Megan Gordon

Learn the differences between polenta and grits, and how to cook them into creamy porridge or crispy cakes.

We all have holiday traditions we remember from growing up. When I think about my own, I think about my mom spending hours on Baked Alaska for my father’s company Christmas party each year. I think about stockings and lottery tickets on Christmas Eve and new pajamas. And I think about baked custards. In our house, baked custard wasn’t reserved just for the holidays.

Start the holiday off right.

It's thick and creamy yet simultaneously light and tangy.

When in doubt, make coconut whipped cream.

This leafy green basically tastes like zingy lemons.

There’s something that truly can’t compare to the warm, sweet scent of vanilla. Beloved in everything from ice cream to cakes, a vanilla is as much a scent as it is a powerful flavor. Even in chocolate recipes, vanilla acts as a secret ingredient that makes everything taste just a little bit better. You’ll most often see vanilla extract called for in recipes, but there’s a whole world of vanilla products to explore.

I recently took a two-part cocktail class where we learned all about bitters, shrubs, and syrups. At the beginning of the class, we were asked to introduce ourselves and mention our liquor of choice. My answer: anything brown. Once the class got going, my vodka-loving tablemate mentioned she’s never understood the difference between whiskey and bourbon. Turns out: it’s really quite simple.

A grab-and-go recipe that's perfect for chilly fall mornings.

You’ve likely seen grain bowls in your favorite magazines, food blogs, and on trendy restaurant menus. They always look beautiful and taste so composed and interesting — the exact opposite of how they can come across in real life. So how do they do it? How is it that a dish that’s lauded for its supposed simplicity can seem so tough to pull off in reality? Grain bowls are a big part of my diet, but like anything, it’s really easy to fall into a rut.

Last year we hosted family at our house on Christmas Day — all with a brand new baby. After a few moments of minor stress and lots of pacing, I’ve decided that the only way to have an easy, effortless day that I can truly enjoy is to do much of the food preparation in advance. So I started playing around with interesting, festive waffle recipes and landed on this incredibly tasty, fragrant eggnog waffle dressed up for the occasion with spiced whipped cream and a dusting of cinnamon.

The New Year brings different traditions for different folks. Some make black-eyed peas, others make firm resolutions. I make chicken stock. There’s something wonderfully industrious about making homemade stock, and this year on New Year’s Day, that’s where I found myself. I find that the soups I make throughout the year are rather predictable. In the fall, puréed soups have their day in the sun.

A simple puréed soup is something I turn to often. Lately, I’ve been relying on a lightly spiced cauliflower soup to tide be over between the richness of the holidays. The nice thing about this recipe is that it takes very little time to pull together. You simply cook down the onions and garlic with cauliflower, broth, and warm spices and ready your favorite toppings (I like crispy parsley, toasty cashews, and spicy red pepper flakes — all with a dash of olive oil).

Many people tend to get excited about smoothies in the summer, when fresh berries and stone fruits are at their best. Not me. My blender usually gathers dust in the summer months (I never let those fresh berries sit long enough to make it into a smoothie), but in the winter, my body craves cool, creamy, fruit-laden drinks. And this smoothie in my current go-to. Smoothies don’t need much of an introduction. In general, they’re a dump-in-the-blender-and-blend kind of affair.

Everyone has their comfort zone in the kitchen. Maybe you make a mean meatloaf or the very best chocolate chip cookies. Maybe your spaghetti sauce has garnered a reputation around your neighborhood. For me, quick breads, muffins, and scones are my jam because they come together quickly, and I can experiment with ways to make them a bit healthier by incorporating some whole grains and much less sugar than is often called for.

Nachos certainly have a time and place. When I was in college, that time and place broadened exponentially to include pretty much anywhere and any time, but today things have certainly changed. We make nachos occasionally when the Super Bowl is on or when a group of friends are over to watch a movie, so to try and persuade me that nachos belong on the breakfast table would be stretch, but after working on this recipe, I’m a changed woman.

Now, I’m sure many of you have had frozen scones or muffins before. Perhaps you made extra and weren’t able to eat them all, so you froze the leftovers for a rainy day. Well if you’re planning in advance for company, an event, or a big meal, you can actually freeze the unbaked scones and pop them into the oven when you’re ready for a warm breakfast treat.

Sometimes when you combine two beloved things into one new form, you wonder how you ever ate them separately. I find this to be true especially after developing the recipe for these coffee cake muffins. With a buttery, crumbly topping and a slightly sweet glaze, they are truly the best of both worlds. I came up with the idea for these muffins this past summer at a diner in Upstate New York.

I have a very, very soft spot in my heart for homemade Pop-Tarts (or toaster tarts, as I’ve called them here). Much like pie, the options for filling are endless, and once you master the dough — which is a pretty straightforward pie dough — you’ll start scheming and dreaming up things you’d like to stuff inside. For me, lately, the fillings have all been savory.

I’m guilty of always reaching for the same appetizers when having friends or family over: good olives, flatbreads, interesting cheeses, and rosemary nuts. If you’ve been to our house for drinks or dinner, this likely sounds pretty familiar. The reason for the repetition is ease, but what if there were a creamy, lightly fried bite of polenta that was just as simple? An appetizer that would trump olives and nuts any day of the week?

We are all busy people in our own ways. Some of us have busy jobs, some manage busy families, others go to school or volunteer — for most of us, there’s no shortage of things to fill the day. So it’s a bit daring then to write about an oatmeal method that takes two hours — even for me, someone who writes about whole grains and experiments with different recipes as part of my job. At first this one seemed like a stretch — that is, until I finally tried it.

We eat a lot of muesli and oatmeal in our house, and we usually soak the oats overnight in a little water or apple juice to save time in the morning. Recently, an intriguing new twist on this method came across my radar: lacto-fermenting oatmeal with yogurt. It’s simple: soak the oats in water and yogurt overnight, which kickstarts some lacto-fermentation in the oats. My husband used to live in a co-op, where they made oh-so-many fermented foods, so this seemed right up our alley.

I’ve become an oatmeal connoisseur. I’m that woman who orders oatmeal when eating out at relatively nice restaurants or on vacation to see just how they do it. When on a train trip a few months ago, I even became quite enamored with Amtrak oatmeal and would look forward to it each morning (it was a long train trip). Like you, I’m sure, I’ve had really great oatmeal and my share of pretty awful bowls, and I’ve learned a lot in between those experiences.

There’s nothing I love more than a breakfast recipe that can double as lunch or dinner fare, and this super-herby, substantial frittata does just that. We do a lot of very simple cheese frittatas around here, but recently before a weekend camping trip, I thought about making one that had a bit more heft to take on the ferry for lunch. I sliced some potatoes, found a little log of goat cheese in the refrigerator, and cut up all the herbs we had on hand.

I’m a sucker for a good whole-grain breakfast bowl. In many ways, I consider it the perfect breakfast; grains are a great vehicle for seasonal fruit, nuts, seeds, dried fruit, and yogurt. While I tend to stick to cooking grains with water or broth when making dinner, in the morning I like to get a little creative and cook them with something other than water. Lately my go-to has been coconut milk, and this tropical barley bowl is evidence that it can be a pretty delicious move.

Toast is certainly having a moment. Avocado toast is popping up on numerous cafe menus around our city, and I’ve been to a number of spots that serve toast with nut butters “made in-house.” And while I love a crusty slice of toasted bread slathered thick with almond butter, I often scoff at the price tag. So lately I’ve been making my own version at home.

I rarely complain about a glut of any one summery ingredient — except maybe zucchini. That is, until recently. My husband and I work farmers markets in the summer months and have occasion to trade with other vendors, and lately we’ve been coming home with a lot of peaches. I usually slice one with my morning yogurt and occasionally we’ll have one for dessert, but there are only so many peaches a household of two can eat.

At this point in my baking career and time as a home cook, I do feel as though the world might not need another scone. There are great cream scone recipes out there, and wonderful flaky butter scones; there are scones packed with whole grain oats and berries, and others cloaked in sweet, sugary glazes. So why another scone today?

Having a few Weekend Warrior breakfast recipes in my back pocket has always served me well — recipes that go beyond oatmeal and yogurt into the territory of waffles, pancakes, stratas, and omelettes. That being said, I don’t like to spend a great deal of time on breakfast prep on the one day off I have with my husband, so I’ve been experimenting with recipes that allow you to really prep in advance — which make them good candidates for weekday breakfasts, too!

In my never-ending quest to think about quick, simple, protein-heavy breakfasts, I’ve been experimenting a lot with tofu scrambles over the past few weeks. My main reference for these egg-free scrambles is the one our college dining hall used to make as one of their “breakfast-for-dinner” nights — their version was a Southwest number, replete with huge chunks of red pepper, undercooked onions, and yesterday’s leftover beans.

It’s finally happening: Berry season is upon us. I can now stop staring at my bags of frozen Trader Joe’s berries, wondering when I’ll be able to pick up fresh ones in the store. Here in Seattle, we often see local cherries first and then, of course, all those gorgeous blueberries and strawberries, many from California.

Despite the fact we are entering one of my favorite, easy, and effortless breakfast seasons (fresh berries and yogurt, anyone?), I love any chance to work protein into my mornings, so I’ve been doing a version of these egg bakes for some time now. They’re perfect for a weekday meal because they hold up in the refrigerator for a good five days. When baked ahead of time, you can have a brunch-worthy breakfast on an average Wednesday, and it will feel like a pretty big treat.

There’s a time and a place for a granola bar or energy bar, and then there’s an altogether different time for a decadent, crumbly, fruit-filled bar with a silky layer of cream cheese. These bars are for that occasion — and for all the brunches and spring parties that may be on your calendar in the coming months. Or for no occasion at all, other than breaking up the inevitable breakfast rut that strikes us all at some point.

Whether you’re a true collector or just love picking up old cookbooks at garage sales or thrift stores every now and then, there are some easy things you can do to preserve your finds for many years to come. Some people actually like to use their vintage cookbooks in the kitchen, while others prefer to store them safely to maintain their value.

Many morning meals and recipes can be divisive in the same way that brownies (fudgy or cakey?) or chocolate chip cookies (soft, chewy, or crisp?) often are. There are people who tend towards the savory side of things and others who would choose a fruit scone, muffin, or stack of pancakes before they’d ever order eggs at brunch. That’s not to say you can’t dabble in both (I certainly do!

Cooking, baking, and owning a business of your own are dream jobs to many, and for good reason. There’s a certain romance in stirring a big pot of fragrant, melting chocolate, or in early morning light cast upon a tray of bubbling apple pies on their way to a farmers market.