Tami Weiser

Fact: Homemade salad dressings are better. They are fresh, lively, and easy to customize. This is especially true when it comes to the oft-maligned classic, Thousand Island dressing — yes, I mean that pink dressing on the salad bar in the giant squeeze bottle. The homemade version of this dressing’s got a few neat tricks up its sleeve — including a hard-boiled egg used as a thickener.

This year Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins at sundown September 25. Break out the honey and get baking — here are over 25 ways to celebrate.

It's the ultimate fall comfort food.

The lively, familiar spices of classic pumpkin pie are balanced by the creamy goodness of a New York-style cheesecake.

This beloved old-world cake is often dubbed as the pride of the Easter table.

This Italian Easter bread has a strong Sicilian accent and carries the taste of spring all baked into joy-filled, adorable little wreaths. The bread is strongly spiced and rich with anise as a little reminder of winter. Down to the colorful sprinkles, this bread celebrates the breaking of the Lenten fast. The glaze, poured over after baking, creates a crust of sweetness as it dries and adds delicate crisp to start every bite.

This is a supremely easy, wildly versatile, insanely tasty pan-cookie recipe. No one knows exactly when it was created or by whom, but when it was popularized in the late 1960s, it quickly became the recipe moms knew by heart and kids clamored for. With a handful of pantry staples like canned condensed milk and graham crackers, these bar cookies are crispy, sandy, creamy, gooey, sweet, chocolatey, and nutty. Consider this bar part-candy, part-cookie, and all delicious.

Sufganiyot are Israeli jelly doughnuts that are common Hanukkah holiday fare. Crisp on the outside, fluffy and tender and bursting with jelly, fresh doughnuts are a divine treat you can make at home when you wan to spend an afternoon baking.

Rugelach is a rolled baked treat that cooks as easily as a cookie, yet tastes like a pastry. It’s crisp and sweet on the outside, and so delicate and tender on the inside that it melts in your mouth. This circular pull-apart rugelach is a charmingly decorative variation — yet another take on a confection that has had many versions. If you make rugelach often, you will notice that this dough is a bit sturdier and holds its shape a bit better than other rugelach doughs.

It's a little over the top, yes, but isn't this the season of giving?

Learn the modern way to make a classic potato kugel.

Just wait until you cut it open to oohs and ahhs of family and guests!

I remember when the word basic wasn’t used as an insult. If you wanted to explain that something (or someone!) was overly bland, commonplace, or simple, you’d call it (or them!) vanilla. I get the sentiment, but it always seemed pretty mean to the humble vanilla bean. And with its latest skyrocketing surge in price, I recently decided to give vanilla the thought and attention it deserves.

Walk down the spice aisle of any supermarket and you’re confronted by an ever-growing range of exotic spices, herbs, and blends. The cheaper store brand sits near the pricier name brand. Both call to you: Use me. Save money. No, use me. I’m better. You hold one in each hand and ponder. Is one really better than the other? Will my food taste different? Will the bottle last longer? How do I know which one to buy? The answer isn’t simple.

This chocolate cookie is a master of many disguises, all tucked into the guise of a quite specific purpose. It is a roll-out cookie that is made with a dough you will simply love to work with. It’s crazy forgiving, re-rollable, re-chillable, and re-freezable. What makes it so versatile and, yes, masterful is that it also tastes like cocoa without being bitter or insanely sweet and bakes up soft in the middle (orwith the most incredible crackly crisp with a little more oven time).

Just like winter, baking season is coming! While it’s super fun to mix up cookies, pies, gingerbread, and all those holiday treats, it can also get pretty expensive. Between fancy baker’s chocolate, nuts (nuts!), several types of flour, and vanilla extract, you can spend a small fortune stocking up your pantry. Luckily, there’s one ingredient you don’t have to splurge on. Sugar!

It's the difference between good chicken parm and great chicken parm.

This cake has magical synergy. With no flour at all, this delicate and tender almond cake is based on the taste of ancient recipes, yet it’s made with modern cake-baking techniques. You’ll bake this cake in a jelly roll pan and split it into threes to make the layers. We’ll keep running with the theme of almonds with a nutty chocolate cream cheese filling. To finish, the cake is covered with chocolate ganache and toasted almonds.

Just in time for all those spring holidays.

This hearty dish, made on the stovetop in a Dutch oven, is an all-in-one dinner. Packed with crisp-tender vegetables and juicy chicken, and glossed-up with an easy homemade teriyaki sauce, this colorful one-pot dinner is a meal that pleases many a palate and is decidedly kid-friendly. When picking the veggies for this dish, stick to fresh vegetables that you’d find in a Japanese restaurant, and think about balancing crispy, sweet, dense, and soft ones.

Some desserts were just made for Pinterest — and for the adoring oohs and aahs of a rapt crowd. It was only a matter of time before the delicate French classic, gâteau de crêpes, became the dessert that slays. A stack of what seems like a thousand paper-thin crêpes, sandwiched with billowing cream, this dessert was born hundreds of years too early for Instagram, but it’s back — and it’s an internet sensation.

Tomato sauce can be so many things: fresh and simple, marinara full of vegetables, or slow-cooked until it is so luscious and rich that it’s the stuff of memories. This is the story of a sauce that delivers such a delicious, powerfully memorable impact that it is worthy of two days — yes, days — of cooking. So when you have a weekend to spare, or you’re snowed in and want a pot of sauce bubbling away all day long, here is the recipe your pasta dinner deserves. Deep.

Creamy, chilled, sweet, and rich, chocolate milk is a cherished childhood memory for good reason. When added to a Bundt cake, it creates a mellow chocolate flavor that’s a little milkier, rounder, and gentler than a more assertive dark chocolate. If you’re a milk-chocolate lover in any capacity, this cake was made for you — and it’s just begging for a cold glass of milk. Chocolate milk is the core ingredient in this cake.

Corn chowder is a classic soup bursting with the sweetness of corn. It’s oh-so-creamy and body warming. When you add quick-cooking shrimp, corn chowder not only tastes great and feeds the soul, but it is also transformed into a complete meal in a single bowl. Usually, the thickness of a chowder comes from two sources: the starchy potatoes and the heavy cream.

When we talk about a great steak dinner we’re really talking about the big picture of what’s on your plate. The steak is front and center, but the sides are what makes it feel special. In fact, when it comes to steak dinners, a really good side can steal the show. In this series on Steakhouse Sides we’re sharing recipes for the scene stealers so make sure you leave ample room on the plate!

Rich, fudgy, and made from pantry staples.

When we talk about a great steak dinner we’re really talking about the big picture of what’s on your plate. The steak is front and center, but the sides are what makes it feel special. In fact, when it comes to steak dinners, a really good side can steal the show. In this series on Steakhouse Sides we’re sharing recipes for the scene stealers so make sure you leave ample room on the plate!

An everyday cake elevated to dinner-party dessert status.

This fruity tabouli is a formula, a recipe blueprint, that is so versatile you'll be having a different breakfast every day for months with ease.

Dry bread, not stale bread, is the secret to better French toast.

When cream cheese and the happy hostess met, a magical cocktail party food was born. I’m talking about the cheese ball. Creamy, dreamy, and cheesy, this centerpiece of a cheese tray or standalone snack with crackers was the elegant update on dips. The combination of the mildness of cream cheese and the sharpness of the grated cheddar, all amped up with a dash of Dijon and a splash of Worcestershire, made it oh so inviting. Now it’s your turn.

Creamy, smooth, sweet, and satisfying, chocolate pudding is a treat that always invites a smile. One version of chocolate pudding has been rising in popularity for the past few years, and it’s with very good reason. As the interest in plant-based food increases, the seismic shift from boxed mixes or stovetop versions found their hero in naturally creamy avocado.

Mandelbread, or mandelbrot (or mandelbrei, as I knew it as a young child), is an Eastern European and Russian Jewish twice-baked cookie. In some ways it is like its cousin, biscotti, the famous Italian twice-baked cookie, but mandelbrot is richer in eggs and fat and bakes up into a softer, more delicate cookie, with a toasty exterior that pairs as well with hot teas, as biscotti does with espresso.

When the perfume of gingerbread floats through the air, and you catch a first glimpse of gingerbread men and houses, you know that holiday season is here for real. Gingerbread, in some form, has been a European holiday staple since medieval days, when using prized spices meant that it was a very special time of year.

These lively gingerbread-spiced chocolate chip cookies are easy to make and even easier to eat. When it comes to texture, this is a classic chocolate chip cookie — crisp on the outside, tender on the inside — but tucked into that dough is something extra special. The bright taste of ginger packs a fun and surprising wallop. The warm winter spices add a festive note and a pinch of heat, while the chocolate chips offer familiar and delicious comfort and oozy goodness in every bite.

My kids aren’t that young anymore. Two are in college and one is in her waning moments of high school. Now that my oldest two live off campus for the very first time and have their own full kitchens, it was time to start their cookbook library, so I bought them their first 10. Now, I realize that they don’t consult books often.