This month, welcome Sara Bir. Sara Bir is the author of two cookbooks, Tasting Ohio and the IACP award-winning The Fruit Forager’s Companion. She also moderates and replies to your comments here on Simply Recipes. Follow her @sausagetarian.

Unfailingly, by the time we make it to dinner, it feels like a small victory. Really, it’s just the march of time, but after jobs and workouts and walking the dog and folding the laundry in between checking emails, getting to sit down to dinner feels like a real reward.

I like having dinner to look forward to. Do you find it’s one of the few times you sit down with no agenda? If so, that’s a small victory you can savor every day. Here are five recipes you can look forward to this week, plus the beloved weekend baking!