I’d been coming across Julia Turshen‘s work for a while now and am always impressed by her voice and the projects she is involved with. She bills herself as a personal chef, writer and producer and seems to do all of those things well. She worked on Spain: On the Road Again, the beautiful PBS travel/food series that featured Mario Batali, Mark Bittman, Gwyneth Paltrow and Claudia Bassols. But what the show really featured was Spain, and it did so beautifully.

Julia also contributes to GOOP and worked with Gwyneth Paltrow on My Father’s Daughter, which has already been featured here. All of her projects manage to be both smart, beautiful and really engaging. (I think I might want to be Julia when I grow up)

Her next project, The Kimchi Chronicles, finds Julia working with Marja and Jean-Georges Vongerichten on a PBS series (and book!) “about rediscovering Korea and its cuisine and translating all of it into easy, approachable recipes for the American kitchen”— sounds amazing.

I asked Julia to share a favorite recipe with all of us and can say that she is as kind and charming as she is talented (if you want more evidence, check out this great interview with her over on Design*Sponge). And these turkey meatballs are fantastic. I don’t cook with meat at home very often, and so it is always an occasion when I do. These meatballs are perfect for a special occasion, or a weeknight meal. Julia brightens them up with some lemon zest which really makes them shine. We feasted on these and then enjoyed the leftovers (which are great on a sandwich!) for the next couple of days.

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I decided at the last minute to cook lunch on Christmas Day for my mom and Bryan. I wanted something eggy and cheesy and turned to the twitterverse for help. I got a bunch of good suggestions, but when my friend, and fellow blogger, Kristin sent me a recipe for a savory bread pudding–I knew I had found what I was looking for.

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There are a wide range of dishes that I consider good and worth making and worth telling you about. Some are simply satisfying and delicious, others are totally knock-your-socks-off amazing. This recipe is from the later category of recipes. It comes from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi and I have been eying it for weeks but feeling stressed out by the three kinds of soy sauce it calls for in the recipe. I didn’t know there were three kinds of soy sauce and I had no idea how I would find them, but am I glad I did.

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Growing up in the Midwest, you are surrounded by fields of corn. Unfortunately, most of this corn isn’t for human consumption, but the stuff that is tastes fantastic. We used to buy corn from a local farmer by the dozen. Two dollars for a dozen ears of sweet summer corn—corn that had been picked just hours before you bought it. It didn’t even require cooking. Corn remains one of my favorite summer foods and now that it is making its way into the markets, I was pretty excited to find a series of recipes featuring fresh corn in the latest issue of Bon Appétit.

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I’ve never seen Pulp Fiction. It got so much hype that I quickly lost interest. It’s a problem I have. I avoided seeing it until it seemed too late to see it and by then it had become sort of a badge of honor. People are horrified: You’ve never seen Pulp Fiction? Yeah, so what?

It was kind of like that with Jim Lahey’s no-knead bread. Everyone was going crazy for that recipe and I waited just a little too long to try it and then decided it was stupid. Until last month when I got a beautiful new Le Creuset dutch oven as a housewarming gift and for some reason decided to break down and make the bread. Turns out I’m the stupid one. read more+++

No time for dinner means we have to get creative with what we eat. We still want delicious food, but it needs to be ready in about 15 minutes. A while back I saw a recipe for baked feta, and although I lost the recipe- I remembered the idea. Who could forget feta? read more+++

Chicago summers are usually hot and humid. We go from complaining about cold to complaining about heat in a matter of days. This summer is different. Everyone has been complaining that it isn’t hot enough. While I agree it has not felt like summer I will take an unusually mild summer over the usual any day. This past weekend we finally got into the 90’s and it felt like summer had finally arrived just as back to school sales start up. It may be strange timing but it is the perfect time for a no-cook pesto. read more+++

Montreal was an amazing place to eat, but after a trip in which I ate poutine, croissants, fried pork, steak and more bacon than I care to admit, I was in need of some serious dietary improvements. I came home craving fruits, vegetables and whole grains. This is pretty much the state I am in at the end of all travels. Too much enjoyment of the local cuisine and I feel a strong desire to balance things out. The first thing I made for us was this very simple brown rice pilaf with green olives, lemon and a sprinkle of goat cheese. read more+++

I tried my first taco in kindergarten at my school’s cafeteria. I loved it. At the time I was a really fussy eater and so my mom was happy to hear that there was a new food I was willing to eat. Unfortunately, my Polish family knew nothing about Mexican (Tex-mex?) food or cooking. My mom didn’t really even know what a taco was. I described it to her and she went out and bought some packaged taco shells, ground beef and a can of tomato sauce. She cooked it up with no seasoning, just a little salt and pepper. They were disgusting. I cried. Eventually my mom figured out that you could buy the seasoning package and whip up a gringo version of tacos with relative ease and soon taco night became an important event in our house. read more+++

A couple of weekends ago we barbecued with our friend Katie in the suburbs (well, technically the outskirts of the city). This might not seem newsworthy to you, but for apartment dwellers without access to a grill it was a very special and eagerly anticipated event—the opportunity to perform an important ritual of summer and try out a couple of the grill recipes I have been collecting. I am still kind of amazed that we are now people who grill-out, not just the children of people who grill. It seems so adult. I guess we are also buying houses, having babies and opening our own businesses- so maybe grilling shouldn’t be such a surprise.

The day started off with rain and grey skies, but as we pulled into her driveway the clouds parted and we were awarded the perfect summer day—hot in the sun, cool in the shade with blue skies and big fluffy clouds. It was a BBQ miracle and the perfect early summer evening.

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