Recipes

A friend remarked about a similar baked tortellini dish at a restaurant, so I wanted to try re-creating it for her at home. My stovetop version makes it weeknight easy.

Capers, golden raisins and fresh basil give this dish a sweetly savory flavor. And what's better than that? The kids LOVE it.

With a sweet, fruity addition and a generous amount of addictive crumbs, your favorite Southern side is about to become your favorite dessert.

This chicken and dressing casserole epitomizes comfort. It blends tender chicken with a savory, spice-infused dressing and is ideal for cozy weeknight dinners or festive gatherings.

This entree is unbelievably simple to prepare yet tastes delicious. The fact that you use frozen ravioli—straight from the bag without boiling or thawing—saves so much time.

Apple Strudel ("Apfelstrudel") is a typical and beloved Austrian dessert. This is my granny's recipe -- and I've never had any better tasting Apple Strudel. I think it would be awfully impolite not to share this outstanding piece of dessert with you. Hell, it took Austria at least two dynasties of decadent monarchs to come up with delicious treats like that while ignoring things like international relations and world politics. I hope the length of the recipe doesn’t scare you off. This is just because I explained everything in detail. For accuracy, I recommend measuring everything by weight if you can. Enjoy!

This recipe came about primarily because I wanted a reason to make a batch of cajeta (adapted from Leite's Culinaria: http://leitesculinaria.com/85946/recipes-cajeta.html). (For those that aren’t familiar with cajeta, it’s basically dulce de leche made from goat milk. The goat milk gives it a wonderful tangy flavor, and I have been obsessed with it since I made my first batch.)

When I was a kid, my dad used to set bananas on fire in the frying pan by pouring alcohol on them. It was a little stunt he had and we were madly impressed every time. We asked him to do it often, even though we actually weren’t too fond of the taste of the bananas. Today I have grown to love those flavors. I don’t set my peaches on fire, but I think they make a pretty good dessert anyway.

Yes, I may have baked this pie specifically so that I could eat pie for breakfast. It's important to have your priorities straight! The leftovers made a good dessert, though. I wanted to make plum pie because I've been reading the children's book "Each Peach Pear Plum" to my son a lot lately. It ends with "Plum pie in the sun, I spy everyone!" And all the characters look so happy eating the pie and plum pie sounds so appealing, and I realized I had never made a plum pie. So I did. I threw in a handful of raspberries because I had some that needed using. Raspberries always make baked goods even just a little bit better, in my opinion! The crust is from Joanne Chang's Flour cookbook. It's my current favorite.

My family has always loved this flavorful golden brown chicken. I watch for frequent sales on leg quarters to keep the cost per serving low.