Easy

Garlic scapes are the soft, lime-green-colored stems and unopened flower buds of hard-neck garlic varieties. Scapes have a mild garlic flavor and a slight sweetness, which makes them a prized addition in the kitchen. You can find them in the early summer and midfall at farmers' markets. If you grow your own garlic (which is easy), trim the scapes off before their flowers open. This forces the plant to focus on bulb production and increases the size of the garlic cloves. My Aunt Denise introduced me to the idea of garlic-scape pesto. Here I use it to sauce pasta; you can also spread it on crostini or use as a pungent dip for crunchy vegetables. If all you have are salted pistachios, forgo the salt in the recipe and add salt to taste at the end.

This authentic taqueria-style guac brings the classic dip back to the basics: avocado, lime, cilantro, salt, and—surprise—just a little bit of water to smooth things out.

The keys to this dish? Use as many types of squash as you can, and heat the oil in the skillet until it's almost smoking.

Wear gloves when making this searingly hot sauce.

Use Mexican adobo, a vinegary chile paste, to season any protein. For this recipe, the shrimp is chopped, so there's no need to splurge on a larger size.

Fruit is a welcome addition to savory grain salads. Here, mangoes and oranges add color and sweetness to the deep-purple hue of black rice. It's delicious with grilled fish.

A few simple spices are all you need to transform ground pork into a fantastic taco filling.

Britton uses agave syrup to sweeten this nutty crust.

Be gentle when washing new potatoes; their tender skins scrub off easily.

"Nobody thinks to cook cucumbers, but I treat them as I would any vegetable"

This steak tastes best when marinated overnight, so try to start the recipe a day ahead.

Get juicy shrimp by gently steaming them in an herb-and-lemon infused broth.

Make a batch of these easy, fast pickled red onions, and use them the whole week (or two) on everything you’re eating.

These can be prepared a number of different ways. Pick one flavoring, then roll them in the coatings of your choice.

Michael Lindley, Public House, Chattanooga: "Cucumbers are great in picnic food, something you can take with you anywhere."

Molly Moon's in Seattle pairs apricot compote with vanilla ice cream, but you can experiment with other combos. We love chocolate ice cream with tart dried cherries.

Our test kitchen had an Aha! moment with this dish. Crumbled bacon, mixed in with the breadcrumbs, makes a great topping for these tangy-sweet beans. We think the combo would do the same for mac and cheese.

The only trick to this fruit-flecked pie created by Sweet Rose Creamery in Santa Monica, CA, is making sure it gets 6 hours in the freezer to firm up.

Ask your butcher for thinly sliced cross-cut short ribs, a.k.a. flanken or Korean style. If you can't find them, flank steak is a good substitute.