My entire family went nuts when I made Brown Rice Risotto with Mushroom Cream Sauce. It's widely heralded (among my family) as the best thing I've ever made...and I have to agree! Delicious!

I come home from the holidays and my dad and brothers wistfully ask if I'm going to make cookies. Just plain, tollhouse chocolate chip cookies.

I'm superpsyched to try the goatcheesecake recipe I found or want to mull wine for party guests, but it always comes back to the cookies.

Every recipe that I've tried that has sent people over the edge has been from Ina Garten or Alton Brown. I've wowed friends with Ina's rosemary roasted cashews (so easy, soooo delicious) and used Alton's various chocolate chip recipes (some thin and crunchy, some thick and chewy) to great response.

The surprising hit over the years has been a recipe I grabbed from the Washington Post for balsamic pearl onions: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/recipes/2005/11/16/balsamic-pearl-onions/

Without question it's been the lentil burgers recipe from 101 Cookbooks. I make them teeny tiny so they work as tapas and serve them with a variety of dipping sauces: the yogurt sauce in Heidi Swanson's book Super Natural Cooking, a tahini dressing which is my mother's recipe, Ellie Krieger's muhummarra recipe (which can be found on the Food Network website), and this great avocado and goat cheese dip I discovered on Design*Sponge.

Also, roasted cauliflower, which is so simple and basic, and yet such a crowd pleaser.

At work with cakes, at every place I've worked, its been my chocolate irish cream cake. I've literally seen people run to the kitchen when they hear its there. At home with my husband its probably when I make, oddly, pulled pork. Its nothing special to me but he goes nuts. He is not comfortable in a kitchen though I've made many attempts to make him feel otherwise but not long ago he made me fried trout amandine and I went nuts. Licking the plate, it was so good! Its nice to feel that feeling instead of always being the one on the receiving end!

Wild mushroom risotto served with three little seared lambsicles, or a seriously cheesy idaho and sweet potato gratin I made up once.

My version of Rose Levy Beranbaum's apple cranberry pie: it's the crust that people go bonkers over; this pepita brittle, from Karen Demasco via Smitten Kitchen; and always, always my curried apple chutney, adapted from the Ball Book.

My husband loves everything I make but he could eat potato leek soup, red lentil soup, Mexican lasagna, roasted cauliflower, Heidi's brussel sprouts, and regular chocolate chip cookies every day.

Meatloaf made w/ lamb, spinach & feta. Big hit. As were regular meatloaf and Chicken & Pastry.

Mmmmm.....

Pavlova, or, as the Wisconsinites call it, Schaum Torte. I made two of them for 15 members of my extended family and they went berserk. I've made it for friends and they are aghast. I try to explain to all of them how easy, even boring, they are to make, but they still manage to convince themselves it's some tremendous feat.

This is going to sound crazy, but grilled orange tomatoes. I threw some on the grill last year when the grill was a little too hot, but the sweetness of the orange cherry tomatoes really worked with the smoky grill heavenlyness.

Also, America's test kitchen apple pie, and a Rhubarb raspberry tart made with the same crust.

Oh, ans hort ribs, done well. I think they got me a fiance.

Most recently, it was Ina Garten's mac 'n cheese. Gruyere and extra sharp cheddar béchamel sauce- what's not to love? (aside from the stomachache that results from eating too much of it!)

My own recipe of cassoulet. Family and friends (even the French ones) love it.

Granola. Guests from Brazil to Austria request it when they come to visit.

Orange, Avocado and Red Onion Salad! It is so good you would not believe!! I posted it on my blog today!

http://olivesanddaisies.blogspot.com/2010/11/recipe-orange-avocado-and-red-onion.html

No contest here - Healthy (!!) Roasted Butternut Squash and Bacon Pasta, from Cooking Light. People TURN INTO ANIMALS for this food. Squash, creamy parmeseany pasta, shallots, and bacon. Why would you want to eat anything else, ever?

Most talked about is probably Rouladen. I love making it for people who have never tried it before and watching their faces as they figure out all the ingredients...pickles, bacon and gravy!

Years ago I was asked to bring rolls for the big holiday family dinner. It's a simple "potato dough" recipe a friend shared with me when I was a newlywed, and I've since figured out it's the same as an old Betty Crocker recipe. It's tender and sweetish, baking up moist and golden, every time. There was a near-stampede for seconds the first year I brought them, and riots are threatened if I don't bring enough now for seconds and thirds. Relatives are caught wrapping them up and hiding them in purses "for the trip home."

I make cucumber sandwiches that most people are crazy about. If there's a potluck, these are unabashedly requested. My bf loves the mac and cheese I make. We would eat it every week if it was up to him.

I make a mashed potato casserole that is wonderful.. When my father passed away nearly 17 years ago, someone made it and brought it to our house-it was the only thing I could eat-for at least a few days. She contributed that recipe to our church cookbook and I did some tweaking-it's been requested many times by family and friends. I make it at Thanksgiving nearly every year.

my husband adores my old fashioned beef stew, cooked all day in a crock pot. totally simple and old fashioned, but everyone in my family loves it. And caramel popcorn. soft. really, it's awesome.

I get requests to make my Pumpkin-Pecan Pie for people during the holidays. Oh, and my Shortbread.

For me (well, my family) it would have to be the brownies from How to Cook Like Your Grandmother. http://cooklikeyourgrandmother.com/2009/07/how-to-make-perfect-brownies/

This is probably helped by the fact that they're easy to make , and have never flopped, so I tend to make them more often than any other.

The pumpkin cheesecake from Cook's Illustrated causes people to swoon at the table. It also takes most of an evening and a special pan to bake, and one small slice contains enough sugary richness to send a person into a coma, so I do not make it every year.

I have a friend who spent a few very happy and formative years in New Orleans. I've learned that I can get this man to do JUST ABOUT ANYTHING for me if I promise to make him some of my jambalaya in exchange.

A triple ginger spice cake from the BBC website, and a banana and chocolate loaf cake. Those always win me friends :-)

My Hungarian grandmother's chicken paprikash with homemade noodles and meatloaf--both amazing recipes. Before we moved away to go to graduate school, we spent a day having her walk through the recipes with us, as we wrote the steps, measured and weighed ingredients, etc. (She was of course an old time cook--she started the paprikash recipe with "first you kill the chicken"). When she passed on a few years later, I was so glad we had recorded the recipes.

After asking my family last night, they mentioned their favorite vegetarian meal as well... Gypsy Soup and thick slices of Whole Wheat Bread. It's a little easier and healthier than the mushroom cream sauce and risotto, too. ;]