Recipes

’50s Frosted Sandwich Loaf

Earning of pride-of-place on many a ’40s and ’50s shower table, the frosted sandwich loaf was a tower of cream-cheese ...
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40 Cloves of Garlic Chicken

When James Beard first whipped this up for Julia Child, he included matchstick-sliced carrot + celery plus slivered onion in ...
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After-the-Party Veggie Soup

It happens after every dinner party. The guests head home. I clear away the wine bottles, and whatever fell behind ...
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Ancho-Braised Lamb Shanks

It’s 12th night tonight! I’m not in baking mode–running about in the sunshine with my boys–so no kings cake, but ...
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Ann Sather’s Carrot Bread

In 1945, Ann Sather plunked down savings earned at a Chicago meat-packing plant to buy an already-existing Swedish diner. Although ...
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Apple Almond Cheese Tart

Whatever craziness is going on, in my head or otherwise, baking grounds me. Last night, for example, at like 4 ...
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Apple Cake (Gina’s Hubba Hubba Apple Cake)

Gina DePalma thinks her mom got the recipe for this gorgeous, not-too-sweet apple cake from a ’50s women’s magazine. When ...
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Apple Pie

Good recipes are like friends, they come and they go. Some, you may not see for a long while, so ...
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Ballymaloe Irish Lamb Stew

Jump to recipeCherished recipes are like ripples, each one an echo of the wave-maker that first broke the surface. This ...
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Banana Pudding with Homemade Vanilla Wafers

This is comfort, pure and simple. Smooth and creamy vanilla pudding, fresh sliced bananas, crisp little vanilla wafers, and a ...
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Banana-Stuffed French Toast with Strawberries

Since debuting in 1971 at Disney’s Polynesian Resort, Tonga Toast–a cinnamon-sugared chunk of flash-fried, banana-stuffed breakfast bliss–has always been a ...
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Banoffee (Banana Toffee Coffee) Tarts

This recipe story moves from Chicago to England to California and back again : ) It started back when I ...
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Beef Bourguignon

This is a pot of pure comfort. Beef Bourguignon. I have had many requests for this most-classic of beef-stew recipes, ...
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Beef Mushroom Barley Soup

Enhanced with curry, dried mushrooms and bacon, this beef-barley soup from long-gone Helen’s Olde Lantern in Blue Island, IL, was ...
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Berry Swirl Mini Cheesecake

When you need that summer cool, creamy little something, this cheery sour cream cheesecake will do it! Swirled with a ...
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Best Chocolate Whipped Cream Birthday Cake

Perfectly moist, dark chocolate cake, with light-chocolate whipped cream, and a pint of fresh raspberries dotted over the top. That’s ...
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Best Homemade Tomato Soup

My Father has simple tastes, and with home-grown tomatoes, simple is best. The juiciness and flavor of summer-ripened tomatoes has ...
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Best Tarragon Chicken Salad

Herbs are the best thing about my garden. Lilac and sage, lemon thyme and basil, tarragon and dill greet me ...
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Biscuits with Country Ham

Pull these soft little clouds of biscuit hot from the oven, slit them and fill them with salty country ham, ...
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Borscht (Beet & Beef Soup)

I have a friend who calls beets “essence of dirt clod” : ) But I have always loved their earthy ...
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Boston Baked Beans & Brown Bread

Despite the unfortunate Phaseolus vulgaris moniker—the American Common Bean category includes bunches of beloved, native-to-the-Americas beans: navy, red kidney, pinto, ...
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British Pork Pie

Americans love their apple pie, but in Britain, pork pies rule the pastry roost. Brits spend more than £165 million ...
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Brooklyn Blackout Cake

From the time it opened in its first unit in 1898 until the last Ebinger’s Bakery turned out its lights ...
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Brown Derby Cobb Salad

From Hollywood’s Brown Derby restaurant and named for its owner, Robert Howard Cobb, the Cobb Salad is the original chopped ...
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Brussels Sprouts (Petals with Bacon & Onion)

Today it was an impulse buy. But seeing those beautiful, almost prehistoric looking stalks of Brussels sprouts, I couldn’t resist ...
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Buttermilk Fried Shrimp with Chipotle-Lime

A bunch of Chicagoans wrote to tell us they missed this spicy-good signature shrimp appetizer from long closed Joe’s Be-Bop ...
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Butternut Squash Ravioli with Browned Butter Sage Sauce

This autumnal treat is one of my favorite pasta dishes. Tender ravioli pillows filled with butternut squash, shallots, and savory ...
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Cajun Crawfish Boil

Mardi Gras parades for 2021 may have been canceled, but the feasting goes on. With crawfish season on, fill a ...
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Caramel Pecan Sticky Buns

In a typical day, Shelby McCreedy might deal with, oh, money laundering, public indecency, intoxication, and some kind of theft ...
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Carrot Layer Cake with Cheesecake Topper

I’m a carrot top who loves carrot cake! I’ve made many over the years, never quite as unusual as this ...
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Cheddar Crackers

These nippy, buttery little crackers are soooooo easy to make! And they have a wonderful, crumbly texture. You can make ...
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Cheesecake Like Little Jack’s

From the time it opened in 1905, until it closed in 1962, Little Jack’s restaurant was a force in the ...
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Chicago Chili Mac

Ask about the origins of this belly-filling, budget-stretching American favorite and you’ll get different answers. Some point to Cincinnati’s habit ...
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Chicken + Veggie Noodle Soup (Gluten Free)

With a pandemic raging, daily life has taken on some sudden changes. For my family, with an nonagenarian dad upstairs ...
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Chicken Consomme with Marrow Dumplings

While the chicken soup I grew up with was a hearty rustic version, friends of mine have sung the praises ...
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Chicken Liver & Bacon Pate

After my brother got mononucleosis as a kindergartner (how does that happen to a five-year-old?) Mom launched a relentless iron-rich ...
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Chicken Under Cover (Best Chicken Pie)

Homemade chicken soup may be a comfort for body and soul, but tuck that beautiful stock, chicken and vegetables under ...
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Chicken Vegetable Barley Soup

Chicken soup is good for the soul, yes—but it’s also so nourishing for the body. There are dozens of versions ...
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Chili Con Carne with Homemade Chili Paste

One of my readers wrote in search of a recipe for bean-less chili that harkened back to her family’s Sunday ...
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Chocolate French Silk Pie & Butterscotch Pecan Meringue Pie

Making pie crusts is such a soothing thing. A quieting, settling-in ritual that centers you in one place and time ...
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Chocolate-Covered Cherries

Chocolate and Valentine’s Day are a forever pairing. For me, the choco-heart tradition is dipped in memories of my Aunt ...
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Chocolate-Dipped Walnut Brittle

My Dad always loved English toffee, and kept it out of kids’ reach, high in a cupboard in the dining ...
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Christmas Pudding

Stir it up! That’s the chorus in Britain on Stir it Up Sunday, right before Advent. Churchgoers hear, “Stir up, ...
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Chunky Monkey Muffins (Banana Double-Chocolate Chunk)

I love bananas, their shape, color, scent & taste–and that they come wrapped in their own packaging, with a handle ...
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Classic Bolognese Ragu

Jump to recipeKnown in Italy as “ragù alla Bolognese” this rich meat sauce actually has very little tomato in the ...
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Classic Fresh Blueberry or Apricot Coffeecake Ring with Icing & Almonds on Top

Last time I chatted with longtime Minnesota State Fair “Supreme Ruler of the Kitchen,” Elaine Janas, the topic at hand ...
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Coffee & Molasses Dream Bars

Richly flavored with molasses, strong coffee and a generous portion of ground cloves, these bars are one of my favorite ...
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Colcannon

Yes, my hair is red. And yes, that means some Irish ancestry. Namely? A great-great gran named Ira Lake who ...
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Como Inn Whitefish with Basil, Tomato & Oregano

I get a lot of requests for old recipes from the Como Inn, a long-gone Chicago restaurant favorite which operated ...
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Concord Grape Tart & Pie

My lovely friend Kathleen S. grew up 15 miles from Silver Creek, NY, where they still host a Festival of ...
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Corn Dogs

Here’s a little-known fact: Early corn-dog purveyor Ed Waldmire, Jr., wanted to call his corn-dog stand “The Crusty Cur”….his wife ...
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Cornbread (Very Best! With Dried Sweet Corn)

I like a many-textured cornbread: crunchy on the outside, tender inside, with plenty of chewy corn niblets for added flavor ...
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Corned Beef Hash

What to do with the leftover corned beef? Make hash! It takes just three ingredients: corned beef, potatoes, and onions ...
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Country Captain

Even though Georgia’s “official” state food is grits, there was a time when this simple tomato-and-pepper chicken curry was identified ...
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Crawfish Monica

Crawfish season is in full-swing, and there’s no better way to prepare those bright red “mudbugs” than in a hot ...
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Cream of Celery Soup

According to the Farmer’s Almanac, celery needs three things to thrive: a long growing season, mostly cool weather, and a ...
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Creamy Nectarine-y Cheesecake

Creamy cool and sunny as the summer nectarines it includes, this light, fruit-flecked cheesecake was requested by reader Marge. Marge ...
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Curried Lamb & Potato Pie

Sure, sugar pies are good, but a sturdy savory pie in midwinter is heaven. In response to a reader request, ...
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Deconstructed Pumpkin Pie (Pumpkin Mousse, Maple-Pecan Brittle + Sugared Pie Crust Twists)

There are people out there who don’t like pumpkin pie. (Cue collective Midwestern gasp!) But there are other pumpkin possibilities ...
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Double Chocolate Bread Pudding & Barley Malt Caramel

Take bread pudding up a few notches! With chocolate stout giving the cocoa-bean chocolate an more-intensely dark backbone. And the ...
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Dreamsicle Birthday Cake

In the hazy realm of childhood memory live two related events: The first time I plopped a scoop of my ...
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Dressel’s Chocolate Fudge Whipped Cream Cake

This beautiful cake is our family-birthday must. After I researched this story about it and developed the recipe, with input ...
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Duck & Andouille Gumbo

There are nearly as many recipes for gumbo as there are Cajuns. A lot of ‘em are made with okra, ...
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Egg Lemon Soup with Spinach and Meatballs

With my husband’s maternal grandparents Greek and Armenian, one or another deliciously lemony chicken soup was often on the table ...
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Egg-Salad Sandwich (Perfection)

To me, the best egg salad is a refined egg salad. In the realm of protein-“salad” fillings, chunky is fine ...
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Empanadas Picadillo

This recipe search started with a request from a reader looking for a meat filling that included raisins, spices and ...
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Evan Moses’ 1940’s-Recipe Chocolate Malted “Frosty” Ice Cream

If you ever get to Benkelman, Nebraska, stop in at the Dundy County History Museum and tell them Lost Recipes ...
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Fig Cake made with Fresh Fig Preserves

It probably wasn’t an apple. Apricot, pear or pomegranate…maybe. But mythologists suggest that the eye-opening, original-sin-ushering fruit Eve plucked from ...
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Flint-style Coney Chili Dog

There are chili dogs, and then there are Flint-MI-style Coney chili dogs, grilled and topped with a very specific spiced-meat ...
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Frank Sinatra’s Favorite Spaghetti

In a 1973 interview with long-defunct Mainliner magazine, Frank Sinatra said, “Everything I know about cooking, I learned from my ...
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Franklin Park BBQ Day Sloppy Joes

PTA School Barbecue Day has been a beloved tradition at Franklin Park, IL, District 84 schools since the 1950s. Featuring ...
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Fresh Cranberry Bars

From the Oleson-family-owned O&H Danish Bakery, just north of Chicago in Racine, WI, these bars are easy-good. Third-generation baker Eric ...
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Fresh Fig Layer Cake with Caramel Icing

My Mom grew up eating fresh figs from a large, spreading fig tree that grew by her house in Southern ...
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Fresh Strawberry Pie

This fresh strawberry pie, stacked high with just-picked farmers-market berries in a strawberry-juice glaze, comes with a great backstory. Liberace ...
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Fresh Sugar Pumpkin Cream Pie

Turns out those cute pumpkins you purchased for Fall decorating are very easy to bake into delicious fresh pumpkin pies ...
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Fritzel’s Griddle Cakes with Cherry Berry Sauce

There are a lot of vintage cheesecake recipes out there that ask you to “sieve” cottage cheese. Basically, that means ...
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Fritzel’s Pepper Steak

I first launched Lost Recipes Found as a column in the Chicago Tribune, which has a lovely archive of vintage ...
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German Chocolate Cake (Marshall Field’s)

It’s tall. It’s magnificent. It’s the quintessential German Chocolate Cake: Four layers with classic coconut pecan filling. This cake’s tender ...
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Giant Cinnamon Rolls

This goes back to when I first launched Lost Recipes Found for the Chicago Tribune, in answer to a reader ...
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Gingerbread Cookies

My boys love gingerbread–the dark rich flavor of the cookie, and, the poses they can bend and flex the classic-cookie-guys ...
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Glorious Morning Muffins

With the weather gorgeous and school ending, we are ready to be outside. These oh-so-tender little morning muffins are a ...
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Gluten-Free Cinnamon Rolls

America’s love affair with cinnamon rolls is alive and well. Cinnamon rolls, sticky buns, coffee cakes…I’ve featured recipes for all ...
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Gooseberry Tart

Wow, the things you learn when digging into etymology! Word geeks tell us that the “goose” in “gooseberry”, for example, ...
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Grandma Bertha’s Apricot Delights

Although there’s not much razzle dazzle on the outside, beauty–delicate, buttery, apricot-tender, cinnamon-sugared perfection–lies within. Susan Levin of Long Grove, ...
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Grandma’s Sunday Supper (Chicken Fricassee with Vegetables & Light Slaw)

When I grew up in nineteen-seventies Chicago, Sundays were family days. We’d drive to Grandma’s little brick bungalow on the ...
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Green Goddess Dip

Anchovies, chives, parsley, wine vinegar, sour cream…the original Green Goddess dressing was created by Chef Phillip Roemer of San Francisco’s ...
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Hand-Cut Fries with Lemon Curry Leaf Aioli

Somehow our dryer, oven and dishwasher all gave up the ghost in the same week. With four guys in the ...
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Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup Brownies with Chocolate Frosting

Nevadan Elizabeth Castle says she got this recipe from her 93-year-old aunt, Myrnie Dawson, of Princeton, IL. Elizabeth got so ...
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Holiday Brandied Fruit & Nut Bars

My Mom had a pecan tree on the grounds of her childhood home in Houston. Long after she married and ...
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Holidaze! Sweets & Treats

The sun is shining in through the windows, lighting up the mixing bowls and rolling pins, cookie cutters and pudding ...
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Homemade Fresh Fig “Newtons”

When Stuart Smalley (Al Franken) saves his family in Harold Ramis’ 1995 comedy of the same name, it’s not without ...
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Homemade Gnocchi

If you’ve considered, but not yet tried making fresh pasta at home, pillowy little gnocchi are a great place to ...
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Honey Cinnamon Graham Crackers

For all of you firepit fans and s’mores lovers out there, here’s my absolute favorite homemade graham cracker recipe. It ...
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Hoosier Mama’s Frito-Chili Pie

Born and schooled in Texas, I ate traditional Frito-Chili Pie with the best of them (aka bag-o-corn-chips with chili ladled ...
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Hoppin’ John (Black-eyed Peas with Rice, Greens & Cornbread)

We could all use a little good luck to kick off the new year–platefuls of it, in fact. Good thing ...
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Jalapeno Creamed Spinach

Creamed spinach–Texas style! Sans canned-creamed-soup and minus the processed cheese, this is a gourmet side dish worthy of birthday dinners ...
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Jam Tart (or, Best Basic Bar Cookies)

The bar cookie brings with it the promise of plenty, the memory of family gatherings where people talked long and ...
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Jambalaya

I’ve had many requests for a good home-cook version of jambalaya, and this is that. Like the dish itself, a ...
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Johnny Marzetti Casserole

Johnny Marzetti could very well be America’s best loved and longest standing comfort casserole. A mix of ground meat, tomato ...
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Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins

I first ran this recipe story four years ago, when the Chicago Tribune gave me permission to take the Lost ...
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Kentucky Derby Chocolate Pecan Pie

Was Derby pie named for the hat or the horse race? The horse race. But a hat does figure in ...
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Key Lime Pie

The story of Key lime pie is delightfully odd, including Cuban sponge “hookers”, mystery aunts, canned milk and curing. The ...
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Kirk Douglas’ Favorite Meatloaf

Before there was Michael Douglas, there was Kirk Douglas, Michael’s 1940s matinee-idol father. If it weren’t for Ant Man, in ...
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Leek & Potato Soup

There is a delicious vegetable soup in this post. But first? Some stories. I don’t know why but I awoke ...
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Lemony Smoked Salmon Dip

I’ve always loved smoked salmon, so tucking it into a creamy dip with fresh herbs and lemon is always a ...
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Lime-Chocolate Ice Cream Pie

Serendipity! Two or three people who don’t know each other, and live hundreds of miles apart in separate States, ask ...
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Lutz’s Raspberry Nut Bars

One of Chicago’s most famous pastry chefs until his death in 2011, Lutz Olkiewicz was sweets master at the Drake ...
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Madison Guerrilla Cookie (….or comes close!)

I first posted this story exactly three years ago. In the interim? I’ve had another dozen letters from Madison Guerrilla ...
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Mango Lime Sorbet

July 22nd is National Mango Day. When my boys came home with a celebratory box of very ripe mangoes, they ...
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Marshall Field’s Chinese Chews

I would never have thought to put dates with chocolate. But wow! So good! The result, as exemplified in this ...
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Marvelous Mashed Potatoes

Chicago chef Mike Sheerin has been making the mashed potatoes at family gatherings since he was six years old. On ...
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Melting Apple Cake

Baking recipes usually frown on softer apples, specifying instead that you use Granny Smith. But this fragrantly spiced, fabulously flavored ...
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Meta’s Buttery Buttermilk Biscuits

I woke up this morning remembering a whimsical fact: When my youngest child was a very small grasshopper, he nicknamed ...
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Mexican Holiday Punch (Ponche Navideño)

The tiny little tejocotes were so cute, I bought a handful just to look at them! When the guy at ...
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Mile-High Country Cornbread

Just had the pleasure of writing about Chicago chef’s favorite food memories, represented in this photo of a golden hour ...
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Mincemeat Tarts

Among traditional Holiday foods, mincemeat goes waaaaaaay back. Dating from the 11th century, mincemeat pie originally packed (along with the ...
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Mister MacTavish Rarebit Burger

Once-upon-a-time, I left a job as an editor for a national food magazine, to do marketing for Chicago’s beefy Lawry’s ...
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Mom’s Chili Mac

The first time my parents drove to the tiny Texas town where I would spend my early childhood, Dad got ...
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Naturally-Dyed Eggs

Well, here’s a Jacob Grimm you may not have heard : ) As a philologist studying Germanic folk customs, Grimm ...
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New England Clam Chowder (James Cagney’s)

As long as there have been celebrities, there have been fans obsessed with them. The minutiae of their lives…where they ...
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New Orleans Okra Giardiniera

When Liz Williams, director of New Orleans’ Southern Food & Beverage Museum was little, her mama couldn’t stand okra. “So, ...
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New York “Dry” Crustless Cheesecake

The checkout lady at the grocery store thought I was on a real fat bender. “What are you going to ...
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Niçoise Salad

When it originated in Nice, salade niçoise was just a mix of tomatoes, anchovies and olive oil—simple food for poor ...
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Nigella + Sesame Cracker Crisps

I was delighted to get a letter from my sister-in-law Tonia that included a special gift: Nigella flower seeds to ...
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North Carolina Cassoulet (Navy Beans & Meats in Ham Hock Stock)

This satisfying Southern dish full of richly flavored stock, smoky pork, vegetables, and creamy white navy beans, came to me ...
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Not A White Russian

White Russians. Remember those? They were silky as the synthetic dresses my girls-college friends and I used to slip into ...
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Old-fashioned Butter Cookies

When I was growing up, our sometime babysitter Shirley loved baking. I can still see her, arms crossed behind her ...
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Orange Dips

In 1961, these light, fresh-orange-and-sugar-glazed, tea cookies won Jo Ryman Scott the first-ever bake-off at Fairbanks, Alaska’s Tanana Valley State ...
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Panna Cotta with Wine Poached Pears

As far back as the 15th century, English cooks discovered that wine-poaching hard pears made them tender and tasty. One ...
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Pasta Shells with Roasted Vegetables (Maggiano’s Original Recipe)

It’s a thing: Thriving restaurant concepts refresh and update menus often, sometimes eliminating dishes from menus that might have been ...
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PBJ Bars (Fresh Concord Grape with Peanutty Crust)

The grape harvest had happened, truckloads of deeply fragrant Concord grapes already on their way to become juice and jam ...
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Peaches + Cream Pie

If you’ve had the pleasure of plucking a sun-warmed, fully ripe peach from a tree and eating it right there ...
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Persian Quail with Pomegranate Walnut Sauce (Fesenjan)

Sweet, tart, earthy and rich, this beautiful celebratory Persian dish originated thousands of years ago in the Iranian province of ...
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Persimmon Spice Cake with Caramel Frosting

For anybody unfamiliar with the pretty orange fruits, American persimmons are native, highly-nutritious and were prized by American Indians and ...
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Pimiento Cheese Cherry Bombs

My mom loved pimiento cheese. She had an old box grater and used to make me shred mounds of cheddar ...
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Pork Chops with Sauerkraut +Apple Stuffing

With three boys, a daughter, and son-in-law coming home for the Holidays, hearty, comforting dishes are in order for those ...
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Portuguese Egg Bread

Perfect for your Easter morning! Suzana B. wrote in search of this Portuguese Sweet Egg-Bread recipe her husband fondly remembered ...
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Portuguese Egg Bread

With ginger, mashed potatoes and some of the water you used to boil the potatoes in the mix, this beautiful ...
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Potato Turbate

Since I ran the recipe for this Pinellas County, FL school cafeteria lunchroom favorite, I’ve heard from more than a ...
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Preserved Meyer Lemons

Preserving lemons in salt is an ancient practice with delicious results. I am crazed for these, eating them sliced and ...
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Pub Cheese

You could buy pub cheese from the refrigerated section near the deli, or you could make this creamy, smoky, beer-and-bourbon-spiked ...
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Quinoa Roast Potato & Caramelized Onion Bowl with Arugula & Tahini Lemon Dressing

January being a time of new beginnings, it’s not surprising I’ve heard from readers and friends searching for the healthy ...
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Raisin Date Nut Bread Baked in a Can

Because the result is so moist, baking and/or steaming bread in cans is an old-fashioned tradition people still ask about ...
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Raspberry Fool (Raspberries + Cream)

Berries and cream have been a thing as long cows and brambley hedges have roamed and rambled across the British ...
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Red Velvet Cake (Monica’s All-Natural)

It’s been a while since I’ve been to Beeville, TX. Not far from Normanna, Orangedale and Skidmore, it’s the Bee ...
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Red+White+Blue Berry Trifle

Fresh picked and washed under the water spigot at edge of the orchard is undeniably the best way to enjoy ...
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Rhubarb Rosette Upside-Down Cake

Gorgeously colored from ruby to pinky-red with blushes of celery green that take on a satiny-sheen in the light, rhubarb ...
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Roast Baby Squash with Spiced Butter

Poultry may be the big star this month, but vegetables make my culinary firmament sparkle. Before Midwest farmers markets bow ...
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Roasted-bone Poultry Gravy

If you can, roast a small turkey the day before you do the big Thanksgiving bird, just to make the ...
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Rosemary Garlic Pork Roast

Low and slow. There is no better way to cook a nice, big pork shoulder roast–one that you have marinated ...
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Rosemary Garlic Pork Roast Tacos

Low and slow. There is no better way to cook a nice, big pork shoulder roast–one that you have marinated ...
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Rum Cake

When reader T.J. Campbell wrote in search of the recipe for a famous rum cake that used to be the ...
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Russian Salad

I laughed when I saw it. Delightedly chortled, more like, to see that the New York Times was running a ...
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Russian Tea Cakes

These little snowballs of melt-in-your-mouth pleasure are full of crunchy toasted walnut. They’re the perfect go-along with that mug of ...
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Salmon Coulibiac

Truly the cuisine of royalty, salmon coulibiac (koo‐LEE‐bee‐ak) was Prince Philip’s favorite dish. It is to fish what the Wellington ...
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Sauerkraut Soup

We’ve had requesters looking for what to do with the leftover sauerkraut, so this one’s for you! Rich with butter, ...
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Sauerkraut Supper

Ask my 95-year-old dad Bob about food memories and he is sure to tell you about sauerkraut. His mom (my ...
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Sausage & Sage Stuffing

The scent of toasting bread cubes, sausage in the skillet and fresh snipped sage just make Thanksgiving morning what it ...
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Sauteed Fish with Melted Tomato, Spring Onion + Asparagus

Taking the short walk across the Piscataqua River from Kittery, Maine to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Cathy Wolff points out historic ...
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Scotch Eggs

So a little history…Go to the website for British gourmet food retailer Fortnum & Mason and you’ll find the claim ...
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Serviceberry Pie (Yes, you can eat them!)

The berry world has its less-than-romantic nomenclature. I mean, “straw” or “rasp” don’t scream, “Eat me!” But those berries eclipsed ...
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Seven-Layer Salad (A Classic Updated)

A thing is the sum of its parts. If the parts are stellar the whole can be a beautiful thing ...
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Shaker Lemon Pie

Except for the no-sex and separation-from-the-world rules (pretty hard to overlook), I admire most everything I’ve read about Shakers. Progressive ...
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Sherried Mushroom & Walnut Loaf

I once lived in a big, pale-green commune of sorts, where vegetarian was how you cooked, if you cooked at ...
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Sherried Mushroom + Walnut Loaf

I once lived in a big, pale-green commune of sorts, where vegetarian was how you cooked, if you cooked at ...
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Shortrib Stroganoff

For many during childhood, “company coming” unexpectedly meant mom whipping up the 2-cans-of-condensed-soup-ground-beef-bacon-&-sour-cream stroganoff. Although that was a comfort classic ...
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Sizzling Salmon with Lemongrass & Tamarind

Pan-steaming fish over aromatics and then sizzling it with hot garlic oil is an old Cantonese cooking method…..the tamarind, ginger, ...
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Skillet Cornbread with Molasses & Honey

Hailing from Texas, my Mom made a lot of cornbread: Corn dodgers, corn cake, cornbread…we ate it with butter and ...
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Sour Cherry Hand Pies

Hand pies take a person back. To fourth grade, maybe (or even earlier,) when you’d bike to that corner grocery ...
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Spanakopita Triangles (Spinach Sorrel + Cheese Pies)

Spanakopita—the buttery Greek comfort dish of flaky phyllo dough filled with cheese and greens, can be made as one large ...
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Spiced Butternut Squash Pie & Southern Sweet Potato Pie

Ever since a food blogger published an article early this fall talking about her shock and horror at discovering that ...
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Spiced Shepherd’s Pie

One of my boys loves lamb, and this one-dish classic casserole, layering sautéed garden vegetables and gratineed whipped potatoes over ...
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Spudnut Donut Holes

Just in time for Fat Tuesday, Say, “hello,” to our spudnuts! These little potato-donut morsels are descendants of the German ...
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Sticky Maple Pudding-Cake

Rich, sticky, sweet and gooey, it’s really like an upside-down cake, minus the fruit. Simple vanilla cake batter baked in ...
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Stovetop Steak + Stout Stew

One of my boys loves deep dark flavors. If you want that in a good stew, steak and stout are ...
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Strawberries & Cream Fridge Cake

Dreamy, chilled desserts full of cream, marshmallow, or mousse were very popular with housewives of the forties and fifties when ...
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Strawberries in a Cloud (Blitz Torte)

I am a strawberry girl. I eat strawberries out of hand, make pies & jams with them, macerate them, even ...
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Strawberry Shortcakes with Sugared Cream Biscuits, Strawberries & Cream

Dough made with a high fat-to-flour ratio is called “short” and bakes up into the tender crumbly biscuits we call ...
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Summer Girl Soda

Still hot? Me too! How about this vintage soda fountain creation? Raspberry, orange and vanilla in frothy foam…with all those ...
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Summer! Sister Mary’s Corn Relish

This is the corn relish recipe that has won self-professed “ribbon slut” Barb Schaller eight blue ribbons at the Minnesota ...
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Summerberry Pie

Juneberry, Sugarplum, Shadblow, Saskatoon…there are many names around the U.S. and Canada for what we know in Illinois as the ...
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Summery French Lentil Salad

Greens are great, but for savory satisfaction in a summer salad, I love this cool and crunchy lentil and veggie ...
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Sunchokes Two Ways: Soup & Smashed Potato

Earthy, sexy, silky, sunchokes beguile. To me, they’re like truffles in their scent and ability to make you crave just ...
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Swedish Beet, Potato & Lettuce Salad with Mustard Cream

Really simple, really good, really pretty: just chilled red potatoes, beets, crisp lettuce and a creamy, sweet & tangy mustard ...
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Swedish Cardamom Sweet Bread

Fragrant with the lovely scent of cardamom, this golden, Swedish-pearl-sugar topped braid has been part of the Good Templar Swedish ...
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Swedish Pancakes (Plätter or Tunnpannkakor)

Swedish pancakes are tender, lacy, lovely creations. Finished, the delicate rounds are traditionally folded in thirds and served with lingonberry ...
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Sweet Potato Peanut Soup

We tried a gardening experiment last summer, growing as many varieties of peppers as we could, enjoying their bright freshness ...
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Sweet Rice-Flour Pancakes (Crespelle)

I didn’t have the chance to visit 4000-year-old Otzi The Iceman, oldest mummy in Europe, at the South Tyrol Museum ...
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Sweetcorn & Bacon Pie

The waitress at Ernie Risser’s family restaurant in Womelsdorf, PA, watches me looking dubiously at the gravy boat she plunked ...
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Tender Wedge Salad with Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing

Wedge salad is the perfect showcase for garden-grown lettuce and tomatoes. We tender it up by using Baby Butterhead (aka ...
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Texas Slow-Roast BBQ Brisket

Yes, you can use the oven to make a good Texas Slow-Roast BBQ brisket! It’s not quite the same as ...
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Thanksgiving!

They come from far and near, to gather together. Family, friends–and for those who lack either: the community of those ...
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The Original Chocolate Fudge Brownie (Palmer House)

The Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 was a chocolate-lovers dream: Boston-based chocolatier Walter M. Lowney brought the first American ...
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Tortilla Crunch Stack

This crispy crunchy stack of fresh-fried tortillas layered with a tomatilla- poblano meat sauce, and Chihuahua cheese is a surprisingly ...
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Tropical Fruit Tapioca Gelee Dessert

You know those recipes your mom used to make from what she pulled last-minute from the pantry? Nothing gourmet about ...
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Vanilla Chia Pudding

I’m so late to the charms of chia! And not for lack of my daughter Em’s trying–she’s been raving about ...
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Veal Stroganoff

When Count Pavel Alexandrovich Stroganov wasn’t busy commanding the Russian infantry in Napoleonic Wars, he feasted: Historians suggest that an ...
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Very Airy No-Bake Cheesecake

Cheesecakes come in dozens of flavors and textures. Contrasting with the dense, baked cheesecakes many know, this vintage 1959 no-bake ...
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Very Nutty Peanut Butter Granola

Was a time when “granola” wasn’t just used as the noun for the crunchy, nutty, dried fruit cereal, but for ...
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Viet Cajun Shrimp and Sausage Boil

When my mom grew up in Houston, Texas, excursions to Galveston, where my grandfather owned land, were a beach-filled regularity ...
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Vintage No-Bake Icebox Cakes: Berries & Cream and Chocolate Mousse

Chilled desserts full of cream, marshmallow, or mousse were very popular with housewives of the forties and fifties when the ...
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Vintage Tea Sandwiches

One of the more entertaining things about recipe books from the ‘30s and ‘40s, is what they reveal about changing ...
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Waldorf Salad

Recipe provenance is a wily thing. Who combined (insert ingredients) to make (insert dish) first? Definitive answers to almost any ...
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Whitehall Club Creamed Spinach

Established as a private-dining club in Chicago’s boutique Whitehall Hotel in 1956, The Whitehall Club was a fine-dining fixture for ...
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Whitehall Club Creamed Spinach

Established as a private-dining club in Chicago’s boutique Whitehall Hotel in 1956, The Whitehall Club was a fine-dining fixture for ...
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Wild Ramp Risotto with Spring Asparagus

Jump to recipeLast year, we planted our first crop of asparagus and were delighted to see the spears shoot up ...
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Wine-Poached Pear & Rosemary Tart

I so love the flavor of our wine-poached pears with a little cheese, it made me imagine them in this ...
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Wine-Poached Pears

As far back as the 15th century, English cooks discovered that wine-poaching hard pears made them both tender and palatable ...
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Yule Log Cake (Bûche de Noël)

Among our family’s Holiday-making traditions, filling rooms with boughs of evergreen is one of the brightest and best. As we ...
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Zucchini Relish

Like bread & butter pickles? Then you’ll like the taste of this relish. I’ve received requests for what to do ...
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Zwiebelfleisch (Red Star Inn)

The road to recreating lost recipes can be winding–not always leading where you expected it to go. The search for ...
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