After a weekend of decadent wedding food and, horror of all horrors, two pit stops at McD’s, I came home craving, yearning for my the fresh veggies from my latest farm share.

Not long after arriving at home, a pile of peppers, bunches of carrots, and one large, firm, brilliant head of cabbage found themselves on the chopping block, awaiting shredding by my lethally powerful Cuisinart.

A bit of mayonnaise, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and mustard later, and I was delving into a crunchy, tangy, refreshing, and so-satisfying bowl of tangy mustard cole slaw.

There are certain recipes that, for no very good reason, we keep in the culinary attic – treasures that remind us of good-times gone by, but that we oh-so-rarely trot out. Stuffed peppers are just that type of treasure – a meal that my mother cooked perfectly and frequently that is as unpretentious as it is delicious.

Herbed and spiced meatballs stuffed inside of fresh peppers, blanketed in a light, fresh marinara sauce and baked until bubbly and aromatic. Serve with a big heaping of garlic bread, a big glass of red wine, and lots of napkins (they tend to get messy!) and enjoy a little march down memory lane.

Some much anticipated and celebration-worthy news flowed into the Besotted kitchen last week, to which, the only appropriate response was a confection that screamed “CELEBRATION!”

Now, normally, when eyeing the dessert section of my cookbooks and magazines, I tend towards the rustic sophisticate desserts – things like modern Apple Tarte Tatin, Honey Cream Peach Pie, Strawberry Rhubarb Pie – basically, anything that is part throw-back, part modern chic, baked into a buttery crust.

One of my favorite things to do is hop on the treadmill at my gym, getting pumped for a nice 5-6 mile run, complete with elevations and surges, and pop on the Food Network (yes, I go to one of those fancy-shmancy gyms with TVs on every treadmill) to watch Ina smear some innocent bird with 10 pounds of butter, or Giada daintily mix three pounds of cheese into a casserole.

A tad incongruous, yes, but there is nothing I like better than working up a VERY big appetite (mine is quite substantial without the long run), whilst watching cooking shows and gathering ideas for that night’s supper.

I know I’ve been bad about posting lately, but, it’s been with good reason. It’s not that I haven’t been cooking – I have – I’ve just been cooking some of my favorite, comforting, familiar dishes. I love those dishes that I’ve cooked a couple dozen times, don’t need to look at a recipe, don’t need to make a grocery list before heading to the store, and can cook lazily and absent-mindedly, while letting my mind ponder other things.

Unfortunately, repetition and familiarity don’t produce any new Besotted posts…. So, I thumbed through my cookbooks and magazines until I found the dish that would snap me out of my culinary lethargy and back into the exciting world of experimentation, and this recipe was it.

A few months back, I was faced with the dilemma of making David Leibovitz’s Salty Peanut Butter Cookies with Caramel or Alice Medrich’s Salted Peanut Butter Toffee Cookies. Similar not just in name, but in ingredient list and likely outcome, I took the road more-oft traveled and chose the recipe with an accompanying picture, David’s Salty Peanut Butter Cookies with Caramel. For those of you that read the post, you will recall that I was less than thrilled with the outcome. It wasn’t bad – it is a sweet and salty cookie covered in caramel – but, it was a bit too dry and not sweet enough for my taste, and it left me wondering what Alice’s cookie would have been like.

As an aside, why is it that we can only conceive of a recipe being good if it has a scrumptious picture by its side. Surely, there have been some spectacular dishes made with no SLR camera sitting conveniently nearby. It requires a leap of faith, but I dare everyone that reads this post to go into their cookbooks and pick one recipe that does NOT have a recipe accompanying it. Some of my favorite dishes have been those tucked away obscurely into the recesses of my cookbooks, and I never would have discovered them had I been photo-only prejudiced.

Things have been a little hectic around Chez Besotted lately, but the brisk Fall air, ushering in the change of seasons has me very excited for some of my cold weather favorites – chicken stock and soup, pies, and scones, and braised meats.

But, there’s still just enough summer left in the air for a de-constructed Summer tomato sauce, made with farm-fresh tomatoes. This is a no-cook, light and easy week-night dinner (unless you count cooking the pasta) that really capitalizes on the flavor and brightness of local tomatoes.