This recipe was inspired by one of my favorite restaurant dishes in New Orleans: honey shrimp tempura with a wasabi cream sauce. For my own version, I made crispy shrimp croquettes flavored with lemon, scallions, and parsley, and topped it with a wasabi-spiked aioli. It's a great summer dish to enjoy with a nice cold beer!

Chili meets mac and cheese in this fix-it-and-forget-it slow-cooker dinner. Hot tomato sauce, a Mexican canned tomato sauce that also includes spices and chiles for heat, kicks up the flavor. If you can’t find hot tomato sauce, regular canned tomato sauce with a tablespoon of chili powder mixed in is a good substitute. You can cook the pasta separately and add it in at the end of cooking, or use our alternative method and cook the pasta in the slow cooker with a few adjustments listed below.

This caprese sandwich is fresh from the basil and hearty from thick, crusty ciabatta. The sun-dried tomatoes deepen the flavor. Topping the bread with a layer of basil leaves and using toasted bread helps to keep the sandwich from getting soggy if you need to make it a few hours ahead.