(Image credit: Christine Han)

A creamy, comforting bowl of risotto can be yours for the eating even on a weeknight. Add grated zucchini for a healthy helping of summer vegetables; chop some fresh, fragrant basil; and, of course, throw in a few handfuls of Parmesan cheese and you have a delicious vegetarian dinner to enjoy. Yes, there’s some stirring involved, but pour yourself a glass of wine and put on a podcast or some music, and let the repetition be a relaxing meditation on the deliciousness to come.

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(Image credit: Joe Lingeman)

Just about every recipe for homemade ice cream calls for an ice cream maker, but what if you don’t have one?

Well, it certainly doesn’t mean that homemade ice cream is out of the question for you! You don’t actually need an ice cream maker to make a cool and creamy treat at home. Here are five ways to make ice cream without an ice cream maker.

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Our wedding photographer insisted that we needed a wedding cake, despite our insistence that the very small, non-traditional event didn’t need one. You see, even as a trained pastry professional, I didn’t want to add a cake to my to-do list for our handmade wedding. When our photographer persisted that we’d need something to cut into — he swore we’d regret not having photos of it later — my soon-to-be husband had the perfect solution: Let’s throw a wedding dessert potluck and make other people do the work.

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I really don’t know who designates days to be all about a certain food. The industry? Intensely enthusiastic fans of Nutella, Fig Newtons, and Peach Melba? Well, whomever decided that today is National Burger Day seems right on time. Memorial Day is here and the holiday kicks off a whole summer of burgers — are they in your menu plans?

From a tutorial on grilling the juiciest burger ever to lots of vegetarian burgers (including my own favorite, black bean and edamame burgers — yum!), we have 10 recipes to get National Burger Day off to a good start!

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(Image credit: Maria Siriano)

Pasta salad, when assembled correctly, is sublime. A great pasta salad is the star of any backyard barbecue or picnic potluck. All too often, though, it is subject to mediocrity, thanks to too much mayo, squishy pasta, and not enough salt. Don’t make these common mistakes! Let this be the year you master the perfect pasta salad.

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(Image credit: Joe Lingeman)

Bringing a side dish to cookouts (and really any potluck) always feels a little bit like Thanksgiving dinner for me. I’m itching to go off-script, to prepare something new, exciting, and adventurous, while the rest of the family wants nothing but the classics. This slaw is the compromise where everybody wins. It ditches the standard shredded cabbage for a duo of crunchy chopped florets for a fresh spin. It’s an instant hit with this broccoli- and cauliflower-loving crowd! The creamy tang of the lightened-up classic dressing will satisfy even the most ardent coleslaw devotees.

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Potato chips are usually subjected to being served alongside sandwiches or eaten by the bagful at pool parties, but they actually can be one heck of a fancy snack to feature at your party — so much so that I guarantee guests will be raving about them. All the chips need are these five quick and easy upgrades.

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When it’s time to buy a new fridge, it can feel like there are about a thousand options — single door, French doors, freezer on the top, freezer on the bottom, stainless steel or not. The list goes on, but luckily we’re here to break it all down for you, including one more feature you probably didn’t even know existed before you started your refrigerator research.

Here’s the question: Should you get a counter-depth or a standard-depth fridge? The answer, of course, is that it depends.

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(Image credit: Maria Siriano)

This cake might look the most simple take on our one-bowl vanilla cake, but it has a delicious, ingenious tip that sets it apart from any other cake: The subtly sweet frosting is brightened with Greek yogurt. That’s right, part of the butter in the classic American-style buttercream is replaced with Greek yogurt for a naked cake that is more flavorful than a fully frosted cake any day.

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