I’ve always enjoyed beans. Growing up, I would scoop up Fritos Bean Dip with abandon. my family would bring two cans to The Lake on weekends — an extra one, I suspect, for me.

As summer sets in, I’ve noticed myself going so far as to pick up bean dip cans and Fritos and nearly put them in my shopping basket. Fortunately, a little voice in my head says “You can make your own bean dip. Put down the can and step away from the Fritos.”

Last night, I made a new bean dip. This one’s bright green, as green as wasabi, and made with fava beans. Inspired by Gourmet’s Arugula Fava Bean crostini recipe, I decided to take some basil and parsley from my herb garden and whir them through my food processor a cup and a half or so of shelled, blanched and peeled favas and some seasonings. I let these beans process quite a while, until the mixture was really smooth. I was trying to replicate bean dip, you see.

The result is quite nice. The bean dip is packed with flavor, but a more mature one than the bean dip of summers past.

By the way, if you can’t find fresh favas (or don’t want to take the time to shell, boil for 2 minutes and peel) feel free to use defrosted frozen edamame. The flavor will be different, but still good.

Fava Bean Dip

About 2 pounds fava beans in-shell (or 1 1/2 cups frozen edamame, blanched)

1/2 cup fresh mixed herbs (basil and parsley work well)

1 clove garlic, coarsely chopped

About 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

2 tablespoons olive oil

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

To prepare favas:

Shell beans. Toss shelled beans in a pot of boiling water and cook for 2 minutes. Drain and rinse. When cool enough to handle, peel outer membrane and discard.

Combine peeled fava beans with remaining ingredients and process until smooth and paste-like. Add more olive oil or lemon juice if needed. Adjust salt to taste.

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Since the piece about my love of plain yogurt was printed a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been hounded by coworkers about making homemade yogurt. Some were shocked to find out that I’ve never made my own. Clearly, those who have made yogurt before thought I was up to the task.

So, last night I decided to try to save the dregs of my yogurt container and a quart of milk that was soon to go bad by attempting homemade yogurt.

I did a bit of internet research and consulted a couple of cookbooks at home. There’s really only one method if you don’t have a yogurt maker. The active part is pretty easy. Heat the milk until it begins to steam (about 180 degrees). Let cool until lukewarm. Add a couple tablespoons of yogurt. Let sit overnight in a warm place.

I woke up this morning thinking about my incubating bacteria. I was so excited to see if my yogurt worked. When I checked the container, it looked kind of viscous — a good sign. So, I dipped a spoon in it. The yogurt wasn’t really firm, it was more like creme fraiche, but it smelled great. I chalked up the thin consistency to me letting the milk and cultures getting too cold overnight. I just couldn’t bring myself to set my oven low while I was sleeping.

Next time, I’ll find a heating pad or maybe try to make it while I’m at home and can keep a closer eye on the kitchen.

Have you ever tried to make homemade yogurt? How did you do it? Do you have a fail-safe method?

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A couple of weeks ago, my fiancé, Brian, spotted this Buffalo shrimp recipe in Gourmet magazine. Yes, this month’s issue of Gourmet has a recipe for Buffalo sauce-soaked meat. The idea, though a very good one, isn’t terribly creative. Shrimp plus Buffalo sauce is a combination that I should have thought of by myself. However, I didn’t.

There’s not much to making Buffalo shrimp. Season large raw shrimp with olive oil, salt and pepper. Grill it for about 3 1/2 minutes on each side, until pink. Remove. Mix equal parts melted butter and Frank’s RedHot sauce. Toss shrimp in sauce. Serve with bleu cheese dressing and celery sticks. Admittedly, the dressing in the recipe is supposed to be homemade, but we used Litehouse Bleu Cheese because, well, it tastes really good.

Since this little shrimp adventure, I’ve been thinking of all of the wonderful things that could be improved by adding a bit of Buffalo sauce: chips, crackers, grilled veggies, burgers, etc.

What about you? What would you Buffalo-up?

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Today’s video debuts of one of my favorite activities with kids: cooking. Little ones like to be part of the cooking process sometimes even more than they like the results. Take a little bit of time to prepare before you start and your cooking will be smooth (well as smooth as possible for cooking with youngsters.)

This video features my nephew, Quique, 4, and my niece, Mimi, 3. I think it’s pretty safe to say that we all had a really good time making these bird’s nest cookies. Here’s the story and recipe.

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It’s summertime, the season of ketchup and mustard and relish. But the reigning condiment king that is ketchup, I discovered, has become a rare find on the tables of my friends and family.

I really only break it out when creating the perfect burger. When I was a kid, I loved eating it with scrambled eggs, pork chops and just about any savory breakfast food.

Even my friend, Kelsie, who would eat ketchup on almost everything when she was growing up, has found a sauce she favors over ketchup: A1 Steak Sauce. When asked what she puts it on (she’s a vegetarian) she said “everything I used to put ketchup on, anything.”

My sister, Shana, chimed in that she rarely takes the ketchup bottle out of the fridge (admittedly, she’s never been a big fan.) A quick poll of everybody we were with concluded that ketchup has fallen by the wayside, except on burgers during the summertime.

None of us could really determine why ketchup has been relegated to the cupboard or fridge. I know that I eat way less fast food than I did when I was younger, and there’s no doubt ketchup goes fantastically on lots of fast food, maybe that’s why. Who knows?

Have you begun neglecting ketchup, too? Do you have any theories as to what’s behind the dethroning of king ketchup?

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On Wednesday, Kathryn Stevens and I made a quick jaunt to the Wenatchee Valley Farmers Market on Worthen Street. I’m still amazed by how much our area is already producing. I bought a couple of pounds of fava beans like I did last week and plan to make another light fava salad, maybe for dinner tonight. In addition, I bought a nice, large head of cauliflower.

When I have vegetables that I don’t already have plans for, I head over to the blog 101Cookbooks. There, blogger Heidi Swanson shares the most delicious-sounding recipes. Her posts have inspired many of my favorite vegetable experiments, including roasted Brussels sprouts. So it was with great gusto yesterday that I chopped up my cauliflower and made two, count ‘em, two of her cauliflower recipes: Cauliflower Soup with Gorgonzola and Roasted Cauliflower Popcorn.

One of the best parts of yesterday’s cauliflower dinner is that I didn’t have to go to the store to gather any other ingredients. I admit that I made a couple of substitutions, equal parts yogurt and heavy cream in place of the creme fraiche for the soup and dried chili flakes in place of the fresh red chili pepper called for in the cauliflower popcorn.

As long as you have cauliflower and some good cheese (one that will melt, hopefully) you might not have to go to the store either. Although a trip to tomorrow’s farmer’s market may be in order if only for some cauliflower and gorgeous summertime blooms to brighten your kitchen.

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Sometimes, it’s the simple things that taste the best. Like sliced strawberries with whipped cream.

My mom likes to tell about the visits she took to Wisconsin when she was a kid. She’ll tell about the time she was inside her grandma’s house and lightning struck just down the driveway. Or the time she and her cousin, Linda, tied a pickling cucumber to string and hid in the bushes waiting to move it along the street when cars drove by, hoping to confuse the cars’ poor drivers.

She also likes to tell us how her grandfather had fruit topped with cream every evening. So it was with a nod to my late great-grandfather that I happily ate my latest purchase of strawberries with some homemade whipped cream. Yeah, I whipped the cream, so I didn’t exactly follow his lead, but it was an inspiration nonetheless.

Tonight, maybe I’ll go purist, and just pour some cream over the berries.

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Remember the scape and radish leaf pesto I made last week? Well, I kept thinking I should make some pasta to eat with it but I haven’t been in a pasta mood. I’m pretty sure it’s because pasta is what I eat all winter long. I’m kind of tired of pasta if that’s possible. Right now I just want some vegetables.

So, instead of making pasta sauce from my radish leaf and garlic scape pesto, I made it into salad dressing. Oh yeah, salad dressing. I love how pesto is so versatile and so flavorful. If you have leftover pesto of any kind, you can make it into dressing. I added yogurt and mayonnaise to mine (a bit of buttermilk would have been perfect to thin it out some more, too) but you can make a vinaigrette-type dressing by adding white or red wine vinegar and some olive oil and shaking vigorously. The proportions of the mayo, yogurt, buttermilk or vinegar and olive oil are really up to you. We all have different tastebuds.

Pesto, it seems, has endless possibilities and is so much fun.

What do you do with extra pesto?

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My mom and I were at Costco the other day violating the number one rule of grocery shopping and shopping while we were both hungry. I ended up leaving the store with a huge hunk of Gorgonzola cheese (planning to go halvesies with my mom), a big tray of strawberries, a bowl of chicken salad and a pack of different salamis.

With my cheeses already at home and the Gorgonzola, plans were quickly coming together in my head for an easy weeknight meal. I couldn’t wait to slice some cheese and place it on a plate with the cured meats.

Last night, knowing I’d need some bread with my meats and cheeses, I sliced a few baguette rounds, drizzled them with olive oil and toasted them. A couple of tomato slices graced the tops of some and were roasted along with the toast. All in all, it was a good meal, the cheese and meat were flavorful and good, but the tomatoes took home the prize. I just can’t wait until I have my own home grown ones.

This meal came together so quickly, and though the weather wasn’t hot, it would be great on a hot day. A few olives would have really rounded it out nicely. Next time, next time.

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Need I say more?

Cherry season is upon us. Bright, plump and colorful, few things make me happier than cherries. It’s not because I love cherries so much (don’t get me wrong, I certainly like cherries a lot.) My joy in cherry season stems from the fact that cherry season marks the beginning of fruit season altogether.

Seeing a ripe black cherry means that soon we’ll see ripe Rainiers. Then come apricots, some as big as apples, others as small as grapes (very large grapes). Then peaches, oh peaches, arrive. Globes of fuzzy skin surrounding delicate sweet interiors. After that it’s my favorite fruit: nectarines. Nectarines, so juicy and tangy and sweet, are maybe the best fruit of summer (though I like good plums, pears and apples, too.)

A bowl of cherries is so much more than just a bowl of cherries. It’s apricots, peaches, plums, nectarines, pears and apples. It’s the promise of summer. The reason we put up with 95-degree summer afternoons — and 10-degree winter mornings.

What are you looking forward to this summer?

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