Dairy

At Rioja, half of the bacon is replaced with ground fatback, a step that makes this excellent burger even better.

Babylonstoren's chef Maranda Engelbrecht uses exotic tamarillos. If you can get them, great. If not, tomatoes are your best swap.

Once a way to make use of stale tortillas (by toasting and/or frying them), tostadas are so good that it wasn't long before people simply started using fresh tortillas. After biting into these layers of flavor—crunchy, creamy, luscious—you'll see why.

Bubbling cheeses and tender spinach elevate store-bought gnocchi (look for it in the dried-pasta section).

This entire dish is right out of Rose and Ruthie's River Café playbook, with just a few tweaks of my own. They taught me how to make fonduta, a silky sauce rich with crème fraîche and egg yolks. It takes less time and just a bit more effort than tomato sauce, and turns a plate of pasta into an elegant and impressive meal. Get yourself some asparagus spears that are as thick as your pointer finger—not those thin or sprouty ones—and you'll enjoy the juicy slivers in each bite.

Here, the building blocks of Scottish cranachan are brought together in a different guise, layered into an alternately crisp, creamy, and fruity cheesecake. It's not as rustically simple as the dessert that inspired it, but it does, I think, stay true to cranachan's ingredient-centric ethos, with honey, raspberries, whiskey, and oats in perfect balance.

This moist, simple cake has a tender golden crumb and a subtle citrus flavor. I love a thin slice—okay, a thick slice—in the middle of the afternoon with coffee, but it's also well matched with summer berries and stone fruits. My husband enjoys it for breakfast. Accompany the cake and fruit with a dollop of the Yogurt Cream, if you like. In winter, pair the cake with a citrus compote or poached quince. This recipe is adapted from one given to me by Bill Corbett, executive pastry chef for the Absinthe Group in San Francisco, who uses yogurt frequently in his desserts. The cake stays moist for a week if stored in a lidded plastic cake container.

All the flavors of guacamole meet up in this creamy soup, with yogurt adding body and refreshment. Serve with pita or tortilla chips. For lunch, add a salad of frisée, jicama, and oranges. For dinner, serve in small portions and follow with grilled ribs, grilled salmon, or just about anything grilled.

Creamy, sweet carrot purée takes the place of tomato sauce in this unexpected spring pizza.

Raisins have a long shelf life and are great for a boost of energy. I was walking on a cold boardwalk, quite a ways from home, when a pang of hunger attacked. I was wearing my ski jacket-an ideal jacket for the beach in the winter and also ideal for storage with its plentiful pockets for goggles, headphones, keys, money, credit cards, lip balm, sunblock, and Starburst. There are always a few raisins tucked away somewhere (long pocket life?), too; same in this recipe-hidden and sweetly surprising.

Talk about a showstopper! A stack of traditional flapjacks with butter and syrup is fabulous enough as is, but here we're taking that idea into mind-blowing dessert territory. 

Though good with any fresh vegetable, this sharp, creamy feta dip, smoothed with a little buttermilk, is exceptional with crisp spring radishes. Much as in the combination above, salt and fat mellow any heat from the raw radishes. Cheesemaker Mary Rigdon of Decimal Place Farm has been brining her goat's milk feta to order for us every week since Miller Union opened. If you have a local farmers' market that sells fresh cheeses, look there first for good-quality feta. I love the little pink, purple, or red garden variety radishes for this dip.