I enjoy baking with mostly organic ingredients; lately I’ve been using organic Einkorn wheat flour (an heirloom, non-hybridized variety with less gluten than regular flour quite a bit. If you cannot find Einkorn wheat flour (I like the Jovial brand), use unbleached, all-purpose flour. I haven’t tried it yet, but I believe you could make a gluten-free version of this cake with almond flour; chopped apples would be a nice addition if you plan to make the cake in the fall.

These macaroons are an updated take on the classic we remember from childhood. Each bite is a happy marriage of textures and flavors: spikes of crunchy, toasted coconut blanket a chewy core generously studded with semi-sweet chocolate and an unexpected hint of balsamic vinegar. The vinegar balances the sweetness and adds sophistication, as if grandma’s recipe took a turn through Tuscany. A batch can be pulled together in half an hour, ready to rescue you in a pinch with a sweet treat that appears far more complicated. You might even have most of the ingredients on the shelf.

This is not the marble cake of your childhood! Even if the cake of memory was delicious, this one is hipper, super simple to make, and gorgeous without your doing anything special to make it so. The batter is made with flavorful extra virgin olive oil, a hint of white pepper, and natural cocoa powder. The tiger stripe marbling happens magically, all by itself, while the cake is baking; all you have to do is layer the batters into the pan.

When I was young, my mother made lots of different kinds of cookies in the weeks leading up to Christmas. These "snowflakes" (which technically aren't really cookies, but no matter) were among my favorites because they were simple enough that my sister and I could actually help my mother make them. We often filled tins with these to take to our teachers before school let out for Christmas vacation. I've never been a huge fan of the bland sweetness of white chocolate, but when it's combined with something salty—like pretzels, or the salted peanuts in these snowflakes—I can be swayed. Really, these snowflakes are just Rice Krispies treats for grownups. Of course, if you don't like white chocolate, or Rice Krispies, you can experiment with milk or dark chocolate or use different types of cereal (I think Cheerios would be pretty good). Best of all, the snowflakes take all of 15 minutes to make, leaving you with plenty of time to write cards or wrap presents or do whatever else you don't have enough time to do.

One time, I made a similar cookie (one that also called for melted chocolate in the batter) with a Valrhona chocolate bar that, unbeknownst to me, was flavored with orange. My sister and I could not for the lives of us figure out what had made the cookies taste so good. Finally, a teacher (we had baked the cookies for a class of hers) came out with it: "I love the orange flavor," she said completely casually. That said, these cookies are great made with regular semi-sweet Ghiradelli chocolate chips, which is what I used here.

Sometimes I'm feeling a little "crunchy" when I reach for a sweet treat--this does the trick!

Save your pricey fine balsamic vinegar for another day. Here is a grand and recession-proof sauce for strawberries and ice cream that wants only ordinary grocery store balsamic and a little honey.

A citrus-kissed cake that has a gloriously soft crumb, topped with a mint-flecked glaze.

I adore making rugelach at this time of year, when a lot of family and friends are often around. It's incredibly easy to make the basic pastry for these tasty treats (which is super buttery and flaky to boot) and you can keep it in the fridge for week in case you have any spur-of-the-moment cookie cravings. As this recipe makes enough dough for 4 batches of cookies, you get the chance to experiment with flavors a bit -- I usually like to use different fillings for each batch by swapping in different spices, nuts, chocolates, or jams. Here I've instructed for enough filling for all 4 disks of dough but feel free to change it up however you like. (The dough for these cookies is slightly altered from Alice Medrich's book Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy.)

Makes too many for one person

I have been making different variations of this cookie for years and this is its current incarnation. It all started as a child when i would come into the city to work with my dad. We would stop at the now defunct David's cookies in what is now the park central hotel. Never a fan for chocolate chip i fell in love with the dark chocolate cookie with white chunks and thus the love affair began.

In case you're unfamiliar with this Southern classic, it's basically a trifle made with pudding, vanilla wafers and bananas. Like most traditional dishes, there are as many versions of banana pudding as there are cooks who make it. While I'm not a huge fan of their cupcakes, which are too sweet for my taste, Magnolia Bakery has won a permanent place in my heart with their banana pudding. Less dense than most renditions, it's lightened with fresh whipped cream and studded with healthy chunks of banana. I like my banana pudding to have little pieces of fruit, to remind me that I'm eating something made from scratch rather than from a box.

Like many families, our Thanksgiving holiday is filled with ritual and custom. We tend to prepare the same dishes, often served in a bowl or on a plate that is a sentimental favorite - Grandma's gravy boat, my Mom's crystal bowl for the cranberries.

We are a family of flan eaters, all 30 or so of us, so it was just natural that I should start bringing a pumpkin flan to the Thanksgiving dinner. This recipe makes a bit more than will fit in the loaf pan so we generally make a couple of ramekins on the side for, um, quality control.

If dessert (or even afternoon snack time!) rolls around and you're craving something light, tropical and just barely sweet then this sticky rice should hit the spot. The rice cooks up to have that familiar sticky texture but has only the faintest hint of coconut and sweetness. This really lets the mango pieces shine through as the focus of the dish. The chia seeds add a nice little extra bit of crunch on top of the more traditional black sesame without being obtrusive.

Heavenly! That's the first thing that comes to mind. They were very easy to make; some cooks might need to know that the base and top aren't a dough, and they might wonder if the bars will work -- but they do! Light and not very sweet, they're perfect with a cup of afternoon tea. *I used Dalmatia sour cherry spread (found at Whole Foods), which was the only sour cherry preserve I could find. Also, I used the pastry cutter instead of the fork to blend in the egg.