Like a good chili or chicken noodle soup, homemade beef stew is one of those dishes that is just good to have in your back pocket. It's a dish that will serve you well through long winters and family visits and other small moments of need. Making one isn't hard and will surely nourish you through several meals. Here's my tried-and-true method for making a very good beef stew.

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The recipe you see before you, in all its crunchy cluster and creamy chocolate glory, is the result of three significant events. First, I found myself staring at a bag of freeze-dried strawberries at Trader Joe's, a food that I hadn't considered for its recipe potential until then. Second, an obsessive run of granola-making. Third, and perhaps most unsurprising, a late-night chocolate craving. Presto chango: granola bark was born.

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Judging by America's obsession with possessive, moody vampires and young entrepreneurs with a taste for domination, we have a national fascination with the darker side of love. Here's an idea for those not interested in the usual pink, sweet and simple homemade treat: dark and chewy DIY black licorice.

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A panade is one of those dishes that is way better than it has any right to be -- or than it looks to be. It's an assembly of day-old bread, shredded cheese, and handy pantry ingredients (in this case, cranberry beans, swiss chard, and sausage) that gets doused with broth and baked until bubbly. Not quite a soup and not quite a casserole, it's something more: the best of both worlds.

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I'm one of those people who always has a snack tucked away in my bag, a worst-case survival tactic for when the hours between meals stretch just a little too long. I love me some yogurt-covered snacks: raisins, cranberries, pretzels, all of them. It's taken me a while to work out how I might make these favorite snacks at home, but my golly, I think I've finally got it.

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There are a million and one ways to make chili. All of them are excellent and all of them are sure to satisfy a large crowd of hungry people. Whether you like your chili with ground meat or chuck roast, pinto beans or no beans at all, the basic method for making it is the same. Want to make a very good pot of chili? Here's how. More

It's been months since I yanked basil from the ground and whizzed up some pesto. When basil is in season, I'm slathering it on everything from pasta to crostini to eggs, to the point where it is a kitchen staple. What happens when that pesto-craving hits, but your window-box is bare and the market only has sad limp little bouquets of basil? Get creative.
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If you've avoided cooking beans at home because you've heard that they are troublesome, finicky, or complicated, it's time to leave that behind. Cooking beans is no more bother than filling a pot of water and letting it simmer happily on the back burner all afternoon. In fact, that's basically all it is. Ignore the naysayers; it's time to cook some tasty, creamy, totally tender beans at home. More

I've been doing a lot of cooking this week, and it's been really nice. When my marriage ended a year ago, I was suddenly thrown back into cooking by myself again, and at first I was lost at sea. I had forgotten everything I'd known -- the touch and the feel of cooking -- that I'd had ten years earlier when I was single. More

In my recent pantry reorganization, I found a bag of wheat berries I'd been meaning to use. A simple salad with some winter citrus and salty feta seemed like a good idea, and it all turned out very tasty. Light yet satisfying, this makes a perfect lunch or dinner side salad this time of year. More