Meatballs and red sauce is a favorite easy meal—particularly these meatballs. I love using ground organic turkey because it has such a mild flavor and is truly a blank canvas for any flavor you add. These meatballs—like all of the meatballs in this book—can be frozen...

This recipe was truly a labor of love. For the second testing, I couldn’t find a turkey breast so I bought a smallish turkey to try instead. I brought it home, made the brine, and let it soak up all of the sweetness and flavor from the cider and seasonings. I pulled...

Have you ever made ranch seasoning? It’s awfully hard to compete with the green “MSG packets” (as my husband affectionately calls them), but I think I did rather well. The ranch seasoning in this recipe adds great flavor and texture when you stir some mayo into the...

Everything about this recipe reminds me of November—the sweet potatoes, cranberries, and sweet oranges mixed with warming cumin spice. It’s autumn with winter approaching on its heels. This recipe would also be good using a whole chicken. Prep time 15 minutes Serves 4...

Let’s face it—the star of this recipe is the Blackberry-Chipotle BBQ Sauce. It’s smoky, tangy, and the fruity sweetness from the blackberries plays well with the chicken and vegetables. Raspberries and chipotle have become a popular combination lately, but after a...

It saddens me that I’m late to the strawberry-balsamic game. I’m a convert now, and I’ve made up for it with this recipe. Adding a strawberry-balsamic reduction at the end really amps up the tangy-sweet flavors. This is the same sauce that goes on the vanilla cake....

There’s this little Greek restaurant in Sacramento (Opa! Opa!—and you must say it in an excited voice) that has incredibly garlicky hummus. It’s fantastic. I wanted the same punch of garlic in this dish, so I added it in the form of an aioli—which is basically a...

I love pretty food, and I’m a very visual person. Sometimes I add certain vegetables to a recipe solely to add color. In this case I chose orange and yellow bell peppers and green snow peas so I could add them to the red from the chillies and create a rainbow. Nerdy?...

In the early years of my marriage—when my husband and I ate fast food more often—I had a “usual” at a nearby Chinese food place: orange chicken, stir-fried vegetables, and chow mein. I really, really loved their orange chicken. But since learning about food-processing...

My seven-year-old was researching Micronesia for a school project, and, much to my delight, was required to bring a dish to share. After pulling her away from the cakes and desserts she found after a quick Internet search, I convinced my little sweet-toothed daughter...