599 half half recipes

Frozen chocolate bananas coated in chocolate syrup and crushed graham crackers. A three-ingredient, no-cook frozen treat that kids can make themselves.

Mixed greens tossed in a honey mint vinaigrette with poppy seeds, topped with sliced carrots and toasted sesame seeds. The dressing recipe makes a double batch so you can refrigerate half for later.

Half-whole-wheat apple nut cookies with diced fresh apples, walnuts, raisins, and warm spices. Cake-like, soft-textured drop cookies that taste like apple pie filling baked into a cookie. Makes 48.

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.

Saffron kulfi pops simmer whole milk with sugar until reduced by half, then bloom saffron threads in hot water and freeze in cones or cups. Authentic Indian frozen dessert without an ice cream maker.

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.

Easy sugar cookies you simply roll into balls and bake, no chilling and no cookie cutters. Soft, buttery, vanilla-scented cookies from pantry staples, golden at the edges and ready in under half an hour.

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.

Cucumber stuffed with Roquefort and hazelnuts is a crisp, no-cook appetizer. Hollowed cucumber halves are packed with sharp blue cheese, cream, caraway, and toasted hazelnuts for cocktail hour.