Sara's Weeknight Meals

Quick to make and much beloved, tacos are a staple on the weekday dinner table. Sara has her own recipe for duck tacos, then travels to Miami to learn a Cuban taco mashup with blogger Patty Ruiz – chicken vaca frita tacos. Almost a taco but just as good – Sara’s nacho pie.

When it’s hot and muggy outside Sara keeps things cool with three recipes made without turning on the oven. First, seafood gazpacho to use all the bounty from the garden. Grilled steak tops a cool mushroom and tomato salad, and then, a refreshing watermelon screwdriver.

In Turkey, they have a meatball on a stick called simit kebabs. Sara travels to the farm of a Turkish cooking teacher to learn to make them along with pear salsa and quince liquor. In Catalonia, Sara joins local cook Juame Vidal to make meatball tapas with peas from his garden. Moroccan meatball tagine with couscous is achievable with a slow cooker, and master Michele Scicolone shows us how.

Holidays call for big celebrations with friends and family! Sara has the perfect recipes for any occasion. For Thanksgiving, roasted glazed pears topped with shortbread pecan brittle and crème fraiche. For Christmas Eve, a comforting warm chocolate cheesecake. And for Christmas morning, super quick sticky buns that don’t require yeast. Sara answers a viewer’s question about vanilla beans.

Sara’s viewers love 5-ingredient recipes, so why not six? Her frittata has a secret ingredient – leftover spaghetti – enlivened with rich brie and bacon. You could save the spaghetti from another favorite – peppery broccoli pasta with feta. Her duck confit with braised leeks and sauerkraut is nice enough for company. Plus, Sara answers a viewer’s question about flattened chicken breasts.

Spot prawns are so beloved in Vancouver they have an entire festival to celebrate when they're in season. Sara learns fascinating facts about the critters from a local commercial fisherman, then joins a Vancouver home cook to prepare a spot prawn risotto. Prawns are also on the menu at the other end of the continent in Miami where a Cuban grandmother shows Sara her recipe for camarones enchilados.

Who doesn’t love Italian food? Sara’s got some of your favorites made with a twist. Like delicious ravioli made with wonton skins to save time, or lasagna made with polenta rather than noodles. For a show stopper, try her butternut squash farrotto, just like risotto but with the ancient grain farro. On top, delicious fried sage.

Chinese immigrants were the backbone of Vancouver as Sara discovers on a culinary tour of Chinatown. At a local tea shop, she learns to make two deceptively simple appetizers cooked with tea. Local Judy Lam Maxwell shows her a Chinese dumpling mashup filled with Korean bulgogi. At home, Sara races the clock to prove she can make Chinese takeout faster than it can be delivered from a restaurant.

Sara travels to Juneau to learn how locals are turning wild and foraged food into culinary delights. She talks to a fish biologist about wild salmon's journey to return to their home streams. She learns the traditional way to make Cedar Planked Salmon and foraged sea asparagus with an Alaskan Native. Back home Sara shows us an easy way to make any fish with her salmon-in-a-bag with borscht beets.