Sweet and spicy tempeh and cauliflower is placed on top of a bright and tart plate of noodles.

These ribs are from the Pok Pok Cookbook and are easy to make, super satisfying, and a refreshing take on ribs.

Ingredients1 p Instructionsx NotesI bought the Pok Pok cookbook over a year ago but it has taken me a long time to actually cook from it. Now that I started though, I am really on a roll. I have made 3 things already and have like 10 more bookmarked. I actually went to the Pok…

Ingredients1/4 Cup Sesame Oil1/4 Cup Rice Vinegar2 Cloves Garlic (Smashed) Chile FlakeBrown SugarFish SauceSalt1.25 Pounds Pork Belly (boneless skinless) Rice NoodlesMayoSrirachaRice VinegarFish SauceLettuceTomato For: 4 PeoplePreparation: 20 minCooking: 3 minReady in: 23 min InstructionsThe pork was tossed in a mixture of sesame oil, rice vinegar, garlic, chile flake, brown sugar, salt, and fish sauce. I…

I had some leftover pesto but it was only basil hazelnut and garlic, there was no cheese in it. I was brainstorming on how to repurpose the pesto, and because of the lack of cheese I was thinking of going Asian with it. Basil with a nut made me think that a vaguely Thai dish would work. I was thinking of mixing the pesto with some rice noodles at first and maybe popping some pork I had in the freezer on top, but when I was at the store, I was persuaded by the fresh summer corn and zucchini, and some really tasty looking potatoes. I ended up mixing the pesto in with mashed potato, and topping it with a mixture of the pork, corn, and zucchini dressed with some sriracha and fish sauce. It all came out fantastic, summery, and bright, and somehow light yet hearty and filling.

I had a handful of different cravings at the grocery store on my way to my friends place. I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted but I knew we were grilling. I started to go into the direction of an italian pesto-like pasta salad with some grilled sausage, but then I got the usual cravings for Vietnamese rice noodles I have all the time. I ended up sort of combining the dishes into something fun and delicious.

Salmon burgers usually have an asian flair to them at least when I have seen them out at restaurants, but I was more in the mood for very simple flavors that really felt like spring and showcased the fresh salmon. I grabbed some vibrant green beans and ramps at the store and put together a quick slaw with a mustard vinaigrette as a topping for these burgers. Some hard boiled eggs and nice whole grain rolls pulled everything together. Some of you are probably grilling this weekend, and I highly suggest trying out these burgers as something different for a small get together.

If you told me 5 years ago that my coffee table would not only host my own cookbook, but also a cookbook written by a friend of mine, it wouldn’t even be something that my brain could grasp and I would probably just laugh it off. But here we are, and that sentence is a reality.

Nick from Macheesmo was a once rival, turned friend and also powerful ally in the world of food blogging, and his book Love your Leftovers, comes out in a few days! Love your Leftovers is an epic tome of meal planning that teaches you how to cook in large batches and then repurpose the leftovers into dinners later in the week. Nick is modest on the cover when he says there are “over 100” recipes in the book, because many of the recipes feature variations and twists with full ingredient lists. I asked him what the true recipe count was, and he said it comes to 187!!!

As I flipped through the book wondering what to cook the other night, the Vietnamese Noodle Salad that uses leftover grilled flank steak caught my eye (because I could eat vietnamese noodle salads every day of my life) and it did not disappoint.

Seafood and sausage is always a tasty pairing. After playing around with squid cooking times and noticing that it can be tender after 3 minutes or 40 minutes, but nowhere in between, I really wanted to make a hearty tomato sauce with chopped up squid that was cooked slow and low. I decided to mix in sausage, but otherwise make it like a normal tomato sauce. I loved how this came out. The squid had a perfect texture that was super tender with just a slight rubbery bite that gave the whole dish a nice chew. The flavor combo of tomato sausage and squid with a little banana pepper thrown in is really something special and some chopped up hazelnut and meyer lemon zest on top brought everything together in a nice way.