I feel like we are in that final stretch of summer where the farm stands and markets are bursting with the best produce, but I know it won’t last for much longer. Instead of panicking (okay I’m panicking a little), I’m taking every single opportunity I get to eat this sweet, perfect summer bounty and incorporating our local produce into every recipe I can. Zucchini and corn were looking plentiful at our farmer’s market last week, so I jumped at the chance to experiment with them and ended up making these tasty fritters. The zucchini gets grated on a box grater and mixed with corn, scallions, egg, flour and parmesan cheese to make a “dough” that gets crisped up in a cast iron skillet. I served them with a tangy lime-sriracha sour cream sauce for dipping, and even used the leftovers the next day to eat with a runny fried egg. Get the full recipe below! read more

I have a family favorite recipe that we make all the time that is a Mexican “lasagna” that uses tortillas instead of lasagna noodles, and Hood Cottage Cheese instead of ricotta cheese. I used that dish as my inspiration and made a cold Mexican layered dip, flavoring the Hood Country Style Cottage Cheese with Mexican spices and layering it with guacamole, pico de gallo, beans, lettuce and cheddar cheese. I love this recipe for easy summer entertaining because, to start, there’s no cooking involved! We live in an old New England house with no A/C so I’m always brainstorming recipes that help me avoid turning on the oven in my kitchen during the warm summer months.   read more

A crudité platter is almost always on my menu-plan for gatherings, big or small, because it’s a wonderful way to add tons of color and flavor to a table. It’s also a delicious and easy way to incorporate the bounty of New England’s seasonal vegetables available locally in the spring and summer!  I like to give those beautiful seasonal ingredients an accompaniment that lives up to their fresh, crisp flavor; a homemade dip is the perfect balance for the crudité. This cottage cheese dip, using Hood’s new flavor Cottage Cheese with Cracked Pepper, is simple to assemble and tastes best after the flavors combine for a bit in the refrigerator.
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I love making crostini for easy entertaining appetizers. It’s such a simple dish but is always a crowd favorite, and a versatile one that you can adapt to use tons of different types of ingredients. I shared a few varieties of these seasonally inspired crostini in my entertaining cookbook, New England Invite. read more

Living close to the beach in New England, we get our fair share of summer visitors that swing in for a visit. After a day out in the sun, the last thing I want to do is run back out to the store for snack-rations. This recipe is one of my easy-entertaining tricks that I keep in my back-pocket for one last-minute guests pop by. It’s made out of ingredients that I almost always have in my fridge (like Hood Cottage Cheese) and freezer (like frozen filo pastry cups).

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If I open a restaurant menu and see Mexican street corn listed as an option there is a 100% chance I’ll be ordering it for meal — it’s one of my favorites. I included a recipe for it in my cookbook, and a few years ago I made a dip-version of this dish for a dip potluck party I hosted (one of the most fun get-togethers I’ve ever thrown!). I thought I would resurrect the dish and give it a new twist, this time using fire-roasted corn which I always snag in the frozen food aisle at Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods. This version gets tons of flavor from the fire-roasted corn, spices and citrus, and the crumbly cotija cheese. You can make the corn dish and serve it as a dip, but I wanted to up the presentation game and spooned heaps of it into scoop-shaped chips for individual servings. These little corn bites practically disappeared when I made them, so make sure you pop a few in your mouth before you share them with guests  — get the full recipe below:
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The fiesta-inspired recipes are rolling in this week and this is one of my favorites: Crispy Avocado “Fries” with a chipotle dipping sauce. I was testing this recipe recently while my brother was visiting and after the avocado fries came out of the oven we unintentionally shared the whole tray, hovering over the kitchen counter and going back for bite after bite. They’re addictive! A simple seasoned breading and a few minutes in the oven are all it takes to make these little bites;  while they’re cooking I mixed up a dipping sauce with spicy chipotle adobo flavors, tart lime juice and sour cream to balance the heat. Make sure to serve these fiesta “fries” with a margarita, it’s the perfect pairing. Get the full recipe below: read more