simplycook

More reasons to love the 3-ingredient crème brûlée hack? It can be made up to 3 days ahead as long as you wait to brûlée the sugar on top right before serving. Store the baked custard, tightly covered, in the refrigerator and bring it out an hour before serving to get it to room temperature. Plus, this is a great recipe to make with kids. They can help melt, whisk, and pour the custard into the ramekins....

After a giant meal, the whole country seemed en route to something: doorbuster shopping deals, family and friends, another cocktail party, Christmas light displays, and to check off last-minute year-end errands. Nearly 20 years later, I’m here busily rumbling along with everyone else. The hustle and bustle of this week has me feeling unmoored, so I’ve gathered five comforting weeknight meals that can be doubled to enjoy for lunch the next day and for guests that stop by unannounced....

The good news is you can get along perfectly fine with just one inexpensive loaf pan. Or you can be like me and have so many, you need to store them in a plastic bin in the basement. Either way, this guide will walk you through. What Recipes Use a Loaf Pan? Besides the aforementioned banana bread, loaf pans are handy for baking meatloaf, pound cake, yeasted breads, and weird little casseroles you throw together with leftovers....

READ THIS: Important Safety Announcement! The most important step in this recipe happens before you even open your pack of bacon. Air frying bacon is very easy, but it can also be dangerous if you skip a simple yet important step. As the bacon air fries, it will render lots of fat. Without a buffer in the bottom of the basket, this fat will smoke as soon as it hits the hot base of the air fryer....

Canned Cream of Mushroom Soup Represents Endless Possibilities When my parents were first married, my mom pressed homemade tortillas and preserved homegrown tomatoes. Years later as a working parent, she found solace in Bisquick and a 9 x 13-inch pan. She bought cans of cream soup by the dozen when they were on sale. It could be cream of mushroom, or chicken, or celery; in terms of casseroles, they are interchangeable—another quality adding to their stress reduction value....

Sweet corn tossed with peppery arugula, bacon, onion, cumin, and wine vinegar to balance the sweet corn, and you have stimulated all the major tastes your tongue can perceive. If you have a grill, and the time, I highly recommend grilling the corn (in their husks) for this recipe; the smoky flavor just can’t be beat! Let the corn cool (can run under cold water to speed up the cooling), remove the husks and silk....

Take this banana sheet cake . Like our banana bread it has wonderful banana flavor, but with a little more sweetness and a tangy cream cheese frosting. One batch of this banana cake easily makes 30 servings, convenient for potlucks and tailgates. This recipe comes from my friend Kelsey Fischer and her mom Janeen. It’s is a family favorite of theirs. I’ve made a few slight adjustments to the recipe by adding some lemon juice to the cream cheese frosting to give it more tang, and then added some vanilla to the banana cake batter....

Before 2006, we usually attended a family friend’s Thanksgiving celebration or picked up an assortment of dishes from local establishments. That all changed, however, when as a soon-to-be seventh-grader, I started cooking with the aid of Food Network television shows (I credit Giada De Laurentiis with my love for Italian cuisine). Months after watching my first cooking show and fumbling around in the kitchen, I proudly declared that we would cook a Thanksgiving meal together as a family....

These cookies have it all: They are tender and taste great, but are also sturdy enough to support all the icing and decorations your heart desires. Cream Cheese Makes the Best Sugar Cookies These sugar cookies have a touch of vanilla extract, almond extract, and lemon zest in them to give them flavor! On top of that, they have a little bit of cream cheese as well. The cream cheese not only adds a subtle bit of tang to the cookie but also makes handling the dough easier as well....

Watch How to Make This Black Bean Soup Recipe The Ingredients for Black Bean Soup Soup like this is mostly an improvisation. The foundation ingredients are black beans, smoked ham hock or shank, onions, and spices. But even the ham hock or shank you could substitute with some good bacon or a thick cut of ham. Starting out with dry beans means that you can cook them (after a good soaking) for a long time with the smoky ham, allowing the flavor to really infuse the beans....

A good blue cheese sauce says, “Ignore everything else that’s happening and give me, and the burger you slathered me on, your full attention.” That’s just the way I like it. What Does This Blue Cheese Sauce Taste Like? Blue cheese sauce is assertive and salty, with a tangy garlic kick. This sauce is for the spirited among us. It’s for those who want their food to emerge from the shadows and be recognized....

I planted a small blueberry bush earlier this spring, only to watch it slowly lose leaves down to a few bare stems. Visions of blueberry glory, dashed! We’ve moved the plant to a new location, a bit more shaded, and planted a new blueberry bush near it, so (and this where the eternal hope comes in) maybe we’ll have some lovely blueberries next year. In the meantime, blueberries are plentiful in the market, thank goodness....

Unlike whole boiled or steamed lobster, which is almost impossible to eat delicately, with broiled lobster tail the work has already been done for you. The perfectly cooked meat sits atop the lobster’s bright red shell. All you have to do is cut and eat. Of course this requires a bit more effort on the part of the one preparing the lobster tail. The lobster’s hard shell must be cut open, the meat dislodged from the walls of the shell and pulled out to rest on top before broiling....

Why Candied Yams are The Best Thanksgiving Side Dish Candied yams are like a little preview of dessert, a treat for the sweet tooth before the serious business of pies and ice creams begin in earnest. As an adult, I now realize that candied yams properly occupy the middle position between the mashed potatoes and the cranberry sauce. Potatoes are starchy and rich with butter and cream, while the cranberry sauce is sweet and intensely tart....

But every now and then, something decent comes from all the insanity. One of my favorite memories from an otherwise mismatched roommate situation is learning how to make candy cane cookies. What Are Candy Cane Cookies? Though I have always loved to bake, my family wasn’t really into it — and the holidays were no exception. Holiday cookies were pretty much nonexistent in my home, and it wasn’t until I moved out that I discovered that holiday cookies were a thing....

To be fair, I haven’t met a cookie that I don’t like, but there’s something extra warm and homey about these cookies. It must be the soft, chewy texture of the oats paired with the salty, nutty peanut butter. Swoon! With simple ingredients and just a few steps, this recipe comes together in a snap. Bring them to a friend’s house, put them on a cookie tray or keep them in a cookie jar for those need-a-cookie moments....

Americans in particular love pad Thai with chicken, so we set out to adapt our master recipe, which calls for shrimp, to make it with chicken instead. The same method applies for both versions of pad thai, so if you haven’t made pad Thai before, it’s worth reading the first recipe for some great pointers. What Is in Pad Thai? Pad Thai is a rice noodle-based dish that’s often served with chopped peanuts, bean sprouts, scallions, and sometimes carrots, cilantro and/or a wedge of lime....

We made the meatballs and loved them, but couldn’t help wincing over the idea of eating them made with 5 times as much chipotle! How to Serve Chipotle Meatballs We first published this recipe in 2006 and have since modified it a bit. This is the updated version. They’re excellent served with rice and/or tortillas. You could even serve the meatballs with spaghetti for a Tex Mex-ish version. It’s quite spicy and best accompanied with something cooling like sour cream and thinly sliced lettuce....

Sometimes, feeling lazy, I have skipped a year, only to be greeted by whimpering, pathetic expressions of disappointment from Man of the House. Little man of the house was always too busy opening presents to notice the absence of this rich, buttery bread packed with almonds, candied orange peel, raisins, and other dried fruit. I’d like to say I grew up with this tradition, but my mom, who hated to cook, let alone bake, was too busy managing four kids to take a stab at it....