Casey Barber

It’s a nearly four-hour marathon of indulgence and overstimulation. Here's how to make sure you're fully prepared for it!

It's easy to make them the exact way you like!

Use these step-by-step instructions to make this beloved sauce.

The open-faced turkey sandwich features crispy bacon and creamy Mornay sauce.

Plenty of melty cheese and lots of warm tomato sauce ensure this is comfort food at its best.

Woe to a wife who loves a scalding-hot bowl of chowder when her husband’s policy on all soups — as well as any other hot liquids — is the same as Kenneth Ellen Parcell’s: “That’s the devil’s temperature.

My husband, Dan, would eat a cheeseburger pretty much every day of the week if I let him. This is not conjecture; it’s an established fact. It’s his desert-island food, and should we ever be stuck on a magical cheeseburger-filled desert island, he’s free to eat as many as he wants, as often as he wants. It’s also true that Dan works in Manhattan, which is in fact an island with no shortage of great burgers.

Potluck dinners tend to resemble mini Thanksgivings most of the time — and I’m most definitely not saying that’s a bad thing. But with all the tried-and-true vegetable side dishes and casseroles that often show up at the table, it’s fun to tweak the traditions a little bit and stand out from the pack. A double dose of lemon in this veggie-loaded gratin keeps the mood light — even with the usual suspects of cream and cheese in every comforting spoonful.

Admit it — most of us have a slightly codependent relationship with frozen potstickers. Sometimes I truly wonder if they were invented to be the perfect solo meal — finger food with a five-minute cooking time being the two major qualifications for my lazy solo meals, anyway. Pierogies, the Eastern European dumpling equivalent of potstickers, make an equally ideal snack, either when dining solo or when making appetizers for a crowd.

Was there ever a dessert more tailor-made for a skillet than a rustic, streusel-topped fruit crisp? Sure, you can assemble it in a gratin dish or your favorite Pyrex casserole, but I stand behind the idea that serving this oh-so-American autumn apple dessert in a cast iron skillet is the presentation it deserves — nay, warrants. If we’re talking semantics, the presence of oats sets this dessert firmly in crisp territory, but I’m not standing on ceremony here.