Party Food

The secret ingredient? Cooked carrots.

Layered jello molds are easier to make than you think.

One of my favorite strategies for moving outside the box of the standard Shabbat dinner menu is to look to the global canon beyond the Eastern European standards I grew up with. The Jewish cuisines of Spain, North Africa, and the Middle East — all warm-weather climates — are particularly ripe with summer cooking inspiration. This chicken dish, for example, is often served on Shabbat by Moroccan Jews, but it was delightfully unfamiliar to me when I first started making it.

Everybody loves creamed spinach, even folks who hate spinach! Here’s a luxurious baked version that I love serving with oven-roasted pork tenderloin, though it pairs just as well with steak, pork chops, or any other protein on your plate. Splurge on a little mid-week comfort food and make this with your dinner tonight! This spinach bake is a cross between creamed spinach and a spinach soufflé, and in my opinion it’s the best of both worlds.

It steals the scene at every party.

It’s no pretty jar of jam or row of canned tomatoes, I know, but I suspect that making your own fruit-flavored vodkas might just be the most fun way to preserve. It’s very easy and simple; choose some ripe fruits, cover them with vodka, and wait for a few days until the vodka tastes good.

There really is nothing quite like a multi-day cooking project to ease winter’s biting chill, and with the current temperatures in the single digits I’m sure we could all use an activity to bide our time indoors. These Southern-style tamales are the perfect way to get your friends and family off the couch and into the kitchen, and a batch is guaranteed to keep your minds occupied and bellies warm!

Imagine the tines of your forking breaking through, almost snapping, the velvety crust of a fruit tart. It crumbles a bit, but is far from dry — each bite more rich and buttery than the last. That tender crust is typically known as pâte sablée. Unlike a flaky pie crust, pâte sablée is crisp and more cookie-like. The name literally means “sandy,” although it’s anything but.

Here are the three essential steps you need to know for making a classic fruit crumble.

It's better than anything you can buy.

Eat them straight from the sheet pan, or make spicy, saucy tacos.

In America, Hanukkah food typically refers to two things: latkes, Eastern European fried potato pancakes, and sufganiyot, jelly-filled doughnuts that are favored in Israel and increasingly popular here. While very different in composition, what ties these two foods together is that they are fried in oil — a technique that directly connects to the “miracle of the oil” in the Hanukkah story.

When the dimmer seasons turn you inward toward big pots of braising things or simmering batches of slow-cooker meals, match those recipes with a sturdy side dish that won’t cower behind their homey hardiness. Chili, for example, with its robust kick and bulky beany, meaty sauciness would use a “mixed greens salad” as a footrest, stomping out the side’s subtlety.

There may be a million ways to roast a chicken, but there is one in particular that truly stands head and shoulders above the rest: the Zuni chicken. This method was originally developed by Judy Rodgers for her San Francisco restaurant The Zuni Cafe, but it has since traveled far beyond that kitchen. It involves salting the chicken days ahead and flipping it a few times during roasting, but the extra TLC is worth it. Simply put, this makes one of the best roast chickens ever.

It's easy and impressive!

Oh, and it's the perfect make-ahead lunch.

I always forget how amazing panzanella is. This classic Italian salad seems somehow too simple — and too improbable — to be as good as it is. We’re talking about a mix of day-old bread and juicy ripe tomatoes with whatever veggies might be in need of using, all tossed with a light vinaigrette.

Boneless wings are the secret to breaking your drive-thru or chicken wing habit.

If hash brown casserole had a bougie aunt, this dish would be it.

On vacation? Let the slow cooker do the work.

It features four types of cheese and a buttery breadcrumb topping.

This homey pie serves a crowd with ease.

Do you like éclairs? What about profiteroles, cream puffs, and cheesy gougères? Aside from making us drool just thinking about them, the one thing all these pastries have in common is that they are made from pâte à choux — a staple of the French pastry kitchen. Pâte à choux is a paste made of flour, water, butter, and eggs; it’s slightly thicker than a batter, but not quite as thick as a dough. Here’s how to make them.

Everyone will ask for your trick.

A bag of coleslaw makes a batch of chicken potstickers easy and quick.

Red velvet cake with a truly stunning hue and perfect velvet crumb every time.

If you asked me 10 years ago after feasting at a trattoria in Florence on fiocchetti alle pere con salsa di taleggio e asparagi that one day I would be able to replicate the experience, I would have laughed in your face. Back then the only thing I knew how to make was frozen pizza. But time has a way of changing us, and that trip to Florence changed me too. Here I am 10 years later, recreating that meal of a lifetime.

Cheddar- and jalapeño-flecked cornbread muffins are all too easy to love.

“Without fail, every time I meet someone new and they find out I’m a pastry chef, they’ll ask me, ‘What’s your favorite thing to bake?’ It took me nearly ten years before I turned the question into an opportunity to shed more light on who I am. My answer now? Poke cake.”

Warning: You'll want to drizzle the sauce over everything.

In case you need a good reason to buy a few extra ears of corn on the cob, this is it.

Microwave popcorn has changed my snacking habits forever. No, I’m not talking about the plastic-wrapped packages of microwave popcorn from the store — although I will thank them for the inspiration. I’m talking about a more DIY version using a scoop of kernels and a plain brown paper lunch bag. It’s so easy and fast that it has now become the only way I make popcorn. Any paper bag will do, but I like to use brown paper lunch bags.

Baklava is one of those desserts that has a reputation for difficulty, but is actually surprisingly easy to make.

Sometimes the sequel is even better than the original.

It’s a perfect vessel for ice cream.

It feels so fancy to put them on a cookie tray for a spot of afternoon tea.

Here’s what makes a tarte Tatin so fabulous: even if your crust isn’t perfect, even if it crumbles a bit when you flip it (as my buttery crust has done this time), and even if the tarte is not perfectly centered on your serving platter, it will still taste like something that came directly from heaven. Tender apples in a deeply caramelized sauce will cover a multitude of other culinary imperfections.

The sauce is silky, creamy, and tangy.

Your inner child will thank you.

They're thick, super soft, and delightfully unfussy!

Pepperoni pizza meets pasta bake.

The color is unreal.

"And those in the know now ask in advance if I’ll be making 'the peppers.'"

It's like no other pot roast you've ever tasted.

Whenever I go to a restaurant that has a salsa bar (always a plus in my book), I skip over the chunky pico de gallo and roasted tomato salsa and head straight to the salsa verde. This tart, slightly spicy salsa always makes whatever I’m pouring it onto so much tastier. It can be slightly harder to find at the store, but it’s actually one of the easiest salsas you can make at home! You just need five ingredients: tomatillos, garlic, cilantro, jalapeño, and salt.

It comes together with an easy marinade and just a few minutes on the grill.

It’ll feed the whole crew.

Ready for the best cobbler of your life — one that you can memorize and bake anywhere, anytime? Here's how to do it.

Get a head start with weekend meal prep and Monday mornings will be a whole lot rosier.

Prepare to fall in love with this easy homemade biko.

Skip the store-bought stuff — making it yourself is so easy and will be far tastier.

You'll be adding this to your list of Ina favorites.

No shaker (or fancy tools) required.

A summery spin on a classic comfort food.

I'll take a dozen, please.

Bring together brioche bread and a sweet custard and you have a never-fail, crowd-pleasing dessert.

Spaghetti alla Carbonara: When it’s good, it can make your eyes roll back in your head with pleasure. It lurks there, beckoning, batting its eyelashes on Italian menus. When you don’t order it, you usually end up wishing you had. This pasta dish seems easy to make at home, requiring only few ingredients like bacon, eggs, and pasta.

If you love eggplant Parmesan, you've got to try this cheesy, saucy casserole.

This ingredient takes these grits over the top.

Taking a cue from Korean bo ssam, it will be met with all the oohs and aahs.

The classic pasta sauce just got a whole lot easier.

Pile it onto buns, drape it over nachos, roll it into burritos, spoon it over rice, or simply eat it straight-up. You will be overjoyed.

This recipe is #momgoals.

Bright, bubbly, and refreshing.

A recipe that basically makes itself.

If crab cakes and hush puppies had a baby.

Whether it’s for an afternoon snack or your contribution to a backyard potluck, you just can’t go wrong with a dip. They are easy to whip up to snack on or share, and varied enough that there’s an option out there for everyone. These dips are filled with veggies for flavor, and they will make your snacking more colorful in every sense of the word. You can serve them alongside baby carrots, chips, crackers, or pita.

You know, for your Noon Year's Eve party!

The best thing to happen to breakfast.

It’s got a smoky twist.

You don’t need a smoker or even an outdoor grill!