Chicken Orzo Soup with Spring Vegetables

This Chicken Orzo Soup with Spring Vegetables is hearty and filling, and the broth is made from a chopped up whole chicken and takes less than an hour. 

In fact, this Chicken Orzo Soup with Spring Vegetables tastes like it has been simmering for several hours.

Causa Limeña de Cangrejo (Layered Potato, Crab, and Avocado Salad)

Causa Limeña de Cangrejo is a layered potato, crab, and avocado salad from Peru. The potatoes are infused with the flavors of lime and ají peppers. 

This Causa, or Peruvian potato salad, has a delicious layer of crab salad sandwiched between ají spiced potatoes and sliced avocado. Causas can also be made with shrimp, tuna, or chicken salad.

Strawberry Swirl No-Knead Brioche with Strawberry Lime Jam | Strawberry Shortcake Bread

I am loving this strawberry swirl no-knead brioche bread. It's just slightly sweet and slightly buttery, and very soft and airy. To make it even tastier, it is filled with a swirl of homemade strawberry lime jam. 

This strawberry swirl bread is actually pretty easy to make, as long as you are comfortable with very sticky dough. It's very similar to working with a sticky ciabatta dough, except that this dough is enriched with some sugar, butter, and milk, resulting in a very tender bread.

Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies | #CreativeCookieExchange

These Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies are surprisingly complex and flavorful. I may never go back to just wheat flour for chocolate chip cookies. 

One of the keys to making these rye chocolate chip cookies is toasting the rye flour in a skillet until it gets all fragrant and browned. It adds an amazing nutty flavor to these chocolate chip cookies.

Sautéed Shrimp with Capers and Olives

This sautéed shrimp with capers and olives is so easy to whip up with ingredients you probably have on hand. It takes about 20 minutes to make, and paired with rice and a salad, makes a fabulous weeknight or "company's coming" dinner. 

The sauce in this shrimp with capers and olives is also wonderful for dipping crusty garlic bread into too.

Lariano-Style Bread | Pane di Lariano

This Lariano-Style Bread is a strongly flavored sourdough bread and is wonderful served with cured meats, smoked fish, or a garlicky bruschetta. 

It's origins are in the Lazio region of Italy, just outside of Rome. The bread is traditionally baked to a deep brown color in a chestnut wood fired oven. 

This Lariano-style bread begins with a firm sourdough starter, or lievito madre. I used my 100% hyration (flour to water ratio) to build a firm starter.

Easy Homemade Herb Crusted Italian Bread

This homemade herb crusted Italian bread is soft, flavorful, and most of all, one of the easiest yeast breads I've ever made. 

While I love the challenge of making an artisan bread that requires several steps (and possibly several days), sometimes there's nothing more satisfying than pulling together a dough in the morning, and slicing and serving the bread by lunchtime.

Detroit-Style Pepperoni Pizza | #BreadBakers

You probably haven't heard of Detroit-Style Pepperoni Pizza, even though it's been around for nearly 70 years. It was introduced to Detroit by Buddy's Pizza, a restaurant chain from the Detroit area. 

Legend has it that Detroit-style pizza was first baked in blue steel pans that were originally utility trays that held hardware and tools for assembling automobiles. 

There are probably a lot of arguments about authentic Detroit-style pizza. For example, "do you add the sauce before baking or after?" Or... "Isn't this is really just Sicilian (or Grandma) pizza?"

Red Wine Chocolate Cupcakes with a Chocolate Glaze | #BakingBloggers

These Red Wine Chocolate Cupcakes with a Chocolate Glaze combine the flavors of what just might be a marriage made in flavor heaven, red wine and deep, dark chocolate. 

I just happened to have some 70% bittersweet chocolate as well as a bottle of Chilean Carménère. While tasting the chocolate and sipping on the Carménère sounded like the perfect evening, combining the two ingredients into a dark chocolate cupcake also sounded like a wonderful way to use both ingredients.

The flavor of these Red Wine Chocolate Cupcakes with a Chocolate Glaze is very rich, intense, and not overly sweet. This is a grown up cupcake.

Butter Crumb Coffee Cake

This Butter Crumb Coffee Cake will take you back to your childhood. It's been a long time since I've had a real coffee cake, and even longer since I've made one. 

This butter crumb coffee cake is topped with the most amazing cinnamon and walnut streusel. There is a lot of of streusel on top of this coffee cake, and every bit of it will take you back to 7th grade "home economics" class. Only it's way better.

Garlic Knots | #FoodieExtravaganza

I don't know what took me so long to make Garlic Knots. They just might be my new favorite yeasted rolls. Rest assured, no vampires will be visiting your house with these around! 

These garlic knots involve sautéing nearly a whole head of minced garlic in butter, adding the solids to the dough, and then brushing the rolls with the resulting garlicky butter, once during baking, and then on the rolls when they are fresh and hot from the oven. 

Spinach Salad with Pancetta, Eggs, and Mustard-Shallot Vinaigrette

This spinach salad with pancetta, eggs, and mustard-shallot vinaigrette is a delicious way to get your leafy greens in either a light meal, or as an appetizer salad. 

This spinach salad with pancetta, eggs, and mustard-shallot vinaigrette also includes homemade croutons from leftover bread.

Braised Spare Ribs with White Wine, Garlic, and Anchovies

These braised spare ribs with white wine, garlic, and anchovies may not be pretty, but they are meaty, tender, and ready in a little over an hour.

These spare ribs are easy to make and easy to eat...  no grill or extra napkins required.

Butternut Squash and Apple Muffins | #MuffinMonday

These Butternut Squash and Apple Muffins are wholesome and not overly sweet. They are made with whole wheat flour and sweetened mostly with fruit. Perfect for lunch boxes! 

These butternut squash and apple muffins have a surprisingly faint smoky flavor from the roasted butternut squash. They are also super moist from the apples and applesauce in the batter.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cheesecake

This Peanut Butter and Jelly Cheesecake takes the flavors of your favorite childhood sandwich, and turns them into just about the most delicious cheesecake ever. 

This peanut butter and jelly cheesecake includes a cup of peanut butter, and is glazed with grape jelly and then topped with chopped dry-roasted peanuts mixed with peanut butter chips. Just try to resist.

Ham and Cheese Breakfast Casserole

This Ham and Cheese Breakfast Casserole is layered with eggs, ham, cheese, sautéed onions, and jalapeños. 

I made this ham and cheese breakfast casserole to test it for Easter brunch, and it was a huge hit.

Momofuku-Style Carrot Cake Truffles

Momofuku-Style Carrot Cake Truffles are so moist and sweet, and worth making a little quarter sheet pan cake to make these truffles. 

These Carrot Cake Truffles are filled with moist and flavorful carrot cake scraps held together by both the moistness of the cake as well as a couple of tablespoons of a magical concoction called "liquid cheesecake."

Sausage and Spinach Pie

This Sausage and Spinach Pie is packed with the goodness of spinach. A lot of spinach. 

There are two pounds of fresh spinach in this spinach and sausage pie. That's a quarter pound per serving. There are also leeks, eggs, and milk. This is a simple crustless pie that can be served for breakfast or brunch. If you omit the sausage, it would make an excellent side dish for dinner.

Coconut Butternut Squash Soup with Kale

I think this Coconut Butternut Squash Soup is a wonderful way to say goodbye to winter. 

This coconut butternut squash soup is slightly spicy and a little bit sweet. It's garnished with a delicious sauté of kale and red onions.  It's a delicious way to chase off the winter chill.

Nazook | A Walnut Filled Armenian Pastry

Nazook is a buttery and slightly sweet pastry rolled around a walnut, flour, and butter filling that has been flavored with vanilla and cardamom. 

This month, the Bread Baking Babes are making Nazook. Nazook you ask? It's a pastry made with flour, lots of butter, and lots of sour cream, and then filled with a buttery walnut, cardamom, and vanilla filling. Butter. Yes. There is a lot of butter in these. Is this a problem?

Fettuccine with Crab and Pancetta

This Fettuccine with Crab and Pancetta is so rich and creamy. The crab gives the dish a sweet flavor, and the Pecorino Romano cheese adds a sensational richness to this pasta dish. 

This crab and pancetta fettuccine doesn't take long to make, but it does require a little bit of a high wire act, or at least the ability to multitask. I'm pretty proud of myself, in that I was able to get this dish on the table in less than 30 minutes. I'm getting better at this cooking thing!

Chocolate Mint Pie | #PiDay

This Chocolate Mint Pie is an old fashioned recipe from the 1950s and 1960s, back when the Grasshopper cocktail was popular. 

This Chocolate Mint Pie is often called Grasshopper pie in honor of the famous cocktail that originated in New Orleans.

Sourdough Crackers with Gruyère and Thyme | #BreadBakers

These Sourdough Crackers with Gruyère and Thyme are so cheesy, puffy, and delicious, and they are a wonderful recipe for using sourdough discard.

I decided to make these sourdough crackers with Gruyère and thyme after refreshing my dormant sourdough starter. My levain/starter had been languishing in my refrigerator for about four weeks, and needed a couple of feedings to get it going.

Citrus and Celery Salad with Kalamata Olives

This Citrus and Celery Salad with Kalamata Olives combines so many unexpected flavors into one delicious dish.

For this citrus and celery salad, I used a combination of fresh navel oranges from a friend's tree, and fresh tangelos from our tangelo tree.

Spinach, Ricotta, and Three-Meat Calzones | #BakingBloggers

These Spinach, Ricotta, and Three-Meat Calzones are so cheesy and delicious. They are also loaded with spinach, and just enough Italian delicatessen meats to give them a rich and savory flavor. 

A calzone is an Italian stuffed bread, essentially a portable pizza! It can be shaped like an empanada or turnover, as pictured above, or rolled up like a jelly roll. It can be thin or fat, and you can fill a calzone with any kind of cheese, meat, vegetable, and sauce.

Irish Potato Cakes

Irish Potato Cakes are a delicious way to use up leftover mashed potatoes. If you don't have any leftover mashed potatoes, it is well worth making up a batch just for these potato cakes. 

These Irish potato cakes, or potato pancakes, are creamy on the inside and crispy on the outside. They are so easy to make. You just mix some flour into prepared mashed potatoes, Scoop the mixture into a skillet, and heat them in some melted butter until the outsides are brown and crispy.

Pretzel and Potato Chip Cookies with Butterscotch Frosting

I adore the salty sweet flavors of these Pretzel and Potato Chip Cookies with Butterscotch Frosting.

These cookies are loaded with crushed pretzels and potato chips, and the frosting on top has a delicious butterscotch flavor.

Fisherman's Pie | Irish Food

This Fisherman's Pie is a warm and comforting dish. The sauce is creamy and the mashed Yukon gold potatoes on top add to the dish's appeal.

This Irish Fish Pie features a layer of cod topped with sautéed mushrooms and shrimp and smothered in a luxurious wine and herb sauce. The dish is then topped with a layer of mashed potatoes and baked until the fish is cooked through and the potatoes are crusty.

Coffee Rubbed Flank Steak

This coffee rubbed flank steak has such a smoky, rich, and delicious flavor. 

Along with coffee, the rub for this steak also includes garlic, pepper, brown sugar, cayenne, cloves, and cinnamon, along with salt and pepper. The combination of the flavors in the rub, married with the high heat on the grill or grill pan, creates an incredible flavor.

How to Make Ketchup from Scratch

This Homemade Ketchup from scratch is tastier than anything you can buy at a store.

Making ketchup, or any condiment, from scratch may seem a little over the top, even if you love making your own homemade salad dressings, barbecue sauces, and preserves.

Bouchon Bakery Style Carrot Muffins | #MuffinMonday

These Bouchon Bakery Style Carrot Muffins are flavored with cinnamon, vanilla, and topped with an oat, wheat germ, and vanilla streusel. 

These Bouchon Bakery Carrot Muffins are delicious for breakfast, for a coffee break, or an afternoon snack. They would also be wonderful for an Easter brunch.

Cheddar Cheese and Black Pepper Bread

This cheddar cheese and black pepper bread might just be one of my new favorite loaves.

This cheddar and black pepper bread is loaded with cheddar cheese, both in the dough, and swirled throughout the loaf.

Trail Mix Cookies | #CreativeCookieExchange

These Trail Mix Cookies are loaded with nuts, seeds, dried fruit, whole grains, and dark chocolate, which makes it easy to justify having them for breakfast, or anytime of the day.

These trail mix cookies are loaded with lots of delicious and nutritious ingredients, including dried cherries, toasted sunflower seeds, and toasted walnuts. Just like trail mix, there are just enough chocolate chips to make you want to keep having more.

Chicken, Shrimp, and Sausage Gumbo

This Chicken, Shrimp, and Sausage Gumbo is such a rich and hearty stew. 

Gumbo is the official cuisine of the state of Louisiana. It begins with a very dark roux, and is flavored with onions, bell peppers, and celery, according to the Interwebs, the "holy trinity" of vegetables.
Gumbo melds together the flavors of several cultures, including French, West African, and Choctaw.

Royal Crown Tortano Bread

This Royal Crown Tortano Bread was such a delicious surprise.

This Royal Crown Tortano Bread begins with a starter that contains a tiny amount of yeast. It also contains a small amount of mashed potatoes and honey, along with the flour, water, salt, and yeast.

Sheet Pan Cod with Spinach, Tomatoes, and Olives en Papillote

This Sheet Pan Cod with Spinach, Tomatoes, and Olives en Papillote is easy, tasty, and totally nutritious. 

I first made this sheet pan cod with spinach, tomatoes, and olives for a dinner with dear friends. I paired it with this Vietnamese-Style Shrimp Cocktail for a light and flavorful dinner.

Japanese-Style Soufflé Pancakes | #BreadBakers

These Japanese-Style Soufflé Pancakes are so fluffy, airy, and light. 

The recipe for these Japanese Soufflé Pancakes contains pretty much the same ingredients as "regular" pancakes, except that you separate the eggs and whip the egg whites into a meringue and then fold them into the rest of the batter.

Roasted Chicken Parts with Ginger and Garlic

These Roasted Chicken Parts with Ginger and Garlic are an example of how you can take a whole chicken, cut it into pieces, and create a quick and delicious main course.

For these roasted chicken parts, I cut up a whole 4 pound chicken. While buying cut up chicken parts is a time saver (and, believe me, I do it all of the time), cutting up a whole chicken yourself is worth it because you get to use the chicken back to save for later and create amazing chicken broth.

Traditional New York Style Cheesecake | #BakingBloggers

This Traditional New York Style Cheesecake is smooth, creamy, and just about the most fabulous unadulterated cheesecake in the universe.

This plain New York cheesecake is inspired by the cheesecake from Junior's in Brooklyn, founded in 1950 by Harry Rosen.

Cuban Bread {Pan Cubano de Manteca}

This Cuban Bread, or Pan Cubano de Manteca, is a take on the bread produced from Cuban bakeries. 

Cuban bread begins with a starter to develop flavor, and is distinguished by the inclusion of lard in the dough.

Chocolate Tart with a Shortbread Crust | #FoodieExtravaganza

This chocolate tart with a shortbread crust is so rich and decadent. Picture a layer of shortbread, topped with a layer of creamy bittersweet chocolate, and a layer of chocolate whipped cream. 

This creamy bittersweet chocolate tart is also super easy to make. The shortbread crust comes together with a quick mix with your fingertips, and the chocolate filling takes about five minutes to mix and pour into the cookie-lined tart pan before baking.

How to Make Vegetable Broth from Scratch (and a Recipe for Rice and Pea Soup)

This Homemade Vegetable Broth, made from scratch, is so easy to make. With a big bunch of vegetables and eight cups of water, you can make this broth in 30 minutes.  

This scratch-made vegetable broth has a deep rich flavor.

Fresh Cherry Clafoutis with Almonds

This Fresh Cherry Clafoutis with almonds is a tasty custardy dessert. Clafoutis (pronounced cla-foo-tee) is totally elegant, yet very easy to make. 

Cherry Clafoutis is a traditional French dessert. In fact, the traditional way it is baked is with un-pitted cherries. Evidently the thinking is that the cherry pits impart an almond flavor to the dessert.

Vanilla Pear Muffins | #MuffinMonday

These Vanilla Pear muffins are loaded with chopped Bosc pears. The are so crazy moist and flavorful, and they are topped with crunchy walnut and cinnamon sugar topping.

These vanilla pear muffins are also spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg, and include lots of chopped walnuts.

Twix Candy Bar Brownies

These Twix Candy Bar Brownies are a delicious combination of chewy chocolate brownies and your favorite caramel and cookie candy bar. 

These Twix stuffed brownies are super chocolate-y. They are filled with Fun-Sized Twix bars, the cookie bar that is topped with caramel and chocolate.

E.T. Cookies

These E.T. Cookies are loaded with peanut butter, honey roasted peanuts, and Reese's Pieces. They are so peanut-y!

You grind the honey roasted peanuts in these E.T. Cookies to create a delicious peanut flour, which just intensifies the salty-sweet peanut flavor.

Carrot, Spinach, and Rice Stew

This spinach with rice and carrots is so nutritious, and it's such an easy and simple weekday side dish. 

The recipe for this spinach with rice and carrots illustrates how three large bunches of fresh spinach wilts down during the cooking process into a side dish for four.

Quick Beef Pho | Phở Bò Nhanh

The broth in this Quick Beef Pho, or Phở Bò Nhanh, is rich and beefy even though it does not involve simmering beef bones for hours. 

Pho is one of Vietnam's signature dishes. According to Andrea Nguyen, the author of The Pho Cookbook: Easy to Adventurous Recipes for Vietnam's Favorite Soup and Noodles, pho is a fairly new dish, "birthed" at the beginning of the twentieth century near Hanoi in the north.

Crispy Shrimp Snack Shack Tacos

These crispy shrimp snack shack tacos are what happens when tacos and quesadillas get married. 

You prepare these crispy shrimp tacos differently than most tacos, especially when it comes to the cheese.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip and Coconut Whole Grain Cookies

The recipe for these Oatmeal Chocolate Chip and Coconut Whole Grain Cookies comes from my (eons ago) days as a young mother trying to add some nutrition to sweet treats. 

These oatmeal chocolate chip and coconut whole grain cookies are made with 100% whole grains, unsweetened coconut, and walnuts.