Memorial Day Weekend: time to get up off your couch and bring your potluck A Game. Especially when you’re invited to a barbecue and you know your hosts are totally skilled at kicking out the party food jams. It’s a good thing you have this recipe for saffron orzo with shrimp, because it’s practically perfect for potluck parties in every way.

Since it’s a pasta salad, it’s just as delicious cold as it is hot. The saffron isn’t overwhelming, adding just the right amount of color and spice. The simple ingredients keep it really fresh and light (especially all the lemon: I add half an extra lemon than the recipe calls for, and it makes it even better). But with the shrimp, it’s as hardy as anything coming off the grill. Depending on the portion size, it can even make the jump from side dish to main. In my house on weeknights, it usually does.

But what if you overdid it the night before (it’s a three day weekend, it happens) and can barely manage to get yourself out of bed, much less work kitchen wizardry on the day of your potluck party? Lucky for you, the hardest part of this recipe is prepping the shrimp. So pull yourself together and let’s get cooking!

Do you have a favorite meal that just tastes better when your mom makes it? Mine is chicken enchiladas.

Amid a sea of mediocrity, her recipe is a shining beacon of simple perfection that has ruined every other enchilada in the world for me, restaurant or otherwise. There’s a lot of nonsense out there that might suggest otherwise, but as far as I’m concerned, there’s one right way to make enchiladas. This is it.

I ended last weekend feeling fairly under the weather. Not really certifiably sick, just groggy, exhausted, and at odds with the world. My mom would call it “low biorhythms,” and I knew I needed to do something about it. All I could think of was to make chicken noodle soup. My plan was to swing by the grocery store on the way home from work, pick up everything I thought I might need for chicken soup, then find a recipe to work with once I got home. It ended up working out pretty much perfectly.

I’m a simple girl. Food doesn’t have to look glossy and impeccable to make me happy. All I ask is that it be tasty and delicious like a fiesta in my mouth. This shredded chicken is a good example of that principle, and also kind of a major staple in my diet.

The weather around here lately has been chronicles of ridiculous. May Gray and June Gloom are one thing, but dark days in July (in California no less!) are utterly intolerable unless you are down for curling up on the couch with a movie and a mug of something warm and hearty and spicy. Of course, that’s a scenario for which I am always down.

Hey, remember those adorable baby tomatoes I bought at farmer’s market?

A.) I did some research, and I think they are Chadwick cherry tomatoes.
B.) Whatever they are, they finally found a home in these delicious little tomato and goat cheese tarts.

There’s only so much research you can do to prepare for a nerve-wracking job interview. When my own Morning of Reckoning came around on Friday, there was only one thing left to do: make myself a strong cup of coffee and an egg sandwich. It’s one of my all-time favorite breakfasts ever—it’s super quick and easy, and with protein to wake up your brain and flavor to brighten your mood, it has everything you need to conquer the world.

There is no reason in the world to not like lasagna. It’s a gooey, bubbly, chunky slice of piping hot comfort food heaven. Thanks to recent breakthroughs in alterna-cheese technology, even vegans and the lactose intolerant can get on board. Once scientists find a cure for tomato allergies, no one in the world will have an excuse.