Dense, chocolatey and delicious! These banana bread brownies are the perfect mix of fruit and chocolate.
banana bread brownies

Bananas go through phases in our apartment.

yellow-green and they are Joanne-perfect

yellow with a few brown spots and they are The.Boy-perfect

…and when there’s more brown than yellow and they fall off their stalks after just one nudge with your pinky finger and they’re so pungent they make your entire one-room apartment smell. They are banana bread perfect.
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Step over eggplant parm, there’s a new eggplant dish on the block! Almost like a lasagna that uses eggplant rounds instead of noodles, this cheesy baked dish is the ultimate comfort food.
eggplant mozzarella and saffron rice bake

Sometimes I force the.boy to eat things he doesn’t think he likes.

And sometimes he abandons me when I have the cold to end all colds so that he can go to his third fantasy football draft of the season.

I’d say we’re even.

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Like carrot cake gone green, this zucchini-walnut cake is the perfect summer treat with it’s warm spices and sweet earthiness.
zucchini-walnut cake with cinnamon honey buttercream

Posting this cake is kind of weird for me. And momentous. But in a weird way.

I think it may be the first time ever in my life, but certainly in blog history, when I had an opportunity to make cream cheese frosting…and didn’t.

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Nectarines are all dressed up in pickling juice and then tossed together with creamy burrata, fresh mint, and arugula to make a salad that is worth getting excited about!
pickled nectarine salad with burrata

Summer peaches are kind of a big deal. They foster rivalries across state lines that then somehow manifest themselves on the football field.

Oh, you thought those games were actually about showcasing athletic ability?

Uh, no.  It’s all about the peaches.

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These baked herb and pistachio falafel are a guilt-free version of the traditionally deep-fried Mediterranean patties. Serve with a spicy tomato chili salsa and tahini sauce, atop collard greens, big butter lettuce leaves, or pita bread for an easy handheld meal.
herb and pistachio falafel

It’s taken me two very introspective, soul-searching, gut-wrenching (eyes bleeding) days to get here.

But after much YouTube-watching, water cooler gossiping, and a little bit of psychoanalyzing…I feel mentally prepared to discuss the VMAs now.

So pull up a chair and a falafel. And let’s get to gossiping.

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