Well, my baby just turned 16. How the heck does that happen so fast? The boy was carrying his binky around just yesterday, it seems; now he’s eating us out of house and home and asking for the car keys. But I have to give him credit: When it comes to food, he’s willing to eat just about anything. I made a fresh asparagus and goat cheese tart last month and the kid didn’t bat an eye. His brothers would have died of starvation before even considering a bite. Are your kids picky? Do you have any tricks to get them to try a bite of something? Join the conversation in our Facebook group, and tell me all about your no-good, vegetable-sneaking ways.

Have the zucchini started invading your garden yet? We’re looking for some new ways to use zucchini for our Tasty Ten feature. Keep in mind that the feature offers ten quick tips or easy instructions, not complete recipes. Share your ideas with us via Facebook on the Tasty Ten zucchini thread.

As a side note, August 8th is National Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day. It would totally make my day to see a picture of you sneaking a giant zucchini onto someone’s porch. Come on…go for it! But if you get caught, I know nothing. (Wink wink.)

A few notes of business. We’ve made some changes to the Submit a Recipe page—mostly just renaming some of the existing fields to encourage the kinds of responses our editors are looking for. I don’t know about you, but the question, “Why is this recipe special to you?” has stumped me a time or two. The recipe I was submitting wasn’t necessarily special to me, it was just tasty and worth sharing. Information that used to go into the Notes section should now be entered into Recipe Tips or Variations. Use this space to your advantage! Variations are a great way to provide our food editors with options. If your recipe can be prepared using a few different methods or adapted with different flavors, include that information. It could be the distinction that puts your recipe ahead of the others.

I know some of you are going to read this newsletter and think, Ugh! Everything is on Facebook—I don’t DO Facebook. Please understand that I know there are a handful of folks who don’t use social media, specifically Facebook and that’s okay. These requests aren’t mandatory. Anything that’s important can be sent using a method everyone is comfortable with. I promise.

Happy cooking, my friends!
Sue Stetzel
sue.stetzel@tmbi.com