus, freshly picked. On Saturdays here, the farmer's market has loads of fresh asparagus. This frittata is one of the easiest things you can make and it not only makes a nice breakfast, but a great light lunch, too. I use fresh eggs from a local farm that come in a range of beautiful colors.

Although we certainly are carnivores in my family, I love to eat meatless meals and try to eat about three dinners a week without any meat.  For those interested in the health and environmental benefits of eating less meat, you can read books  by Mark Bittman and Michael Pollan, who both still enjoy an occasional steak.  On our weekly pizza night, I always fix a vegetarian pizza for myself (with maybe some good anchovies).  I try to fix at least one or two seafood/fish dinners a week and I love to make meatless pasta dishes. But one of the best meals you can fix for dinner involves that super food: beans. It's a high quality protein that is very cheap with no animal fat and lots of fiber. I get my beans these days mostly from Rancho Gordo, that wonderful farm out in Napa Valley run by Steve Sando. He grows the most high quality, fresh beans you will ever taste. You certainly can used canned beans and they are fine, but try buying some great quality dried beans sometime.   They are still so much cheaper than buying meat.  He has some wonderful varieties that you will never find in the grocery store.  For this recipe, I used cellini.  You really can use any bean you like.  

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes.  She has chosen Abbe's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

Boy, talk about an easy appetizer. How about using just two ingredients (three if you want to add the chopped basil) for a pretty, delicious dish of bite sized morsels? Roasting the peppers is an easy thing to do and if you've never done this yourself, start now. You will have another great technique in your cooking arsenal that will come in very handy. You can use this method to make Peperonata or to roast peppers for a sauce or side dish.

I love parfaits. They are such pretty things to make, with all kinds of possibilities from what ingredients you are going to layer to what glasses you will serve them in. For these, I used our small stemless champagne flutes. I thought they made a perfect parfait, because they are just 4 ounce glasses and so the desserts were not huge, they were just right.

This parfait is made up of two creamy puddings - one chocolate, one peanut butter. It's topped off with whipped cream. You can make the puddings early in the day and refrigerate them and then assemble the parfaits later. Or you can even make the parfaits a day ahead.

The March 2009 Daring Bakers challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

There are many kinds of lasagna and even in Italy every cook has his own recipe. But this is the real, traditional lasagna that is made in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, the birthplace of fresh egg pasta. It is made with homemade fresh spinach pasta, bechamel sauce and bolognese sauce. That's it. Each of these three components can be made at separate times, so there isn't so much to do all at once. You can certainly make the bolognese sauce a day before and the bechamel can even be made in the morning and allowed to cool.

Every spring I order real wild Copper River salmon from Alaska. I get enough to last us all year and put it in my freezer. It's so much better than the farm raised salmon in the grocery store and fresher than the wild salmon they sell that's been sitting out, for who knows how long, defrosted in the fish case. Some of that stuff looks pretty sorry. I order my salmon from this place and it comes on dry ice, each fillet individually vacuum sealed so you can take out from the freezer just how many pieces you need at a time. These are absolutely gorgeous fish - so fresh and firm with bright silver skin.  I order two kinds, the cheaper Sockeye salmon and a little of the more expensive King salmon. The King salmon fillets are thicker than the Sockeye and and are a little higher in fat, which contains all those great Omega-3 fats.