270 half half recipes

Iced mocha coffee shake: chilled brewed coffee blended with cocoa, sugar, and milk, topped with whipped cream and grated chocolate. The cafe drink you can make at home for half the price.

Instant cheesecake fakes the real thing in five minutes with a chocolate digestive biscuit, a swipe of cream cheese, and half a fresh strawberry. Snack-sized, no-bake, ready before the kettle boils.

Quick Rotel salsa made with canned Rotel tomatoes and chiles, fresh tomato, scallions, garlic, and lime juice. No cooking required. Mix and serve with chips, on salads, or over Southwestern dishes.

Brine for roasted chicken steeps a whole bird overnight in salt, brown sugar, lemon, garlic, bay, peppercorns, jalapeno, and Mediterranean herbs. The result: juicier, deeper-seasoned roast chicken from skin to bone.

Maryland-style crab soup simmered with beef shin, tomatoes, mixed vegetables, and a pound and a half of crab meat. A slow-cooked Chesapeake Bay classic loaded with briny sweetness and deep beefy broth.

Classic smoked salmon bagel sandwich layers light cream cheese, lox, capers, red onion and tomato on a toasted bagel. The 5-minute New York deli breakfast at home.

Gingered apricot hand pies made from refrigerator biscuits filled with chopped dried apricots, dark brown sugar, and ground ginger. Quick, half-moon pastries crimped with a fork and baked golden. A shortcut dessert ready fast.

Oysters Rockefeller, the New Orleans classic: shucked oysters in the half shell, baked on a bed of rock salt under a rich green herb-butter sauce until browned and bubbling. An elegant baked oyster appetizer.

This is an awesomely flexible dinner. You basically chop everything up, douse it in oil and some salt, pepper or whichever spices you're in the mood for (or grab first!) and chuck it in the oven for an hour or so.

Try this delicious rendition of stew that's made with great northern beans, wheat berries and a bit of cumin and turmeric.

No-bake party mix with chocolate candies, pretzel sticks, cheese crackers, and raisins. Five minutes, four ingredients, 8 cups of sweet-salty snacking for any crowd.

Crab and corn cakes pulse half the corn with garlic, mustard, and egg as a binder, then mix with whole corn kernels, lump crab, and scallions for pan-fried savory cakes. A summer-easy seafood appetizer.

Canned white beans with ham knuckle, fresh herbs, lemon zest, and maple syrup bake into a shortcut version of classic baked beans. Ready in half the time with layers of flavor from thyme, rosemary, and Dijon mustard.

Mom's homemade apple pie pairs a flaky shortening crust with canned apple filling for a from-scratch taste in half the time. Brushed with milk and dusted with sugar, the top crust bakes up golden and crackly.

Heart cake without a special pan, made by cutting a round layer in half and setting both halves against a square layer to form a heart, then frosting it pink with strawberry frosting. A clever Valentine's trick.

Grilled red pepper and tomato relish with fresh basil and lemon juice. A bright, smoky topping for grilled fish, especially tuna, with no added oil.