For a while, Deb had a column at Bon Appetit and this Pork and Asparagus Stir-Fry is one of the recipes you’ll find in that collection. I think I tried it pretty soon after it was published, and it became a favorite that summer.

It’s a very simple recipe that makes asparagus the star of the show, so it’s a) not for you if you don’t love asparagus and b) worth splurging on the freshest asparagus you can get. Personally, I only make it with farmer’s market asparagus. I get two bundles, which I think is technically 1.5 pounds of asparagus and not 2, but it works out just fine.

I do make one change to this, which is to substitute dry vermouth for chinese rice wine, since we didn’t have any on hand the first time I made it. I believe I’ve since tried it with rice wine but the aroma of the vermouth and soy sauce in the hot pan is so yummy, and I missed it.

I serve this with a pile of white rice, which we promptly douse with chili crisp. It is an absolutely delicious meal and the leftovers heat up well for lunch.

I have also tried this with green beans, so if you aren’t an asparagus person or if you just need a substitute, they’ll work well. You’ll just need to adjust the timing so they don’t get overcooked. You could also probably substitute ground turkey for the pork, but if you eat pork I think it’s worth it, especially since this uses only half a pound.

I’m sure when you saw last weekend’s rhubarb post you were wondering why I didn’t make one of Deb’s many rhubarb recipes. Well, that’s because I can usually count on getting rhubarb at my farmer’s market for a few weeks running, so I knew I’d have another chance. I chose the Big Crumb Coffee Cake because I love coffee cake, but am often disappointed by a stingy amount of streusel.

This is truly one of those “Why haven’t I made that?” moments. While this recipe is from 2008, I know I only bookmarked it sometime in the last couple of years, probably after Deb resurfaced it during rhubarb season. I’m not sure why I didn’t make it; probably because it didn’t seem very dessert-y.

This is a pretty straightforward recipe, though you will feel like you’ve used half the bowls in your kitchen. (I went through five.) You toss the rhubarb with sugar and cornstarch, make a very sturdy streusel, and put together a thick batter. You spread the batter into the pan and top it with huge chunks of streusel.

This does need to be in the oven for a while — 45 to 55 minutes. It’s hard to tell when this is done due to the rhubarb. At 45 I put mine back in for 5 minutes, but should have given it 10, maybe 15. The sides and some parts of the top were a lovely golden brown, but it turned out the very middle was tragically underbaked. So, if you make this pay careful attention to that, especially if you’re using a glass baking pan. (I was, and in retrospect I should have dug out my metal pan.)

You do also want to let it cool. Maybe not quite completely, but cooling allows the streusel to firm up a bit and that gives you a nice textural contrast to the soft cake and jammy rhubarb.

Despite the near-total loss of the center piece, this was delicious. Rhubarb in coffee cake is such an unexpected combination, I really think you should try this. And as Deb suggests I think this would work well with other tart fruit; in particular I’m curious to try this with blueberries. But if you like your coffee cake uncluttered this would be just as good without fruit. (Maybe use a heavy hand on the vanilla.)

I put about half of this in the freezer and will report back on how it holds up. I didn’t do anything special to it, just threw the pieces into a plastic container and stuck it on the bottom of the freezer. It’ll be nice to have on hand the next time we’re sad that we’re out of bagels.

Every once in a while, something goes awry with a grocery delivery order. For example, we typically order 8 bananas, and recently received this:

Over the course of a week, we made a good dent in them. But at a certain point several of the bunches were getting quite ripe. Partway through the week I froze two bunches for protein shakes but I knew we wouldn’t get through the rest before they got overripe in that unappealing way.

Last time this happened (yes, you read that right), I went on a hunt for the banana bread recipe that uses the most bananas, and made the New York Times’ Banana Banana Bread (gift link). But I’m not actually a big fan of banana bread. It’s fine, but it’s not something I seek out. But I wanted to bake something with at least a couple of them because I also wasn’t interested in making pudding or pie or ice cream with them.

I searched for banana on the Smitten Kitchen Blog and this Marbled Banana Bread was one of the top hits. I liked how chocolately it looked, and while it only calls for 3 bananas I figured if we liked it I could always make a second loaf for the freezer.

This calls for very ripe bananas — you want to be able to easily mash them. The ones I chose were ever so slightly too firm, but I just did the best I could and it was fine. I used the dutch-processed Guittard cocoa powder, which has a very deep chocolate flavor, and the Ghirardelli semi-sweet chips, which I think balance bitterness and sweetness perfectly. I weighed all the ingredients and eyeballed splitting the batter in half.

I baked this for 65 minutes, which was maybe 5 minutes too much, as the chocolate parts on the bottom were slightly overcooked (definitely not burned, though). I did check at 55 minutes, but it’s hard to gauge doneness on bakes like this that are so moist.

I would definitely make this again. It came out very moist, as is typically the case with banana bread, and the chocolate parts are intensely chocolatey, which is exactly what I wanted. I did miss the contrast of toasted walnuts, so next time I might throw some into the plain half of the batter.

I made the Pearl Couscous with Olives and Roasted Tomatoes, from the Smitten Kitchen blog, as a side for salmon recently. I really enjoyed this as a side, it was a nice change of pace from our normal salmon side dish of broccoli or brussels sprouts.

By the time I went to cook the recipe, I’d forgotten that the tomatoes were roasted low and slow. So I cranked the heat up to 400° and turned on convection, and they were done in 20-25 minutes.

About half of the tomatoes I used had been in the freezer (whole). I didn’t thaw them, just sliced them and threw them in as is. I would not recommend frozen tomatoes for this recipe; they were fine but they broke down faster and a few of the smaller halves burned.

This would be great to make in a big batch and bring to a party; you could also throw in some chickpeas or white beans and call it lunch. This made enough for two big sides, with a small amount left over.

For a while now I’ve been keeping an eye out for things I can make for lunch that rely on pantry staples, so I don’t have to plan ahead. Most of the time I just have leftovers, but some weeks there aren’t as many, or I’m not interested. The Smashed Chickpea Salad from the Smitten Kitchen blog fits the bill, at least for my pantry.

This came together in about five minutes, which is brilliant for a weekday lunch. I had parsley on hand so I threw that in, but I skipped the lemon zest because I already had a zested lemon from dinner the night before and I didn’t want another naked lemon in the fridge.

One of the things I like about this recipe is that it doesn’t really require measuring. I chopped up a few olives, took a thin slice off half a huge red onion we had in the fridge, and eyeballed the seasonings. I was able to make this a couple of hours before I wanted to eat so there was time for the flavors to come together and the onion to mellow a bit. I think it’d be best at room temperature, but it’s good straight from the fridge too.

I had this over baby arugula with some cherry tomatoes, but you could use it to stuff a pita or eat it on crackers or toasty bread (as Deb suggests). I got three small lunch servings out of this, which was not quite enough, but I was having it combo-plate style with the Baked Orzo with Artichokes so it worked out OK. In the future I’d probably call this two servings.