a mind-blowing, waistband-stretching dinner

Hi everyone. You may have noticed there was no mid-week Grazing in your inbox last week. That’s because I came down with a particularly grotesque sinus infection, and I could barely handle doing the job where the corporation sends me a paycheck, much less this one. So, hi! I’m back. I can breathe out both my nostrils again. Forgive my absence.

… these roasted chickpeas and red peppers with goat cheese from New York Times Cooking. Good grief. I’d forgotten the joy of a crispy chickpea.

This recipe was also an awesome vehicle for all the random peppers my garden continues to produce. For some reason, I forgot to take note when I sowed a ton of pepper seeds back in March, and then I accidentally threw away the seed packets, which contained valuable instructions, like how to plant the seedlings and, more importantly, what the hell type of seedlings these actually were.

I also had a few red potatoes laying around, which I sliced into thin wedges and added, because why not

I thought I’d planted serranos and red bell peppers. What I ended up with were small, shiny green peppers that look like miniature poblanos and these bizarre reddish peppers that are shaped like fat jalapeños and turn from a pale whitish-yellow to orange if you let them sit long enough on the bush. Neither is particularly spicy. I spent most of the summer being flummoxed by them and not really minding when one or two got snagged by squirrels. But finally, a better outcome: Both were great in this recipe.

… fruit-forward ice cream sundaes. For the past couple weeks, I’ve been doing some recipe testing for The Washington Post’s food section, which has been eye-opening and a lot of fun. Until starting, I hadn’t realized how much I tend to improvise — or course-correct — while cooking. Something seems too dry? Add more liquid! Something seems better chopped more finely? Chop it how you think you should chop it.

But when you’re recipe testing, you have to follow instructions. Always. As diligently as humanly possible. The whole point is to make sure the instructions work and to think of ways to improve them. It’s a meticulous process that you need to devote 100 percent of your attention to — and I’m loving it. The most recent thing I tested was a roasted fruit sauce, which I decided to serve on top of a chocolate sundae. The rich chocolate and tart fruit made for a winning combination, and I’ll definitely share the fruit sauce recipe once it’s published. I’m also going to try to codify my mom’s recipe for chocolate sauce, which is usually an exercise in eyeballing. Stay tuned!