Baked Sweet Potato

Learn how to bake sweet potatoes with these tips & tricks! Enjoy them with butter, salt & pepper, or in one of my favorite baked sweet potato recipes.

fall / how-to

When the air starts to get crisp in the fall, I start craving two things: a bowl of soup and a big, puffy baked sweet potato. Both are warming, cozy, and healthy. But while making butternut squash soup might be one of my favorite Sunday activities, a baked sweet potato is my weeknight standby. They’re incredibly easy to make, as your oven does 95% of the work. While they bake, you’re free to do as you please! Prep the remaining components of your meal, finish up with the day’s work, or catch up with family or friends. Then, take them out…

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How to Make Zucchini Noodles

Learn how to make zucchini noodles in 5 different shapes! Healthy, easy & fun, they're the best way to add extra veggies to pasta salad, lasagna & more.

summer / how-to

Nowadays, spiralized zucchini noodles are easy to find at the store, but they’re so much better when freshly cut. Curly & long, they seem like a natural pasta substitute, but let me tell you – these fresh, vibrant veggie noodles can do so much more than sub in for spaghetti! I add them to soups, salads & pasta salads, and even layer them into lasagna. They may seem intimidating to make at home, but with the right tools (spoiler alert: a spiralizer isn’t always necessary!), it’s easy. Plus, making your own zucchini noodles is cheaper than buying them at the store,…

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Basil Pesto Recipe

Pesto is one of my favorite condiments to keep on hand. Try these easy, fun pesto recipe variations to brighten pasta, salads, roasted veggies & more!

vegan / gluten free

One of my favorite things about summer is the bounty of fresh herbs that are just outside my doorstep. Fresh herbs make any meal instantly more flavorful and beautiful. My favorite thing to do with all of those fresh herbs (aside from sprinkle them on everything) is to make pesto! It’s especially great for lazy summertime cooking. I like to dollop it on grilled vegetables, pasta, spaghetti squash, salads, eggs, toasted bread, pizza, sandwiches… you get the idea. With just a few easy steps, it makes anything an instant tasty meal, whether you feel like cooking or not. What is…

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How to Cook Corn on the Cob

Learn how to cook corn on the cob with this easy recipe! Hot, sweet, and juicy, it's the best summer side dish. Seasoning variations included!

how-to / vegetarian / gluten free

It finally feels like summer around here, and for me there’s nothing more summery than corn on the cob! When I was a little kid, I remember my mom covering the stoop on the back patio with ripped-open paper bags, and my sister and I would spend hours removing the husks. I love sweet corn so many ways – I top it onto pizza, mix it into cornbread and cornbread stuffing, stuff it into tacos, blend it into hummus, add it to soups, chowder, and chili, or top it onto salad. You get the picture: I’m a corn addict! But my favorite…

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How to Cook Spaghetti Squash

Spaghetti squash is such a fun, underrated vegetable! Here is my favorite way to cook it, along with a few tips and recipes.

fall / winter / how-to

I get so many questions about how to cook spaghetti squash, so I thought I’d share my go-to method for roasting it, a few tips, and a couple of my favorite spaghetti squash recipes. First things first: cut it in half lengthwise. Then, scoop out the seeds. Next, drizzle the insides lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. I find that adding too much oil and too much salt at this stage makes the squash a bit watery, so a light drizzle and a light sprinkle will do. Then, poke a few holes in the skin of…

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How to Make Matcha

beverage / how-to

When it comes to food “trends,” I’m usually so late to the game. Chia pudding, smoothie bowls, cauliflower smoothies… I didn’t see any of those foods coming and staying (to be honest the cauliflower smoothie thing still sounds a little gross to me). But matcha… I’ve been loving matcha before it was the cool thing to love. I can’t quite remember the first time I tried matcha. It’s been so long, but it might have been on a swirly soft serve cone in Kyoto. Matcha desserts and matcha lattes are all over the place now, but what I want to…

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Avocado Steamed Buns

Homemade steamed buns with avocado, cabbage, and sriracha filling.

vegetarian / cooking tips

This was a little holiday break project… while others were most likely baking cookies, Jack and I were trying our hand at steamed buns. I actually had no intention of posting this, it was just something we wanted to try (we were prepared for the possibility of failure). Then it occurred to me – I should post this as a work in progress. After all of the kneading, waiting, punching, waiting, rolling, waiting & finally steaming… they came out pretty good, but they were a little dense and didn’t puff up quite enough. They were still tasty (and we ate them…

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Homemade Ponzu

japan / how-to

If I had to pick two condiments to take to a desert island with me, my choices just might be rice vinegar and ponzu. Sriracha is a close third, and the Kewpie baby might be my number four. But back to the ponzu—it’s so versatile. I love it over noodles, and as a dipping sauce… it’s citrusey salty-soy goodness is perfect for quick, bright meals. Since the bottled version is often made with tons of additives, I set out to make my own. Turns out, it’s surprisingly easy. After a number of experiments, I figured out that meyer lemon replicates the…

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Photograph of Jeanine Donofrio and Jack Mathews in their kitchen

Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.

We love to eat, travel, cook, and eat some more! We create & photograph vegetarian recipes from our home in Chicago, while our shiba pups eat the kale stems that fall on the kitchen floor.

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