I love going to the farmer’s market as often as I can, and eating with the seasons. Granted, here in the Midwest, “the seasons” are approximately one week of Spring, a long hot Summer, and then a little bit of Fall before a dark, depressing Winter.

If you own a Spring jacket, you maybe get to wear it once or twice a year, if you play your cards right.

But in that one week of Spring, almost nothing is as exciting as that first asparagus for Spring salad or goat cheese pasta salad.

I also think earthy, savory asparagus is a natural pairing for tart, tangy balsamic glaze. This balsamic asparagus recipe is a simple side dish that my family has on repeat whenever local asparagus is available.

Just like my balsamic green beans, it’s the perfect side dish for things like savory oatmeal, lamb bolognese and salmon pasta.

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Salads for specific holidays are becoming something of a theme around here. It all started with my Thanksgiving salad, which Google liked enough to put it at the top of it’s search results, meaning lots and lots of people make this salad each year for their holiday dinner, and that makes me so happy.

From there, I expanded into Thanksgiving fruit salad, which was also popular. And then I tried my hand at Christmas salad and Christmas fruit salad.

So, it makes sense that today I’m back with, you guessed it – Easter Salad (I did Easter fruit salad also, of course). Serve this with ham with pineapple sauce and mashed potatoes with heavy whipping cream with homemade gravy for my idea of a perfect Easter feast.

Although, just like all of my holiday salads, it certainly isn’t meant to ONLY be enjoyed on that specific holiday.

Like my fried goat cheese salad, think of this more like a Spring salad idea that you can enjoy any time you want this season. It’d also be right at home on a Mother’s Day brunch menu, alongside bacon in oven and vegetarian quiche.

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If there’s a recipe for dinner in my house in the summer, it’s basically grilled protein + cold side dish #1 + cold side dish #2 (or maybe a hot side dish like Dr. Pepper baked beans once in awhile if I’m feeling motivated, but not often).

This might be buttermilk grilled chicken + tomato blue cheese salad + seafood pasta salad.

Or maybe it’s root beer ribs + goat cheese pasta salad + apple cider vinegar coleslaw recipe.

It definitely involves pasta salad at least once, if not multiple times per week. Now, growing up in the Midwest in the 80’s, pasta salad usually meant either macaroni salad with celery/onion/mustard/Miracle Whip, or tri-colored rotini and Italian dressing.

I’m thankful that our pasta salad options have expanded in the past few decades, with all kinds of pasta shapes available at the grocery store now, and a seemingly endless array of flavor options.

This acini di pepe pasta salad recipe is filled with vibrant summer vegetables, and is a little change of pace from the more traditional pasta shapes like elbows and rotini.

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When it comes to pasta salad, the options are endless, and it’s almost always good.

Growing up in the 80’s in the Midwest, my pasta salad experiences revolved around baby back ribs (hopefully with the best dry rub for ribs on them) paired with my mom’s classic mustard/mayo/celery/onion macaroni salad (I haven’t yet shared that recipe here, but maybe someday), and old school Italian dressing pasta salad.

You know the kind I mean. And it wasn’t along the lines of something updated like Asian noodle salad or acini de pepe pasta salad, or fancy like seafood pasta salad.

Today, I’m sharing a gourmet take on a classic: pasta salad with goat cheese dressing. It’s perfect alongside steak lettuce wraps, and it’s one of my very favorite side dishes for ribs.

I’m also sharing a simple tip to make the best pasta salad ever.

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Did you know National Hummus Day is this coming Saturday? While you’ll almost always find a tub of hummus in my fridge (24/7/365), I figured this is a day to celebrate my love of hummus a little harder than usual.

I took the opportunity to not only celebrate hummus, but some of my favorite seasonal ingredients (and a few fun goodies), as well.

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If you grew up attending parties where the centerpiece of the snack buffet was a giant hollowed-out loaf of pumpernickel bread filled to the brim with creamy spinach dip  . . .  you might be from the Midwest. Or, wait.

Was that a Midwest thing? Or was it a 1980-1990’s thing? It’s hard to know, because the two are inextricably linked in my brain. In the 80’s and 90’s, I was growing up in the Midwest.

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I’ve mentioned quite frequently that one of my favorite ways to entertain (or heck, even prepare a dinner for just two people) is with DIY platters.

Pile a bunch of great ingredients onto a cutting board, platter, or even just a baking sheet, and let everybody make their own personalized dish.

But the truth is, I love photographing these platters just as much (if not more) than eating them. There’s just something about a platter bursting with colorful ingredients that my camera and I can’t get enough of.

Plus, the food stylist part of me loves screaming “more! more! put more things on that platter!”

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When friends ask me to teach them how to cook, one of the first things I teach them is risotto. Why? Well, it sounds really elegant and fancy. It requires a bit of prep and cooking time, but the process for it is simple and almost foolproof.

And I think it’s one of those dishes that shows people that they are capable of a lot more than they think they are in the kitchen (just like my grilled sockeye salmon!).

It’s also not just a rice dish. Risotto is a cooking technique, and can be used for savory oatmeal just as well as it can be used for arborio rice.

When we’ve finished making it, and they sit down to eat it, I think most of them have a “wow, I MADE this!” moment. It demonstrates how a few good ingredients can come together to make a restaurant-quality dish at home.

In fact, at home is the only place I ever eat risotto. It’s hardly ever done right at restaurants. #RisottoSnob

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Who’s ready for spring produce? Picture me raising my hand really high, like a nerd in the front row of math class. While I love root vegetables of all kinds, I’m ready for some nice crunchy asparagus! I eat a metric ton of asparagus all through the spring and summer – mostly grilled, but I’ll take it anyway I can get it.

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I’m back today with another dish that would be great for Easter brunch, or even as a fancy side dish to Easter dinner. I love roasted asparagus, and I’m ready to eat massive amounts of it as soon as it comes back into season each spring. And you know what I love just as much as roasted asparagus? Poached eggs.

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