I find that I often prefer the idea of retro foods much more than the actual foods themselves. This vintage salad is a mustardy crisp exception. Celery Root Remoulade is a traditional raw bistro salad, well loved in French cuisine. Just leave it to the French to transform a hairy, knobby, alien-like root vegetable into a delicate salad. If you've never cooked with celery root before, don’t let external appearances fool you, while this root crop may look like a deformed, sprouted potato, celery root adds a nutty, nuanced celery-like flavor to raw, salads, soups and is fantastic in mashed in potatoes. We serve Celery Root Remoulade as a pungent fall coleslaw and find it pairs particularly well with meat and seafood dishes. 

I am a sucker for a colorful veggie, and when I saw these vibrant purple string beans at a farm stand on the way home from work, I was smitten!  With a wacky color-scheme in mind, I paired the quickly steamed beans with dollops of lime-hued green goddess dressing, made creamier and healthier by the addition of avocado instead of mayonnaise. Avocado Green Goddess Dressing is my take on the retro 70's classic. This cheerful side dish is ready in 10 minutes, and adaptable to whatever produce you have on hand. 

It’s labor day, and we are devouring corn and tomatoes in these beautiful late summer days like they're going out of style. Truthfully, I have a bit of an obsession with sweet corn, and have been known to personally eat 6 cobs in a meal. It’s officially September now, and as the season changes, so too does our cooking. Instead of boiling or grilling our corn, we are firing up my Grandmother's trusty skillet for our delicious and simple Summer Corn Sauté with Herbs, a dish that will have you coming back for seconds. The sweetness of fresh corn is highlighted by the rich and nutty background of butter, onions, cumin, and garlic, garnished with heaps of herbs and tomatoes. I have learned my lesson making this dish over the years, just go ahead and double it the first time, it’s the best way to avoid complaints! 

Check out our Grilled Spelt Flatbread with Tapenade & Tomato featured in Pittsburgh Magazine this week! We just love Brazen Kitchen's Leah Lizarondo and her irreverent take on seasonal vegetarian cooking. 

This tender and chewy flatbread uses local spelt to up the nutty whole grain flavor. We are addicted to this no-knead spelt flatbread, and find it has a taste and texture reminiscent of Indian naan and whole wheat pita. On a warm summers evening, we like to throw this easy flatbread on the grill, spread generously with briny tapenade, and top with juicy ripe tomatoes. This spunky tapenade, packed with garlic, tarragon, and green olives, pairs beautifully with the sweetness of August tomatoes. For us, this dish epitomizes summer: fresh produce, bright flavors, and smoky char.    

I am mad for potatoes and have found myself, on more than one occasion, defensively sputtering to Paul that 'of course I absolutely NEED to bring back that bag of potatoes in my suitcase!'  In contrast to my gung-ho consumption of potatoes, I would consider Paul to be more of a casual appreciator of the humble spud, but we both love this Herb Potato Salad.  It is a light and vivacious, mayonnaise-free potato salad, with a snappy garlic-mustard vinaigrette lavished with herbs. Think of this recipe as an an outline that will easily adjust to different amounts and types of herbs and alternative vinegars and oils. 

Portobello Burgers With Green Olive Tapenade are funky and slightly off the beaten veggie burger path with a briny sauce that will send your taste buds into cartwheels of happiness.  All modesty aside, we are were feeling pretty chuffed with ourselves when we first bit into these burgers, creamy mozarella melts into smokey portobellos with a full meaty texture.  Green olive tapenade brings a mysterious licorice and sea salty flavor, respectfully sandwiched between rolls liberally smeared by basil mayonnaise. High-fives and groans of delight were followed by a respectful 5 minutes of silent appreciation (read: scarfing) of these Portobello Burgers With Green Olive Tapenade.