Sweet potato-black bean enchiladas
Little cubes of sweet potato jostle with black beans and diced poblano pepper in rolled corn tortillas with a gentle drape of cheeses and a velvety brick-red sauce. Yowza.
Author Archives: Mike Bierschenk
Abject apology bars (with dates, chocolate chips, pecan, and coconut)
Sticky-sweet dates, rich pecans, crowd-favorite chocolate chips, and fragrant coconut come together to sweeten a co-worker’s soured disposition. Obviously, do your best not to mess up. But if you do? Abject apology bars to the rescue.
Scalloped sweet potatoes and zucchini with salmon
Soft sweet potato and zucchini, wrapped in a thick cream sauce, remind me of classic scalloped potatoes, yet the dairy is restrained enough that it doesn’t sit too heavily. The small amount of smoked salmon brings a rich savor that can make this into a main dish for lunch, but it would also be at home on a buffet as a vegetable side, with or without the salmon.
Avocado toast (that isn’t ridiculous)
I made this because I got tired of reading overwrought recipes for a dish that, really, couldn’t be simpler. No finicky knives, no ridiculous mashing, just pure unadulterated avocado.
Simple baked zucchini à la française
This dish is perfect for late summer, when the summer squash are still abundant but temperatures have begun to drop. Don’t let the simple ingredients fool you: this is an immensely satisfying dish, sweet and earthy and beautifully tender.
Germaine’s tomato salad
This simple salad displays the best of French summer cooking: sweet, ripe tomatoes rounded out by gentle onion flavors, lightly salted, all tied together by a soft, barely-sweet vinegar dressing.
Nectarine and Hatch chile salsa
When the summer stone fruits are at their peak, it’s hard to imagine doing anything with them other than eating them over the sink. But if you can possibly hold a couple of nectarines or peaches back, try this salsa. It’s sweet and refreshing, but also has a sharp grassy spice from the Hatch chiles.
Texas sheet cake (‘chocolate sheath cake’)
This has been my birthday cake for almost a decade: it’s simple, quick, and utterly delicious. The fudgy cocoa-and-cinnamon cake combines with a thin, crackly icing studded with chopped pecans, and it takes only 20 minutes in the oven
Orzo salad with shrimp and basil
This recipe would be delicious any time of year, under any weather conditions: let’s just be clear on that. But especially in the late days of summer (when the thought of heating up your kitchen is just excruciating) cool, filling salads are a godsend. And when they’re as flavorful as this one — shrimp! basil! tomatoes! it’s almost a caricature of summer! — it’s no sacrifice at all.
Light and airy cherry cake
This cake is great for showcasing the fruit flavors of summer: sweet cherries nestled in a light, fluffy batter with just a bit of crunch from cornmeal and a rich fruitiness from a generous glug of olive oil.
Optional Kitchen 