I saw this post on Good Life Eats about all of the easy things you can do with feta, and I realized I’ve never shared one of my favorite last-minute appetizers: feta with stuff on it.

My mom taught me this trick to transform a boring ol’ block of feta into a somewhat shmancy-seeming appetizer in like 10 seconds. All you do is take a block of good quality brined feta out of the brine. Put it on a plate or in a shallow bowl. Drizzle it with good olive oil and sprinkle it with chopped herbs (oregano or mint are my two favorites.) Sprinkle coarse salt on top (I used black salt from Hawaii but any salt will do) and a cracking of pepper. Serve it with a baguette, crackers, or pita chips. People will not realize how little work you put into this, because it looks good and tastes even better!

Some of my favorite meals start out by throwing a bunch of tasty things into a food processor or blender and adding oil and cheese. It’s reasonably hard to go wrong and it’s insanely easy and fast to make. In fact, the most difficulty I encountered when making this recipe was walking 2 blocks to the market to buy the ingredients…

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OK y’all, I am so NOT a soup person (unless of course the soup is merely a vehicle for quarts of cream and loads of bacon or if it’s really pretty) but this creation totally surprised me. I have kind of been trying to cut back on the calories (see aforementioned cream and bacon in the previous sentence) but I didn’t expect such a simple, easy, and low-calorie soup to be so satisfying.

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If done well, Tortellini in Brodo is like a super delicious, rich, hearty, filling version of chicken soup. It’s a classic Italian dish, but the way I make it is far simpler than other recipes I’ve seen. After describing it to Ross he decided he wanted some too, so tonight I made it for dinner. It’s just the thing after a long day at work! Plus, it’s so simple I’d bet even your kids will eat it. Since the recipe is so simple, the quality of ingredients is extra important.

My mom has been making a version of this pie since I was a kid. If you’ve got really great peaches, this is a terrific way to highlight them without cooking them all to hell as in a normal 2-crust pie. Plus, it’s easy and quick as can be.

Essentially it’s just one crust with raw, unadulterated peaches covered in a layer of sweet sticky peach glaze. I’ve kicked up Mom’s old recipe with a vanilla bean and some fresh lemon juice. We used to go to Brentwood every summer to buy peaches from the farmers, but now my dear ol’ Dad grows lovely ones in his little orchard. If you’ve ever seen a stone fruit tree in bloom you’ll know that you only get a couple of weeks to consume what seems like a gazillion fresh fruits. So if you find yourself with a bushel of great peaches, I highly recommend you try it!

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I was hanging out with my aunt and cousin the other day, and I asked them for an easy and tasty dessert recipe. They both immediately recommended this Bon Appetit recipe on Epicurious for individual toffee, pecan, and peach crisps.

The secret is a little bit of Heath Bars in the crumb topping. I was a little skeptical about the peach/chocolate combo, but in the end the chocolate isn’t really discernible and the whole thing works out beautifully. It’s extremely easy to make, got rave reviews, took no time at all, and should definitely be served warm, with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream.

You can find the recipe here!

I had about 3 minutes to try to pretty up these birthday cupcakes (for a Heather) before running out the door to the party… and found that uppercase and lowercase H’s in a variety of fonts made for an easy fancy decoration!

Color a bit of your icing with food coloring and scoop it into a small Ziploc bag. Cut a little tiny hole in one corner and hold the bag steady with two hands to pipe. You can always do a practice run on a piece of parchment and scoop the icing back into the bag.