Pudding is truly in my top 3 favorite desserts—and while making it homemade requires more work than a box of the instant variety, it’s still so simple. You likely have everything you need on hand to make one, and this salty butterscotch version is truly top notch. Traditional butterscotch is made by boiling brown sugar, butter, and cream together to form a thick sauce that is caramel-adjacent, but fanatics will agree it’s in a class all its own.

Brazilian Limeade, or Limonada Suiça, which translates to "Swiss Lemonade" in Portuguese, is a blended limeade popular throughout Brazil and increasingly enjoyed in the rest of Latin America and the United States. The drink's origins are debated: some attribute its name to the popular "Swiss" brand of condensed milk used in early recipes, while others credit its creation to Brazil's Swiss immigrant community.

This sandwich is great for wrapping up and bringing on the go, and makes for a delicious lunch or picnic dinner. Here I layer a baguette with sun-dried tomato pesto, grilled halloumi cheese, marinated grilled eggplant, and lots of baby arugula. Although a baguette tastes best and makes it easy to make 4 sandwiches (or 2) at once, you can swap the bread with a soft Italian sub or focaccia if desired.

Egg foo young is quietly receding into the realm of the nostalgic. Once a ubiquitous staple, the dish is now harder and harder to find in American Chinese restaurants. Yet, despite its somewhat faded glory, egg foo young holds potent allure and a couple of important lessons in texture, culinary resourcefulness, and building delicious sauces.

This Frozen Malted Latte was inspired by the many frappuccinos and coffee coolattas most of us used to drink with our friends at the mall after school in the 2000’s. It’s the perfect hot summer drink that comes together in 10 minutes (maybe not even) and can either be a morning boost or a mid-day pick-me-up. I added homemade vanilla syrup and malted milk powder to give it a nutty and caramelized flavor.

You’ll want to stash a few bananas in the freezer ahead of time for this delicious smoothie that tastes like a healthier version of a salted caramel milkshake. Dates, peanut butter, cinnamon, and salt help bring out that salted caramel flavor and Planet Oat Unsweetened Original Oatmilk makes it creamy without a drop of dairy.

I've always half-joked that baking terrifies me, so I only share recipes I can nail effortlessly. This clafoutis is one of those—a go-to you can use with any fruit. It's a simple French baked custard, traditionally made with cherries, but any stone fruit or berries work. Think of it as a Dutch baby's cousin. Almond extract and toasted, sliced almonds pair perfectly with the fruit, and fresh tarragon adds a lovely licorice note. Like most of my baking recipes, it's more of a flexible technique than a strict formula—feel free to adapt it!

This French yogurt cake is so simple, cookbook author Dorie Greenspan explains in Baking: From My Home to Yours, that in France it’s typically measured by scooping up flour, sugar, and oil right in the yogurt container. But yogurt comes in different sizes in the United States, so Dorie worked out a version of the recipe that could be re-created worldwide, either by weight or with measuring cups and spoons.

I didn’t always love my blender. Years ago, my esteem for blender drinks was so low that an early draft of my book, Drink What You Want, contained a disclaimer that the book wouldn't even discuss them. I thought that drinks made in this way—with tons of ice and a relatively high proportion of sweetness (and fun)—weren’t serious enough for a cocktail book written by a decade-long veteran of NYC’s craft cocktail scene.

This is my version of a delicious salad one of the vendors at the Pound Ridge Farmers Market sold a few years ago.

Coconut butter is a creamy spread made from pureed coconut flesh, offering a rich, slightly sweet flavor and smooth texture. It's perfect for baking, smoothies, or spreading on toast, and is naturally dairy-free and vegan.

Scrambled eggs are probably what I eat most frequently, but they aren’t much to write home about. This chutney is. It takes the eggs from ordinary to remarkable, and, here’s the best part, it is as easy as throwing a bunch of things into a food processor and pressing the button. There’s no cooking, just combining. It keeps well in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week (it gets quite a bit thicker and loses a bit of its fresh, herby brightness, but it is still great), and it’s also good on roast chicken, grilled fish, broiled lamb, griddled halloumi cheese, or roasted sweet potatoes. If you don’t like cilantro, substitute fresh mint.

Rhubarb falls into a rather unique category in that it is treated more like a fruit even though it is a vegetable. Most recipes incorporating rhubarb are sweet and eaten for dessert. This dish is no different. The treatment this tart vegetable most often receives though in order to transform it to a sweet dessert dish is the addition of a huge amount of sugar. This is unnecessary and, in some ways, insulting to the rhubarb as its own unique flavour and texture should shine through any dessert. In the case of this simple dish I’ve used two of nature’s sugars – honey and orange juice – to complement the tart vegetable. Baking the rhubarb this way, alongside the zest of the orange, allows the texture and flavour to combine to create a deliciously aromatic dish that works wonderfully well alongside cream, coconut cream or yogurt. Rhubarb has a finite season so catch it while it lasts!

The Plantpower Way: Italia| New Window: "Making vegan Parmesan is so easy in this recipe—you just need four ingredients. If you skip soaking the nuts, your cheese will have a firmer texture. It's brilliant and useful, as one can prepare it just as the pasta water is boiling."

From Instant Pot Italian| New Window: "There’s a different version of this delicious fish and fennel soup, called buridda, in every harbor of northwestern Italy. Local red mullet or bass is traditional, but I opt for extra-firm fish like sustainable swordfish, halibut, or thick cod fillets, as they hold their shape better in the Instant Pot."

When most people think of barbecue sauce, they probably imagine a thick brown sauce that’s sweet like sugar with a hint of smokiness and maybe, just maybe, a little heat. And while the reality is that there are so many different styles of barbecue sauce—Alabama white sauce (a mayonnaise-based barbecue sauce), Carolina gold (a mustard-heavy sauce), and Memphis-style (tangier and thinner than its western neighbor)—Kansas City BBQ is by far the most popular and most replicated style of barbecue across the U.S.