Awesome Vegetable Bean and Noodle Casserole recipe
Flat cat cookies, the gleefully gruesome Halloween treat. Roll out refrigerated sugar cookie dough, cut roadkill cat shapes, add red candy eyes and a drizzle of jam blood. Easy enough for kids.
Butter pecan pie crust: a four-ingredient shortbread-style crust with chopped pecans pressed into a 9-inch pie plate. Press in, bake 15 minutes, fill with cheesecake, custard, or icebox pie filling.
Savory mini corn muffins topped with smoked turkey and cranberry relish make elegant two-bite appetizers for holiday entertaining.
Slow cooker ground beef and bacon stroganoff in a creamy mushroom soup and red wine sauce with sour cream, spooned over toasted buns. Just 15 minutes of prep for a 4-hour hands-off dinner.
Salmon Basel Style is a traditional Swiss preparation - flour-dredged fillets pan-fried in butter, topped with golden onion rings, and finished with a quick fish stock pan sauce.
All Bran bread soaked overnight in strong tea with mixed dried fruit and golden syrup. A dense, malty British tea bread that improves with age, served sliced and buttered.
Heritage recipe for homemade dried yeast patties made from sourdough starter, rye flour, cornmeal, and ginger. An old-world self-sufficiency skill for bakers who want to make their own leavening from scratch.
Double chocolate oat cookies in the Aussie Anzac style: cocoa dough studded with chocolate chips, oats, and coconut, bound with golden syrup, then finished with a dark chocolate drizzle. Crisp, chewy, and deeply chocolatey.
Classic chocolate chip cookies with butter-flavored Crisco, brown sugar, and walnuts. Crispy edges and chewy centers in 30 minutes. Makes 3 dozen cookies perfect for any occasion.
Silky smooth cream soup with tender chicken in a buttery roux base. Ready in 25 minutes and rich enough to serve as a main course. Bonus: swap chicken for cheese to make it vegetarian.
Farmer's yeast starter, the old-fashioned way. Hops, potatoes, honey, and whole wheat flour build a wild, lively starter for hand-raised loaves. Refrigerator-keeper.
Pissaladiere-style pizza with caramelized leeks, roasted eggplant, roasted peppers, capers, basil, and balsamic vinegar on a homemade whole wheat crust. Vegan-friendly.
Glazed raspberry fudge cake is a flourless-style chocolate cake brushed with raspberry preserves, then coated in a glossy rum-chocolate glaze. Dense, moist, and finished with fresh raspberries for the ultimate dinner-party showstopper.
Cajun file gumbo with canned salmon, okra, and the holy trinity simmered down and finished with file powder. A Lafayette-style one-pot supper served over hot rice.
Nut Crunch Muffins recipe
Low-fat fudgy chocolate cake made with buttermilk, strong coffee, and cocoa powder, topped with a glossy cooked chocolate icing. No butter needed.
My version of easy cinnamon rolls that used a box of cake mix.
These are extremely low in fat, and the taste is more slightly bitter dark chocolate than the milk-chocolate sweet of most brownies, however if you love chocolate, they're a great treat!
These raspberry almond bars are not only good during Christmas...
Broiled pineapple fanned over crisp puff pastry rounds, pooled with a creamy pina colada sauce of coconut milk, rum, and egg yolks, dotted with strawberry syrup. Tropical dinner-party dessert.
Green peppercorn bread: a rustic German rye and wheat sourdough flavored with green peppercorns soaked in apple juice. Earthy, fragrant, faintly peppery, made the traditional leavened way.
Classic Greek beef moussaka layered with golden eggplant, pan-fried potato slices, spiced ground beef in tomato, and a fluffy bechamel topped with Romano and a whisper of nutmeg.
Lobster and roasted corn chowder with bacon, smoked ham hock, and a Southwestern kick from jalapeño and green chiles. A creamy bowl built from a lobster-stock base and pan-charred corn kernels.
Layers of tender chicken, sliced red potatoes, carrots, and sweet peas blanketed in creamy Swiss cheese sauce. Made entirely in the microwave for a fast weeknight dinner.
Smoky ancho-spiced cornbread flapjacks studded with sweet red onions and spiked with beer for the ultimate chili side that soaks up every drop of sauce.
Crockpot paprika chicken: a slow-cooker version of Hungarian-style chicken paprikash. Tender chicken simmered all day with sweet paprika, tomatoes, peppers, and a sour cream finish. Serve over egg noodles.
Gingerbread is my all-time favorite. This is one of my most-loved recipes for making gingerbread. The spices add just enough hint, and it's delicious.
Gingerbread pancakes turn weekend breakfast into the holidays: molasses, cinnamon, and ginger fold into a fluffy buttermilk-style batter with raisins. Ready in under twenty minutes from bowl to griddle.
Flour-dredged chicken browned and baked until tender, then finished with heavy cream, plump oysters, and slivered almonds. A classic, old-world surf-and-turf casserole.
Hungarian paprika schnitzel: veal cutlets dredged in seasoned flour, seared with paprika-laced onions, and braised gently in sour cream. A classic Central European supper dish.
Vegetarian Creole bean casserole loaded with bell pepper, celery, garlic, and tomatoes, topped with crispy breadcrumbs. Serve over rice with salsa for a hearty meatless meal.
Quick breakfast bread loaded with cereal nuggets, raisins, and orange zest. No yeast, no kneading, just stir and bake for a loaf with crunch in every slice.
Plump shucked oysters in a buttery cream sauce seasoned with mace and nutmeg, spooned into flaky patty shells. A classic seafood appetizer or elegant holiday main course.
Rich vegetable gumbo built on a dark roux, loaded with bell peppers, onions, celery, carrots, kale, and black-eyed peas. A hearty plant-based take on Louisiana's signature stew.
Homemade flour tortillas made with just flour, salt, lard, and water. Soft, blistered tortillas in three sizes from a 4-ingredient dough that beats anything store-bought.
Buttery spiced fig thumbprint cookies, tender brown-sugar dough rolled in a crunchy flax-sugar coating and filled with jammy fig preserves. Warm cinnamon and nutmeg make them a standout on the holiday cookie tray.
Grilled pizza cooked right on the charcoal grates for a smoky, blistered, chewy-crisp crust, topped lightly with fontina, romano, fresh tomato, and basil. The bold technique that beats any oven pie.
Fudgy cocoa brownies piled high with marshmallows, peanut butter chips, and crushed cookies, then topped with a thick chocolate peanut icing. A bake sale showstopper.
Rabbit cake is an old-fashioned Pennsylvania Dutch comfort bake: tender deboned rabbit layered with creamy potato filling and a simple stock gravy, then baked until golden and bubbling. Frugal, deeply savory.
Beef round steak cubes braised for 3 hours with mushrooms, wine, and Italian herbs in a rich tomato-consommé sauce, served over spaghetti. Fork-tender, deeply flavored, and worth every minute.
Deep-fried Camembert dredged in mustard-herb flour and a spicy bread crumb crust with chili powder and cayenne. Crackling-crisp outside, molten cheese inside. A 30-second appetizer.
Two-crust tuna quiche with leben (Middle Eastern fermented milk), eggs, cheddar, and mushroom sauce. Pantry-friendly weeknight dinner from a quick puff pastry pie.
Old-fashioned slice-and-bake butterscotch cookies loaded with brown sugar and chopped nuts. Chill the dough in a log, slice into rounds, and bake in just 10 minutes.
Herb-crusted rack of lamb seared and finished with compound herb butter, served over mesquite-grilled pepper ragout with socca and olive tapenade. Restaurant-level Provencal cooking.
An elegant German zucchini cake with coconut, candied cherries, rum, and lemon, lightened with whipped egg whites and finished in a glossy chocolate glaze. Baked in a traditional Rehruecken mold for a stunning presentation.
Serve with lightly dressed salad greens, tossed with tomatoes, then finish with pineapple chunks spooned over yogurt.
French pear tart with almond frangipane, kirsch-soaked apricot glaze, and vanilla-poached pears. Crushed macaroons fold into the pastry cream for chewy depth, finished with green pistachios.