4,379 four four recipes

Chicken and chili stew with browned drumsticks, white beans, cherry tomatoes, and chili powder, finished with fresh cilantro. A make-ahead one-pot stew loaded with garnish options.

Persimmon pudding cake, a moist autumn loaf with ripe persimmons, brandy, warm spices, raisins, and walnuts. Served with a brandy ricotta topping for fall holiday gatherings.

Low-fat oatmeal muffins packed with warm spices, dried cranberries, and pecans. Made with maple syrup, orange juice, and egg whites for 12 healthy muffins.

Guilt-free pumpkin swirl cheesecake uses yogurt cheese and egg substitute to drop the fat without losing the creamy body. Marbled pumpkin filling, spiced cinnamon graham crust, holiday-worthy flavor.

Five-pepper chicken fajitas with red, yellow, and green bell peppers plus jalapeño and black pepper. Lime-cumin marinated chicken in whole wheat tortillas.

Triple chocolate cookies with unsweetened and semi-sweet chocolate, espresso, toasted pecans and walnuts, finished with a piped chocolate drizzle. Dense, fudgy, and intensely rich.

It was nice and moist, if a tad on the heavy side. The recipe is actually for cupcakes, but can make one big layer. The frosting is outstanding, a definite keeper.

A triple-threat chocolate dessert worthy of its name: brownie shell, coffee-Kahlua chocolate mousse filling, and a glossy chocolate-coffee glaze finished with chocolate curls. Twenty ounces of chocolate across three layers. Slice thin. Share grudgingly.

Stunning dessert with homemade tropical sorbet (guava, pineapple, or mango) scooped into crispy handmade cookie tulip cups and topped with fresh fruit.

Orange molasses cookies, soft and puffy with cracked tops, spiced with ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and a hit of black pepper, then rolled in orange sugar. Whole wheat flour and oats make them a wholesome holiday bake.

This is a nice and special gumbo, chicken mix sausage, very tasty.

Microwave black bean burritos done in minutes, no stove required. Spiced black beans, partly pureed for a creamy texture, wrapped in tortillas with a fresh avocado-tomato salsa. An easy vegetarian dinner.

Kartoffel Torte is a German chocolate potato cake with mashed potatoes, cocoa, pecans, and maraschino cherries baked in a tube pan and drizzled with powdered sugar icing.

Layers of delicate almond-chocolate cake soaked in amaretto and stacked with rich chocolate parfait create a stunning French dessert that's worth every minute of effort.

Chewy peanut butter bars stacked in three layers: a buttery cookie base, a gooey marshmallow middle, and a crunchy peanut butter, rice cereal, and peanut topping. A potluck and bake-sale crowd-pleaser.

Low-fat fudgy chocolate cake made with buttermilk, strong coffee, and cocoa powder, topped with a glossy cooked chocolate icing. No butter needed.