Light, packed with a bright lemon flavor, and with a crackly sugary top, this lemon olive oil cake is a back pocket recipe that will serve you well for any occasion. Dress it up or down, serve it plain or with peak season fruit such as oranges, peaches, and berries. Yummy Olive Oil Means Yummy Cake There isn’t any one type of olive oil that’s best used for this cake—the only measure to bear in mind is to use a great quality olive oil that you would enjoy tasting on its own or on a salad....

This chunky mango avocado salsa is a back-pocket, show-stopping starter. Cut up some ripe fruits, and this recipe is ready in no time at all. What Are the Best Mangoes to Use for Salsa? Tommy Atkins, the most common type of mango (at least here in the U.S.), is the best type of mango to use in recipes like this. Their peel is typically green with a yellow or red blush, and their firm, sweet-tart flesh contrasts well with the creamy, softer flesh of the avocado....

Optimally, the point is fun. Yes, most food holidays are contrived and arbitrary, brainstormed by a marketing board or social media consultant. (Like why is National Strawberry Cream Pie Day on September 2, when strawberries are totally out of season?) But they give us an excuse to celebrate the foods we love. And who isn’t hungry for a reason to celebrate? No, this meal plan does not sync the recipes with the actual dates of the holidays—otherwise, we’d have you eating milkshakes, crème de menthe, and cream-filled donuts for dinner three days in a row....

Here’s a recipe that bucks this convention and features eggplant without the sauce, but with red onions, garlic, baby spinach, and mint, all sautéed in extra virgin olive oil and tossed with spaghetti pasta and crumbled feta cheese. It is amazingly good! Surprisingly good. Like you just want to keep eating it good. You need to use a firm globe eggplant, not a tender Japanese eggplant for a recipe like this....

Make this Thanksgiving one to remember by introducing the wafting smoke of smoldering pecan wood to a brined turkey. The brine ensures rich succulent meat while the smoke imparts a sweet nuttiness to the crisp mahogany skin. When you see the smiling faces at dinner, the extra two days it takes to prepare this recipe will be long forgotten. There is always a little bit of pre-holiday dinner stress, especially when it comes to the main turkey course....

But if there’s one Scotch cocktail worth knowing, it’s the Penicillin. This Scotch-based whiskey sour—made with both blended and peaty Scotch—is a true modern classic. The History of the Penicillin Cocktail Although it possesses the brilliant simplicity and why-didn’t-I-think-of-that-ness of a storied classic, the Penicillin has fairly recent origins. It was created in the early 2000s by Sam Ross, a bartender who worked at the pioneering New York cocktail spot Milk & Honey....

Sometimes It Depends on Where You Live Let’s set some context around conversational and scientific classifications of prawns and shrimp. Colloquially, the language used to describe shrimp and prawns differs around the globe. In the U.K and Australia, for example, restaurant menus much more commonly use the word “prawn,” regardless of whether the dish contains scientifically classified prawns or shrimp. In the U.S., shrimp is a more widely used term in general, though prawns typically refer to those grown in freshwater environments....

It’s an easy-to-make, airy, aromatic pumpkin cake crammed with autumn’s ubiquitous flavors: cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg. If you’re anything like me, once the seasons change, your cabinet is overloaded with these spices. This recipe is going to do you a solid and make your home smell and feel like fall—all warm and cozy. What’s even better is that this pumpkin cake uses a whole can of pumpkin purée, which means no forgotten containers of pumpkin in the back of the fridge....

Pumpkin scones make a special weekend treat for a family breakfast or brunch. You don’t have to worry about waking up too early to get these on the breakfast table, and you could even start them the night before for a rare chance to sleep in. My favorite part is saving a leftover scone for a quiet coffee break in the afternoon. Tips for Perfectly Tender Scones Similar to biscuits, tender scones require cold ingredients and a gentle hand....

This trending treat originated in the kitchen of Monique Volz of Ambitious Kitchen, and has become a social media sensation. Viewers, like me, have since shared their unique spin on her classic peanut butter and chocolate combination. No matter the spin, it’s five-star reviews across the board just like this recipe! What is Dulce de Leche? Dulce de Leche is a sweet and creamy caramel-like sauce from Latin America. Unlike caramel, it’s not made by caramelizing sugar, but rather by slowly cooking sweetened milk until it becomes thick and spreadable....

My favorite way to prepare cabbage is to roast thick slabs of it until golden brown and tender. Roasted cabbage has a lightly sweet, mellow flavor and a crisp-tender texture. No mush here. For this recipe, the cabbage is cut into thick slabs to look like beef steaks, and while they aren’t exactly a replacement for meat, they do make a hearty vegetarian side dish or main fare. They’re quick to prep....

Why Serve Cream With Chiles? There’s a good reason spicy Mexican food is often served with dairy. Milk proteins neutralize the spicy capsaicin molecules in hot chilies. So you get less of the bite of the chile and more of the actual flavor of it. Meaning you will be able to better taste the wonderful roasted poblano chiles if they are bathed in a creamy sauce. How to Make Rajas Con Crema In this case, the rajas sauce is made with Mexican “crema”, a sort of sour cream that’s a lot like crème fraîche, along with milk, and Monterey Jack cheese....

It turns out that salmon really is easy to prepare at home. It’s quick enough for a weeknight dinner while also worthy of any special occasion and holiday. Salmon can be cooked in a skillet, roasted in the oven, poached or grilled. Leftover salmon is easy to use up, too! Mix together salmon patties, toss with pasta and lemon or add to a salad. Tips for Making Perfect Salmon! Here are a few tips to help demystify salmon and help you cook it with ease....

Serve this versatile baked salmon for an elegant dinner party or and as I often do, for a quick and healthy weeknight dinner. I Didn’t Always Love Salmon I once loathed fish. I grew up south of Cleveland, Ohio with little access to fresh fish and my parents basically never served it. Fast forward about 15 years, my husband and I moved to Brooklyn. Our new home was around the corner from a little fish shop called Fish Tales....

So good! Like seriously good. My sweetheart took one tentative bite and then devoured the rest. I’ve made it 3 times already this week. Morel Mushrooms Have you ever cooked with or foraged for morel mushrooms? Morels are exquisite spring mushrooms with an unusual and distinctive honeycomb appearance. In the mushroom foraging world, morels are considered a good “beginner” mushroom because they are so easy to identify. Morels pop up in old orchards and sometimes in freshly laid garden mulch (I often find morels in our former-orchard yard)....

This frosting is very similar to Swiss meringue, which is also cooked. The big difference is how they are cooked: Swiss meringue is cooked, then beaten off the heat while seven-minute frosting is beaten as it cooks on the heat. I love fluffy seven-minute frosting on fine-grained cakes like devil’s food cake, red velvet cake, and coconut cake. It also stars as the frosting and filling of our Fresh Strawberry Layer Cake....

So, after ordering the wrap one too many times, I set out to create a weeknight dinner inspired by the original. Here, crispy panko-coated tofu tenders bake alongside honey-glazed brussels sprouts. Out of the oven, the tenders are slathered in buttery buffalo sauce, and the brussels sprouts are tossed with blue cheese. The Best Tofu for Tenders These tofu tenders are crispy on the outside and moist on the inside....

Every time I cook Cajun or Creole I’m in awe of the balance and strength in the cooking there; it’s one of the few places in the United States with a long-standing cuisine all its own. This dish, étouffée, is one of that cuisine’s crown jewels. What Is Étouffée? Étouffée basically means “smothered,” and it is a common cooking technique in the South; a fricassee is the same deal. You make a flavorful sauce and cook a meat or fish in it, not so long as a braise or stew, and not so short as a sauté....