Our answer: literally topping it. This summer, make a better burger by finding your signature topping combination. Do something new and creative, and show your friends and family that your grill skills are only going to improve from here on out. Here’s to a hot burg summer. Yes, this combo sounds a little out there, but trust me—it’s a salty, savory dream. The slight sweetness, extreme creaminess, and saltiness of the peanut butter complements a charred-edge patty like you wouldn’t believe, drawing out subtle meaty notes you may never have tasted before....

I don’t know one person who’s not ready for a fresh start. Now you can switch it up and give your body the lighter, simpler foods you may be craving. We’re still knee-deep in this global pandemic, and that’s why it’s extra-important to take care of yourself and the folks you love. I miss eating in restaurants, hugging my friends, and sending my kid off to her neighborhood school. But I still have walks in the woods with my dog, weekly Zoom trivia, and holds to pick up at the library....

We’ve got a scrumptious sheet pan chicken you’ll want to make more than once, an asparagus-crowned pizza, and a quick steak and asparagus stir fry that’s perfect for weeknight dinner. Before you start your shopping list, here are a few things to know when it comes to asparagus: Asparagus can be fibrous and woody at the bottom, so it requires a bit of trimming. Here is the perfect guide to prepping asparagus before cooking....

Unlike the abrupt intro to homeschooling parents had back in the spring, this time we have a heads-up. If your kids will be home more than they were back in the good old days, here’s a new distance learning class for them: Making Dinner! As a kid, I had a copy of Betty Crocker’s Cook Book for Boys and Girls, and I spent many happy hours browsing its pages for potential dinners I could make....

Since we are smack dab in the middle of spring, we should take full advantage of what’s fresh right now. You’ll find tender asparagus shine in a scrumptious savory tart, a light, bright spring salad tossed with an herby dressing, and a cozy lamb stew punctuated with young garlic and English peas. Hit your local market or farmstand and stock up on what’s bound to be a week of winners....

Now that we have our own pomegranate tree, we get to hang out in pom heaven come every November. We’ll harvest over a hundred pomegranates from our one tree and store them to eat over the winter, or make juice out of them. Here’s some tips on what to look for when buying them, how to open them, store them, juice them, and how to use them in recipes:...

I have a confession. When I was little I tried to get Nonna Romana to make me SpaghettiOs. I’m not proud of it, but it is what it is. Nonna never gave in, but she was always ready with a solution. Thank God for Sicilian anelletti pasta, which are perfect little rings to recreate this Italian American comfort food. Nonna loved to get me involved in making this dish. She would make the sauce from scratch and then cook the pasta and have me roll all the mini meatballs alongside her!...

Whether it flavors crunchy biscotti, sweet Italian sausage, or an Ouzo cocktail, anise seed lends a licorice-like taste to a wide range of foods found across an equally wide range of cuisines, including Italian, Greek, Middle Eastern and South Asian. Just a small amount can make your dishes and desserts taste a little fancy—but not too fancy. What Is Anise Seed? Anise seeds are the seeds of the anise plant (Latin name Pimpinella anisum), which is a flowering annual that’s native to the eastern Mediterranean region and Southwest Asia....

A Savory Baked Bean Recipe This is a simple baked bean dish, with the beans first cooked in simmering water and then baked in a tomato sauce, flavored with bacon and sage, sweetened with honey, and spiced up with some chile flakes. You could also use pancetta in place of the bacon, or rosemary instead of sage. If you swap out molasses for the honey you’ll have something a lot closer to Boston baked beans....

So they are highly flavorful and perfect for slow braises. Long cooking time is needed to melt the connective tissue. Upon serving, the meat is cut across the grain, helping it become fall-apart tender. Video: How to Make Beef Brisket Pot Roast Flat Cut Versus Point Cut Brisket A whole brisket has two parts, the “flat cut” and the “point cut.” The flat cut is flatter and leaner than the point cut and is more readily available at grocery stores....

This recipe is a nice blend of traditional and new ways to make birria tacos with the addition of melty cheese and garnishes. Now I can see why people love them so much and I hope you do too! It Starts with Good Birria To make good birria tacos, first you need to make good birria. Birria is a meat stew from Jalisco, Mexico. The meat is slowly cooked in a delicious red chile broth called consomé....

The trick to making a good BLT wrap is to make super crispy bacon, stack the ingredients in the right order, and use a good sauce. We will do all of those things in this version, and you’ll be left with a lunchtime winner! My Favorite Way to Make Crispy Bacon Sometimes if I just need to make a few strips of bacon, I’ll cook the bacon in the air fryer or even in a skillet, but if I’m cooking a pound of bacon like for these wraps, you better believe I’ll be baking the bacon so it’s easy to clean up and stays very crispy....

What Is Cacio e Pepe? Cacio e pepe, which translates to “cheese and pepper,” is a Roman pasta made with Pecorino Romano cheese and freshly ground black pepper. Parmesan works well too, if that’s what you’ve got: both are aged, hard cheeses that pair deliciously with the pepper’s sharp and fruity flavor. A pairing this good, in fact, should be enjoyed as often as possible, which is why such things as cacio e pepe chicken wings exist....

Marc loves sharing stories of his famous cashew chicken, his trademark dish, tested and perfected over decades of crashing at the homes of old and new friends in exchange for his cooking. What Is Cashew Chicken? Cashew Chicken is a takeout standby that you can easily make at home. The chicken is marinated in a sauce with peanut oil, tamari (or soy sauce, if you can’t find tamari), honey, and chili powder....

To the great distress of the British marketers of the time, the locals insisted on adding way more sugar and milk than would be considered proper by English standards and, adding insult to injury, spicing it up a bit with cardamom, pepper, cinnamon. All I can say is Thank Goodness. Spicy, milky, sweet chai is one of my favorite ways to drink black tea. Here are all those wonderful chai tea spices infused in ice cream....

You can add them to smoothies for extra protein and fiber, or let them soak for a while and plump up to make an easy dairy-free chia pudding. When chia seeds started popping up on food blogs a few years ago all I could think of was those sprout-covered terracotta chia pets marketed on infomercials in the early 80s. I shied away. Too many memories of sprouting clay animals rattling in my brain....

Many Ways to Cook the Chicken The recipe calls for cooked chicken. Use rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, or cook your own chicken using one of the following methods: In an Instant Pot, when the chicken is fresh In an Instant Pot, when the chicken is frozen Boiled chicken Chicken confit Roasted chicken Tips For Making a Homemade Chicken Caesar Wrap As with most simple recipes, the quality of the ingredients matters....

The dough is rolled into a rectangle and spread with a homemade chocolate filling before being rolled up and twisted into a braid. The babka bakes into a sweet, fluffy, chocolatey loaf that makes for a decadent breakfast or dessert. Babka looks impressive, and it certainly is. Luckily, your stand mixer does most of the hard work, but you get to take all the credit. While it is an admittedly long process, a lot of the time is spent simply waiting for the dough to rise....

But you don’t want to just toss plain rice with cilantro and lime juice and call it a day. Well, you could, but the rice wouldn’t be close to as good as it could be. Cilantro lime rice made well is irresistible. As in, “as soon as you finish one batch, you’ll want to make another” irresistible. Or, “take your hands off my food, this is all for me” irresistible....