Do you cook with tilapia? Tilapia is farm-raised and rather mild in taste. I usually lean toward more flavorful fish, that said, this recipe is one of the best recipes I’ve ever made with any white fish. The flavor is all in the crust, a mixture of sun-dried tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, breadcrumbs and spices—perfect to liven up tilapia, or another mild white fish like snapper or cod.

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Shrimp and grits is one of those iconic Southern dishes that stir something deep inside those who grew up with them. Originally from the oceanic South—Georgia, the Low Country coast of the Carolinas and Gulf Coast states all have their versions—this homey bowl of awesome was historically a simple fisherman’s breakfast: Grits, with some bacon and a few shrimp tossed on top.

If you’ve ever eaten it, you can understand why shrimp and grits has burst from the seaside shrimp shanties. The grits are soft, buttery, and often cheesy, with a savory, bacon-studded sauce surrounding them, and lots and lots of shrimp. Maybe some parsley or green onions for color and crunch.

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Dear restaurant chain by the same name, thank you for making chipotle a household word! (And for helping to teach people how to say it correctly—”chee POAT lay”.) I love cooking with chipotles—smoked, dried, red jalapeños—especially those packed in adobo sauce. In this recipe we are making a simple salsa with fire roasted tomatoes, onions, lime juice, and chipotles packed in adobo, coating chicken breasts with the sauce, topping them with melty jack cheese, and baking them in the oven in a casserole dish. So easy. And so versatile. First, chiles in adobo last a long time in the fridge, many months once you’ve opened the can, so you don’t have to stress about using them up right away. Second, this dish has lots of sauce, which tastes great with rice, pasta, tortillas, even chips. Third, it makes great leftovers.

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Do you like buckwheat? When I lived in Japan I used to eat buckwheat soba noodles all the time, and a few years ago I started making buckwheat pancakes which have become a favorite. The taste is a little bit like whole wheat or whole grain versus white flour, but not wheat-y. Buckwheat isn’t actually grain—it isn’t a grass, but a plant that produces seeds that are used like wheat, hence the name. It is completely gluten-free. So if you are trying to avoid gluten for any reason (my mother and I are a bit sensitive to gluten), buckwheat is a great option.

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Do you have a favorite chicken salad? I love making chicken salad because it’s so versatile. You can easily make it ahead, it holds up well for a picnic or potluck, and you can eat it straight, in bread or toast as a sandwich, or toss it with lettuce or pasta. Here’s a tangy twist on the classic we know and love, a Mediterranean-style chicken salad with chopped poached chicken, lots of olives, capers, red onions soaked in red wine vinegar, and olive oil. Serve it straight, or toss it with some pasta. Or serve it in lettuce cups. If you want to be extra fancy, make little boats with a spoonful of this chicken salad in endive leaves. Endive tastes especially good with the salad’s olives, oil, and vinegar.

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Hello weekend! Sacramento can’t decide if it wants to be hot or cool right now. But the weather has been cooperating gloriously recently, with lots of sun, perfect for relaxing on the patio with tortilla chips or saltines and some coctel de camarones, or Mexican shrimp cocktail. I love this version of shrimp cocktail, it’s sort of like a virgin bloody mary with cucumber, celery, red onions, avocados and lots of shrimp. Perfect for dipping, or eating with a spoon. Or picking out the shrimp pieces with a fork, then the avocado pieces, and then eating the rest with a spoon as if it were gazpacho. Enjoy!

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Have you ever played around with sriracha hot sauce? It’s that spicy red sauce you often find at south east asian restaurants in the plastic bottle with the rooster on the side. It’s sort of an “in” thing these days, a great combination of sweet, spicy, garlicky, and sour, with the consistency of ketchup. People are finding all sorts of culinary uses for sriracha, check out these mean buffalo wings with sriracha sauce from my friends Diane and Todd. For an experiment we thought we would jack up the humble hot dog with this sauce. We added a little Chinese mustard and topped the dog with asian coleslaw; it turned out great, we loved it! Even my dad, who tends to hold back on hot chilies gobbled up his. Do you use sriracha in your cooking? If so, please tell us how in the comments.

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It’s the beginning of blueberry season over here; let the parade of baked goods begin! I had a basket of blueberries giving me the eye the other morning, as well as some ricotta cheese in the fridge begging to be used up. Hmmm. Blueberry muffins maybe? blueberry pancakes? or pound cake? A lemony blueberry pound cake won the toss this time, a pound cake made even more dense and silky rich with the substitution of ricotta for some of the butter and flour. This ricotta pound cake was declared a winner by all who tasted it. Enjoy!

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Are you a lover of books? My father, the English teacher, instilled in us an appreciation for literature. When I find a book I love I want to yell about it from the mountain top. Instead, my friends are the beneficiaries of this enthusiasm, since I typically find every excuse to send them a copy of the new favorite. Last year the book my friends received was The Lost World of the Kalahari by Laurens van der Post. This year it will be The Honey Thief, a beautifully written collection of fictional stories by Najaf Mazari, a Hazara Afghani refugee living in Australia, and his collaborator, novelist Robert Hillman.

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Please welcome my dear friend, guest author Steve-Anna Stephens as she shares a Southern classic, just in time for Mother’s Day! ~Elise

Do you have a sweet tooth? Truth be told—I do not. At all. Pass me a second helping of beef tenderloin at dinner, thank you very much, and you can have my dessert. So, the Hummingbird Cake perplexes me, because, well, I can’t stop eating it. Maybe it’s the pecans that lure me in, or the way the taste fools me into thinking I might just be eating a fancy piece of banana bread with a little cream cheese. Good for you, right?

This has to be the one of the sweetest, most scrumptious cakes around. Given their love for sugary nectar, one has to imagine hummingbirds would love to feast on this cake. But tough luck, hummingbirds! No one’s leaving this cake outside unattended.

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