Inspiration in September's Food & Wine

The September issue of Food & Wine magazine came this weekend and I greedily read it cover to cover. Normally I like Food & Wine and get some recipe ideas and interesting travel tips from them. But I absolutely love the September issue. Its theme is cooking delicious food fast and it includes an interview with Masaharu Morimoto, Gale Gand, Mark Bittman, Rachael Ray, and Anne Byrn (better known as The Cake Mix Doctor). These are all talented chefs and I have relied on the recipes of Ray, Bittman and Byrn in the past, always with fast, successful results. The interview is interesting and provides some excellent kitchen shortcut tips. Even better are the recipes provided by these chefs. I'm dying to try Ray's pasta shells with swordfish and Bittman's grilled skirt steak with chimichurri. Since I got my fill of chickpeas with the hummus I made last week, I'll wait a week or so to try Bittman's Spanish cod with chickpeas, but that recipe is calling me too.

There's also an excellent article in this issue called "My Big Fat Greek Feast." I think I'll try and recreate some of the dishes from this piece next time we have friends over. In the near term, I'll be making lemony greens with olive oil and olives this week.

Finally, there's a startingly simple recipe for jellied espresso with whipped cream. It requires no baking and looks very refreshing...perfect for a hot August night. This is on my to-do list for the week ahead also. So excited to try these new ideas!

Isn't it great to find new recipes that you can prepare quickly? Leaves us more time to savor these dishes later on.