My Dream Pizza

Dear Turkey,

The following is a special message about how easy it is to make pizza:

1. You don't even have to make the dough.
2. You can use any toppings you want.
3. You don't have to make a big giant pizza and have to fit the rest in the fridge.
4. It only takes, like, 20 minutes.

When you're making a pizza for yourself, and/or hungry people, you can put anything on it that you want. This is my dream pizza. If you don't want your pizza to be an umami sensation, that's your prerogative.

East Meets West Tostada

Dear Turkey,

It's lunchtime.  If you're me, you want something Mexican, or at least with beans in it. But maybe you want something Asian, too, for a change. Something light with a tangy and sweet sauce.

This tostada doesn't even have rice on it, thereby allowing you to have ice cream cake for dessert. The shredded veggies are a fun contrast to the beans, and they make everything cook quickly. I wasn't sure if the smoky chipotle and cumin flavors would blend with the rice vinegar, or it would just taste like a mishmash, but it was awesome.

Beautiful Pink Summer Pasta

Dear Turkey,

It's lunchtime. You just went running. You want something satisfying and seasonal, you know, like in a magazine. But you don't have a lot of fresh veggies in your fridge.

Enter beautiful pink summer pasta: the sweet caramelized red onion and the salty olives make you feel like you're eating more calories than you are. And you can go shopping in your herb garden (optional).

Zucchini Bruschetta

Dear Turkey,

Hummus and pesto in one recipe? And you grill the hummus? I was skeptical, even though I do love hummus and pesto, and grilling. But I was intrigued by a bruschetta where zucchini stands in for the bread, since I do love recipes where zucchini pretends to be a carb.

Well, these things are good. They're easy to make (or you could be hardcore and make all of the toppings from scratch), you can grill them or broil them, and they're good leftover. And when you get that first magical taste of hummus+pesto you will be like, ah, I get it now.