The story of my first Thanksgiving away from home is one I tell with pride. Sure, we all have epic disasters in the kitchen and Thanksgiving horror stories to tell, but mine is epic. The dinner was a wreck: the cornbread burned, the turkey was frozen inside, the green bean casserole was served as a soup, the bacon for the stuffing caught fire, I forgot to add sugar to the cranberry sauce, and my roommate exploded a pie in an aluminum pie plate in the microwave....

Passover dinner would not be the same without a bowl of this light, brothy matzo ball soup. Options for a Heartier Matzo Ball Soup If you want to make a heartier bowl of soup, you can add chicken meat. Just poach some chicken breasts or tenders in the chicken broth until cooked through, and then shred or cut them into bite-sized pieces before adding the meat back to the soup....

It’s a goal to strive for and hard to reach, but this Mediterranean tuna pasta? Wow! I keep making it and eating it, making it and eating it. Today, I only got to make it, because my sweetheart and a friend came over and ate the whole batch! What Is Mediterranean Tuna Pasta? Think Nicoise salad meets tuna casserole, and you’ll be somewhere in the ballpark of this recipe. Canned tuna is tossed with chopped tomatoes, olives, red onions, capers, parsley, olive oil and lemon juice, and then tossed again with hot fusilli pasta and shredded mozzarella cheese....

My grandma was the pie-maker in our family and her classic chocolate cream pie made with homemade pudding was the inspiration for this minty version. This filling for this pie has a pudding-like texture–not too dissimilar from instant chocolate pudding, but slightly more dense and silky. Eating this pie hits all the nostalgia buttons for me but with a boost of deep chocolate flavor and refreshing hit of peppermint. I switched out my grandma’s pastry crust for a chocolate cookie crust....

In terms of practical value, it’s right up there with a reliable cocktail shaker. The nut milk bag is made of fine, breathable mesh. Because of the airflow, you can use it as a container for drying herbs or edible flowers. It can also replace cheesecloth, fine strainers, coffee filters, and any of the other unwieldy gear you reach for when you need to separate solids from liquid. (And oh yeah, and it strains nut milks, too....

Here’s why the shears are one of my favorite kitchen tools! Why Wüsthof Kitchen Shears Are the Best Kitchen shears are different than regular household scissors in a couple of key aspects. First, they’re designed to be more heavy duty, so can handle tougher tasks, like cutting through chicken bones. They also come apart for cleaning and drying, which is important for food safety and so the blades don’t rust....

This Sausage and Kale Orecchiette is a great beginner pasta dish. It has just a few ingredients, with the pasta water itself playing a star role. (Yes!) It also comes together quickly and will make you feel like a cooking rockstar even on a tired Wednesday. Suggestions and Substitutions for This Skillet Pasta Orecchiette: I like this pasta shape for this dish. The “little ears” cook quickly and do a good job of holding onto the light sauce, but feel free to substitute farfalle, penne, or even orzo!...

As I nodded yes, she added laughing, “It’s a lot better than you would think, isn’t it?” Becca is from Biloxi, Mississippi and is well acquainted with this Southern stew. It’s normally eaten around Christmas, but I thought it might make a good Lenten dish. Those of you acquainted with oyster stew, know how good it is. Those of you who aren’t, you might sort of cringe at the very idea, like I did the first time I heard of it....

Available during winter months, bacon avocados are large, thin-skinned avocados that are much lighter in flavor than the more popular Haas variety. If you happen to see bacon avocados at the market, try one out! They are exceptionally creamy and are perfect for using in sauces. While remoulade is typically made with mayonnaise, in this case we’ve substituted the mayo with avocado and seasoned it with lime juice. This creamy avocado sauce is perfect for serving with salmon!...

It makes total sense that Southerners are fiercely connected to their particular version, often calling their family recipe the “real” pimento cheese. But untie granny’s calico apron strings from the conversation and it’s hard to pinpoint a true beginning for pimento cheese. What Is Pimento Cheese? Southern food historian Robert Moss asserts that pimento cheese was actually invented in the North, using cream cheese and not cheddar as the base....

Now there are countless copycat recipes for Pollo Campero’s fried chicken. These recipes often use a blend of citrus and spices to mimic the popular food chain’s version. The premise for my own copycat recipe is the same as American Southern fried chicken but has a different flavor and spice profile: My recipe uses lime juice instead of buttermilk for the brine and incorporates herbs and spices like oregano, cayenne, sazón, and adobo....

I decided there and then to come up with a vegan riff on this dish so that everyone can enjoy it, even if you’re eating dairy-free. Saag paneer is a dish that hails from the Northern part of the Indian subcontinent. The words “saag” and “paneer” translate from Punjabi to “greens” and “cheese.” When you order Saag Paneer in a restaurant in the United States, it’s usually made with spinach (a....

You can still find a few of those mom-and-pop drugstores in the depths of Maine and Vermont, but they are disappearing. In fact, a few decades ago in Cambridge, MA, the corner drugstore in my neighborhood was just that sort of place. Sadly, it, along with other stores of its ilk, is no more. Never mind. You can still make your own rickey at home with raspberry syrup and a squeeze of lime topped off with some club soda....

These poached pears have warming and complex flavors thanks to the red wine and spices—they are the perfect dessert for a cold winter day. The deep purplish-red hue makes them look impressive and romantic, but they are so simple to make. Serve them at a holiday dinner party or an at-home date night. What is Poaching? Poaching involves slowly cooking food submerged in a liquid at a low temperature. When you poach food, you want the cooking liquid to barely simmer, with only a few small bubbles coming to the surface....

I’m not sure what first drew me to rhubarb. Perhaps, it was the name. Rhubarb. It sounds so strange, intriguing, even whimsical. But it isn’t just the name. That color! From the palest pink to dramatic ruby-red. And then there’s the flavor of rhubarb—so sour when raw, magically transformed into something floral and fruity when cooked. This sorbet perfectly captures all that love about rhubarb. Its flavor is touched with a little heat from fresh ginger and a little zing from orange zest which only enhances the pink taste (and I would call the taste pink) of this sorbet ....

My young friends prefer rose hip jelly, but I the jam. It’s best to make on an overcast or otherwise beach-unfriendly day, only because it takes time. To make the jam you have to prep the hips, and cut each one open to remove the itchy sticky seeds that you don’t want those ending up in your jam. Making rose hip jelly is easy, the jam, a bit more complicated....

My mother often made tuna patties for us, and less frequently, because they were more expensive, salmon patties. For several years, my father and I tried to talk my mother into making these salmon cakes again for us. For some unfathomable reason, she refused, even going as far as to claim that she never made salmon cakes in the first place. After a while, we gave up and made our own version of the recipe....

The inspiration for your next Italian dinner sensation can come from all sorts of places, like the condiment shelf of your refrigerator door. This recipe uses whole grain mustard to create a creamy and tangy pasta sauce tossed with asparagus, Italian sausage, and strozzapreti, a fun twisted pasta shape. While the dish does have a hint of spice from the sausage and mustard, it’s balanced by the cream and parmesan cheese....