Light yet satisfying, grain salads are the perfect meal to eat while recovering from a month of heavy holiday food. They are also very adaptable, incorporating the hardy vegetables and warm flavors of winter as easily as the bright, fresh flavors of summer. These eight recipes mix whole grains like farro, brown rice and quinoa with the fruit and vegetable stars of winter, including Cara Cara oranges, maple roasted acorn squash and golden beets. More

While many folks lament the produce available this time of year, I find the cooking opportunities to be rich and inspiring. Thankfully, I love winter greens, so while the more delicate lettuces, vibrant peppers, squashes and tomatoes are gone until warmer months, winter greens provide endless opportunities for healthy, delicious cold-weather meals. More

What do you crave when you've got those post-holiday blues? The inevitable cold and flu symptoms that descend this time of year? Soup tops the list of things I want to eat when I'm sniffly and stuffed up, and so I'm craving it right now. Here are my own top 5 picks for soups that nourish me when I'm not feeling great — 5 soups to soothe a cold, from tangy, lime-infused turkey broth to classic Taiwanese beef noodles More

While I love feasting during the holidays, I always find myself in need of a reset when the New Year rolls around. You probably know what I'm talking about: more salads, less heavy starches; more water, less alcohol. This bright, zingy winter salad is exactly what I'm in the mood for right now. More

Happy New Year, everyone! It was good to have a little time off to enjoy the holiday with family and friends, but it's always good to be back here talking about home cooking with you all, too. To start off the new year, many of us make resolutions. Maybe yours include reading more novels or running a half marathon. Perhaps you want to learn a new language or stay more organized. This year, my boyfriend and I decided to set kitchen goals together: things we wanted to learn to make and create together at the dinner table and beyond. More

They may not look that different from regular old dime-a-dozen lemons, but Meyer lemons have a little secret: these soft-skinned fruits are significantly sweeter and less acidic than their super-sour cousins. Once hard to find outside California, Meyer lemons are becoming a more common find in grocery stores, particularly right now in mid-winter as they start coming into season. What do you like to do with Meyer lemons? More

There is entertaining, and there is entertaining. I hosted a formal cocktail party this past weekend for over 40 of my friends, with my event proving to be the latter. The dress code called for "sparkly attire", and I donned my mother's black velvet vintage couture dress, paired with big hair and lots of costume baubles! In keeping with a retro theme, I pulled out all of the stops, including a traditional Southern menu served in my mom's best silver. Here's a look at one of the hit recipes of the night — a cocktail meatball that needs no improvement. More

Where I live, solstice day was bleak and cold. It rained hard all day and by 2PM I had already lit a few candles and turned on the sparkly white Christmas lights. I stayed mostly in the kitchen where I had put a pot of beans on to cook even though I had no immediate plans for them. The decision was spontaneous, so the beans hadn't been soaked and required a good long time on the stove. I added a little onion, a few whole garlic gloves, a bay leaf, some peppercorns, and a few pinches of salt to the pot and set it on the back burner where it quietly bubbled away for the rest of the afternoon. What old, half-buried instinct was I obeying when I did this? The only thing I know is that my need to have something (anything) simmering on the stove was as great as the need for the actual beans themselves. More

My kitchen has been churning out brownies, baked goods, and layer cakes in mass quantity over the past two weeks, and boy have I been hankering for a savory reprieve. (You know it's bad when one more finger-lick of chocolate, even in the name of hot fudge sauce perfection, just might end in a sugar-induced coma.) Thank goodness white chicken chili seems to be the perfect baking overdose cure. More

The girls at Liddabit Sweets know a lot about great candies. So when Splendid Table asked them to share their two easiest and quickest holiday candies, you better believe they had two great recipes to share. And these two candies require no heating or candy thermometers — truly fast and simple. Check them out! More