Recipes with water

Vegan western beans and rice with pinto beans, tomato sauce, hot sauce, and sautéed onion and celery, served over brown rice. 25-minute high-fiber dinner.

Indian Figlets are spiced drop cookies loaded with softened figs, warm cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg, brightened with lemon zest. A chewy throwback cookie with bakery depth.

Mushroom and short rib soup with pearl barley, thyme, and sherry. A hearty, slow-simmered beef soup with chewy barley and earthy mushrooms in every bowl.

Tuna lemon and caper pasta tossed with Italian oil-packed tuna, extra-virgin olive oil, garlic, parsley, and lemon zest. A no-cook pantry sauce ready while the pasta boils.

Traditional fortune cookies made from scratch with 9 ingredients including instant tea for authentic color and flavor. Chill the batter, work with cotton gloves, and fold while hot for bakery-quality results.

Homemade beef bouillon simmered for six hours from beef shank, soup bones, cloves, and root vegetables. Strained and reduced to a rich, clear broth.

Mocha mint crisps roll buttery cocoa-coffee dough in sugar before baking into crackle-topped chocolate cookies with a cool peppermint finish. A holiday cookie tin essential.

Tuna almandine casserole made with noodles, canned tuna, mushrooms, and onion baked in almond sauce. Five minutes of prep, 25 minutes in the oven, dinner done.

Trout fillets poached in court bouillon and served with a beurre blanc style herb butter sauce of chives, parsley, tarragon, and lemon.

Very great vegetarian pizza, with garden tomatoes, fresh and savory flavor.

Very great vegetarian pizza, with garden tomatoes, fresh and savory flavor.

Spaghetti with lots of garlic and olive oil is the Italian aglio e olio classic: linguine cooked in garlic-steeped water, then finished with parsley and grated Parmesan. Pantry pasta perfection.

Spiced pumpkin bread for the bread machine with real pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, brown sugar, and eggs. A soft, autumn-scented yeast loaf with a golden-orange crumb.

Fun chocolate cookies with cocoa and chocolate chips, decorated with miniature bear-shaped cookies pressed around the edges. A kid-friendly baking project.

Jack-o-lantern chocolate cake is a rich two-layer chocolate cake decorated for Halloween, with orange-tinted frosting shaping the pumpkin and chocolate frosting piping the spooky grin. A fun family project that tastes as good as it looks.

Whole chicken braised in a clay pot with crispy bacon, onion, and garlic. Fall-apart tender bird cooked from a cold oven, finished with a simple pan-juice gravy.