Today's recipe: A meaty homemade chili made with fresh tomatoes instead of canned tomatoes, a great way to use up a surplus of garden tomatoes, especially late in the season when it's cooled down a bit too. Most of all, fresh tomatoes served on top of chili are wonderful! Three Cooking Options: "Slow Cook" on the Stove or "Slow Cook" in the Oven or Use an Actual Crockpot. Fresh & Seasonal. A Late-Summer Classic. Great for Meal Prep. High Protein. Weight Watchers Friendly & Freestyle Friendly. Naturally Gluten Free. Whole30 Friendly.

Fresh salmon and a vegetable hash with summer squash, bell pepper and corn roasted together in a sheet pan, served with an avocado-buttermilk sauce that reminds me of guacamole. Low Carb. High Protein. Summer gorgeous. THIS TIME OF YEAR, OH! THIS TIME OF YEAR August and September, they're my favorites months to cook. The fullness of late-summer and early fall make each day's stove-side dance an unrestrained rhythm of reaching for vegetables plucked from the garden earlier in the day, adding some onion, garlic maybe, a few seasonings. Mostly, the vegetables tell their own stories without the rigidity of a recipe. But I take notes, listening to their requests, learning what this zucchini likes, what that corn does not. And when the rhythm plus the words make a dish that sings, my notes later arrange themselves into lists of simple ingredients and hints to guide the hands of other cooks in other kitchens, a chorus of sorts. Yeah, pure poetry. Not my words, but the dance itself.

How to roast a whole head of cauliflower in the oven. Yes, I really did say a "whole head" of cauliflower! It comes out all brown and nutty and dramatic looking, easy enough for a weeknight but impressive enough for your mother-in-law. Real Food, Fresh & Impressive Looking. Just Two Ingredients! Not Just Easy, Summer Easy . Budget Friendly. Little Effort, Big Taste. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. Low Carb. Low Fat. Weight Watchers Friendly. Not just vegan, Vegan Done Real . Naturally Gluten Free. Whole30 Friendly. Rave Reviews.

Fresh green beans and tomatoes cooked in a slow cooker and served with rice. A great recipe for spanning the seasons, late summer through early fall. Gluten Free. Paleo. Not just vegan, " Vegan Done Real ". So.Here's.The.Thing. Slow cookers? You drive me C.R.A.Z.Y. The inspiring recipe from a trusted recipe source, one I have great success with again and again, said to cook these beans and tomatoes for seven hours in a slow cooker. Seven hours? Lucky I checked, mine were done in one hour although I did let them cook another half hour. And then because dinner wasn't planned for another few hours, I just let the beans/tomatoes cool down and served them later at room temperature on top of rice. The result? A wonderful late-summer and season-spanning supper, easy, simple and satisfying.

OH MY. This is salad is food for kings, so much more than the sum of its parts. "All it is" is perfect summer tomatoes, sliced thin, drizzled with olive oil and vinegar, topped with ice-soaked onions and fresh mint. But somehow? So so much more. ~recipe updated 2015 for a little weeknight salad inspiration~ ~ more recently updated recipes ~ WAY BACK IN 2008 Whew! For a week or more now, St. Louisans have been worrying whether the 2008 tomato crop would be worth eating. Perhaps because of a long, damp and cool spring, the early tomatoes were mealy and flavorless. The heirlooms were worse, scaly on the outside with dense pockets of inedible flesh inside. What a difference some hot summer sunshine makes! These tomatoes from my hometown farmers market were gorgeous, definitely worthy of this oh-so-simple treatment that adds up to way more than the sum of its parts. There are two tricks here. The first is the effect of soaking thin-sliced onions in ice water for a half ho

Today's easy vegetable frittata: An easy-to-make, quick-to-the-table frittata, soft and custardy and studded with bits of green bell pepper. Weight Watchers Friendly, just PointsPlus 6 for a generous, filling and satisfying serving. Low Cal. Low Carb. High Protein. Naturally Gluten Free. Hello, all! Anyone else having a relaxing long weekend? It's the unofficial end of summer for many, me too, even if it's still hot-hot-hot here in eastern Missouri, even if the cornucopia of late-summer vegetables will be with us for at least another month. You know the ones, right? Eggplant. Tomatoes. Zucchini. Tomatillos. And Bell Peppers! Barrels and baskets of rainbow-colored peppers, orange, red, yellow, purple, gold! And yes, green peppers too although too bad, the most common pepper isn't so popular right now. Me, I love the savory side of the green pepper, slightly bitter. The ones from our garden (and your farmers market) have thinner skins, a more pungent flavor than their