This adaptable version of the traditional meat, potatoes, and vegetable dish is perfect for using up leftovers.

This herb and citrus-infused orange dish is as beautiful as it is delicious.

A chocolate orange croquembouche is the perfect celebration dessert. Plus, with my simple cream puffs, yu don't need pastry skills or even a pastry bag!

This greens-based Persian version of a frittata is easy to make and lovely for a brunch or main dish. Traditionally, Persians serve it for Persian new year, Nowruz, and it is also served by Sephardic Jews.

A surprising and delicious use of watermelon. Try this light and refreshing dish next time you need a new main course.

Do you know about what types of spice blends you could be using and how to use them? Start learning here with excellent tips & ideas.

You don't need an oven to make this delicious cake. A pile of crêpes filled with berry sauce and chocolate ganache - simple concept, easy to execute, and perfect for Valentine's Day.

A simple side dish that will take any dinner up a notch.

A scrumptious brunch cake featuring mashed sweet potato with a crisp streusel topping.

These simple bars are a fabulous way to use up bits of dried fruit and nuts. Think of the recipe as a template and get creative as you use up what you have.

These delightful two-bite treats work for a St. Patrick's Day party spread, a brunch, or a snack. Easy to prepare, they follow the muffin theme, with a delicate and tasty result.

Slightly sweet, a bit spicy and altogether wonderful. This small batch jam is made in stages - you do the chopping one day, with the cooking a day or two later.

Ginger-infused madeleines are an incredible treat. Small, delicate sponge cakes with just a hint of ginger and a sweet taste, they'll take your tea or coffee break to a whole new level. With my tips, they're easy to make. Try them today.

Actually it’s not the beginning of the famous Mae West line, but yes, I really did put bananas in my grill last weekend. Why? Because wild ideas like that appeal to me. More about the banana adventure later.Last week, I heard a wonderful interview with chef, author, and sustainable food/cooking authority Barton Seaver. Although his specialty is seafood, Seaver has now written a grilling how-to/cookbook, Where’s There Is Smoke: Simple, Sustainable, Delicious Grilling. He grew up and got his start in the restaurant business in Washington DC (where I live), so I’ve been following Seaver's career for a while. I like his straightforward style and how he combines his interest in good food with concern for the environment and feeding those in need.

Scrumptious bars filled with nuts and chocolate chips. These blondies are simple to whip up and quick to bake.

This salad is a ray of bright sunshine on your table. Lightly dressed with a tangy yogurt-based vinaigrette, it is a healthy alternative to cole slaw or a great salad for brunch, lunch, or dinner. Great for a healthy snack too!

Two spooky hands with fingers made of dough topped by onions, poppy and sesame seeds and salt. A great savory Halloween treat.

My 3 grocery shopping tips will make your shopping easier, lower your food bills, and help you buy better food. Who doesn't want to improve their shopping?

This delicious way to use summer squash and corn is a perfect end-of-summer, early fall side or main dish.

Want to know how to roast a turkey? I've got you covered with 10 easy steps to turkey success. Follow these & enjoy your turkey, worry-free.

These cookies are a snap to make and delicious. Gluten lovers and non-vegans will love them too.

Ever wondered whether you should refrigerate hot sauce after you open it? Did you Wonder if it depends on the type of hot sauce? Find all the answers here.

How often do you get to enjoy a poem while making dinner? Recently I was at a family wake, saying goodbye to our beloved Uncle Bill. Family and friends gathered and chatted quietly – a somber scene, but also one with lots of hugs and promises to keep in touch in good times as well as sad or difficult moments. As the winter afternoon turned into dusk and the crowd thinned, we said our goodbyes and made plans for dinner. Cousin Pat mentioned that she was going home to make vegetable stew. Pat is one of my favorite people in the world, not to mention the source of my favorite soda bread recipe, so my ears perked up. At that moment, I couldn’t imagine anything more wonderful than a steaming bowl of comfort. I asked her for the vegetable stew recipe and Pat obliged, but warned me that it wasn’t an ordinary listing of ingredients and directions; rather, it’s a poem she wrote. Last week, I printed the poem (off the email she sent me), took a look into my refrigerator, and made my own version. It was indeed a wonderful experience – rather liberating to set aside the measuring cups and scales – and a tasty result. This vegetable stew can be either the main course or a side dish and it's great reheated as leftovers.Your ingredients may differ and so may your timing, but that’s the joy of this dish. Enjoy your creation, especially if you share it with folks you love. How to Make Vegetable Stewby Pat Brisson

In this edition of the Main Dish Magazine, we give our readers a real treat! Senior Editor, Kelly Vass, writes about The Art of Fermentation, Debunking The Blog, and the legendary Chef Pierre Rausch, who has earned more praise and awards than we can fit into this magazine! Additionally, we had a chance to sit down with Ashley Zaccara, manager of Lolita Restaurant in Philadelphia, PA to get her thoughts on the importance of hospitality. Happy Reading!

Start your day or snack on these - either way Multigrain Pumpkin Yogurt Muffins will help you stay away from "white carbs" (i.e. white flour and sugar) while satisfying that urge for a muffin.

A simple recipe for fudgy and nutty chocolate brownies.

Super quick and easy sauce for fresh vegetables, chips, or fried vegetables.

My favorite vacations are those when I get out of my routines and see even the most mundane parts of my life in a new light. Perhaps I shouldn’t use the term “mundane” to describe eating and food, but I do find that creating daily meals sometimes pushes me into “food ruts.”A recent trip to Dublin, London, and Paris gave me a whole new perspective on meals and ingredients. We picnicked, ate in restaurants, had meals with friends and relatives in their homes, and prepared our own breakfasts for part of the time in a rented apartment. Whether it was a simple sandwich, a cup of tea or coffee, or an elaborate dinner, I found myself thinking about my food much more than I normally do. When you think about food as much as I normally do, that’s saying a lot!As I looked at our photos, sorted through receipts, and browsed my daily vacation journal, a number of food themes jumped out at me. Here are several of them from the Dublin and London parts of the trip: Vacation-Sparked Food Epiphanies

Normally this blog is a refuge for me, and I hope for you. Food is comforting and whether I write about a recipe or facts about an ingredient, the troubles of the world generally do not intrude here. Still, I could not bring myself to put up a post with a Sept 11th date and simply act as if this day was ordinary.Three days before Sept. 11, 2001, at a family celebration (my daughter’s bat mitzvah), our then 16-year-old son pointed out that his grandparents’ generation was defined by the WWII experience, his parents' by the civil rights movement and Vietnam, and he asked rhetorically what would define his generation. In retrospect, the question has an answer that I wish it did not.It amazes me that 13 years have passed. I look out my kitchen window now and see a crystal clear day, taking me back to the way the skies looked in New York City and Washington, DC on that day – until they were darkened by smoke and fire. I first heard of the tragedy on the news as I was preparing for a conference call. Needless to say, when the conference call occurred in the aftermath of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center, the news played in the background and I was completely distracted, unable to think about work. If you’re 18 or older, you can probably remember that day. Where were you and how did you first hear of the events unfolding?

Orange peels cooked in an aromatic syrup of sugar, water, and spices. These peels make an ideal gift for the holidays and a wonderful sweet to serve guests anytime.

Americans eat a lot of chicken. According to the USDA, Americans consume about an average of 60 pounds of chicken per year, up almost 6-fold (from about 10 lbs per person) a century ago. So, unless you’re a vegetarian, chances are chicken is a staple in your diet.Deciding how to prepare chicken means answering a lot of questions. Are you going to roast a whole chicken or bake pieces, sauté or stir fry them, will you grill, broil, or stew pieces or would you prefer them poached? If you’ve got pieces will you use them with skin on or off? Do you want light meat or dark, or both? If it’s breast meat you’re cooking, will it be “on the bone” or boneless? Will you serve it with the skin or without?

Easy crème brûleé with ginger is a spectacular dessert. The custard is topped with a sugar shell. No blow torch required!

Pasta week continues. Wednesday was orzo, a small but mighty pasta. Today is about the sauce, rather than the pasta. You can pair this easy topping with spaghetti or another strand-type pasta, such as capellini/angel hair (thinner) or linguini (fatter). It also goes well with various smaller pastas such as rotini or fusilli (spirals), farfalle (bowties), penne or ziti (tubes.) The basic idea is to dress up a jar of prepared pasta sauce. Prepared sauce - gasp! If the thought puts you off immediately and you've got the time to make the suace from scratch, that's fine. But if you want a simple alternative to expensive and often overly salty take-out, the prepared sauce gives you a headstart on a great dinner. Of course, if you are adventurous and confident about how to season, you can start with a jar of canned tomatoes and add salt, pepper and herbs (oregano, basil), instead of beginning with prepared sauce.

These days we hear a lot about government services that don’t work well. Whether it’s a tale of government waste or an expose of federal employees who don’t work hard, the bad stories make news. But there are a government agencies (and employees) doing good work. Here is one small example in an important area – food safety. If you’re like me, you don’t think about asking the federal government for help with food safety in your kitchen. Sure I know about government inspection of meat and other foods, but when it comes to what happens in my own kitchen, I figured that I’m on my own. Wrong. Late Monday afternoon, I had no plan for dinner, which meant that I had to go to plan B – the hunt for leftovers. When I checked the refrigerator for inspiration and ingredients. I found a nice piece of grilled swordfish from Friday that we hadn’t had the chance to eat over the weekend. I wondered, “Can we eat this?”

This takes bread pudding to a whole new level. Filled with apple chunks and chocolate chips, then topped with crispy almonds and a cracker/cookie crust, this dessert is pretty enough for company.

Find out how you can get a catered meal delivered to your own Thanksgiving Hero. After all, Thanksgiving Heroes are special!

Want to know how to make perfect quinoa? You don't need to know anything but these easy tips to turn quinoa haters into quinoa lovers.

You need to know the 5 times when you should never cook. Find them here and avoid both danger and heartache. It's simple if you pay attention.

A version of carrot cake for the Passover seder or anytime. Filled with goodies (raisins, chopped nuts, coconut, and spices) held together with almond flour and a bit of matzo cake meal, it's aromatic and not too sweet.

Is it safe to cook beans in a slow cooker? I did the research so you don't have to. Find out the answers here. They may surprise you.

Facts you ought to know about garlic - they are many and I've collected them for you. Check out everything you need to know about garlic.

Which brand of almond extract is best? We did a taste test to find out. Check the results to help you decide which to use.

A refreshing non-alcoholic drink that pairs pineapple and spices with vinegar and sugar. The sweet and tangy shrub is perfect on a hot day.

Simple recipes for making sweet and savory crêpes

Chicken shish kebabs are an easy way to entertain a large group. Make these with vegetable shish kebabs and you have a whole meal!

It's easy to be a great guest. Just check out and follow these easy tips. You're sure to find family and friends inviting you back

Check out this Definitive Watermelon Herb & Spice Pairing Guide! It has recipes that pair over 50 different herbs & spices with watermelon.

These tips for making Hasselback potatoes will turn you into a Hasselback expert - and a lover of these elegant potatoes - in no time.

Shaped like small pyramids, these macaroons have a Middle Eastern aroma and a slight crunch that makes them perfect with coffee, tea, or other beverage.

Ripe, sweet-smelling strawberries are amazing. They are so beautiful that you can compose a still life scene worthy of painting just by putting them out on a nice plate or in a favorite bowl. They are simple to prepare as party food, great in fruit salad and a wonderful, edible garnish for a brunch food from eggs to pancakes to French toast. If you buy them carefully, keep them well and serve them graciously, you can make strawberries an elegant part of any meal. Added bonus – strawberries are healthy. They do not contain fat or sodium and are a significant source of Vitamin C. In fact, 8 medium sized strawberries have only 50 calories and contain 160% of the average daily requirement of Vitamin C.Strawberries are in season spring and early summer.