Recipe Sifter

Chunky chocolate chip oatmeal cookies sweetened with honey instead of sugar and bulked out with puffed wheat cereal for extra crunch. Drops about 56 cookies with a craggy, chewy-crisp texture.

The original Toll House chocolate chip cookies, the recipe that started it all: creamed butter and two sugars, vanilla, and chocolate morsels baked into a classic chewy-edged cookie. Add nuts if you like.

Nut horns are Eastern European cream cheese pastries filled with a sweet walnut meringue filling. The dough chills overnight for a flaky, tender bite that melts in your mouth.

Pennsylvania Dutch baked spare ribs nestled into tangy sauerkraut and slow-roasted until fork-tender, then topped with fluffy homemade drop dumplings steamed right in the pan.

A rich, fudgy chocolate sheet cake with sour cream baked in a jelly roll pan and slathered with a creamy peanut butter chip frosting. Feeds a crowd and travels like a dream.

Three-layer carrot cake with crushed pineapple, walnuts, and a tangy cream cheese frosting topped with toasted coconut. A moist, towering carrot cake for birthdays, Easter, and holiday tables.

Ripe banana bread blends mashed bananas with whole wheat and all-purpose flour, butter, eggs, and chopped walnuts for a tender, fiber-rich quick bread loaf. A half-whole-wheat upgrade.

Christmas memory fruitcake steams then bakes a bourbon-soaked, dense old-fashioned fruitcake loaded with Brazil nuts, raisins, candied fruit, figs, and warming spices. Heirloom holiday recipe.

A vegan 'chickenless' a la king: mushrooms, peppers, and peas in a creamy plant-milk sauce savory with tamari. Dairy-free and meat-free comfort spooned over rice, toast, or baked potatoes.

Dutch oven pork chop dinner braised in apple juice with potatoes, carrots, onions, and cabbage. Everything cooks in one pot for a complete fall meal with built-in gravy.

Tarte Tatin with a nutty oatmeal crust: apples caramelized in butter and brown sugar in a cast-iron skillet, baked under the crust, then flipped to reveal the glossy upside-down apple tart.

Kuchen, a traditional German yeast coffee cake with raisins and cinnamon, made from a rich egg dough that rises twice. A heritage recipe that makes two golden loaves.

Pinto bean bread, a soft yeast loaf made with mashed pinto beans for extra protein, fiber, and a dense, tender crumb. Rustic and surprisingly good for sandwiches.

This is the second recipe I'll post tonight--promised it to AH earlier tonight. My mother found this recipe 35 or so years ago in a magazine and it has become a family favorite. For years she only made it at Thanksgiving until I took over the baking reigns in the family; now she makes it more often especially when my brother, Lewis, is going to be in.

Flaky homemade chicken pasties stuffed with seasoned chicken, potatoes, carrots, and onion, baked until golden. A hearty hand pie that's comfort food you can hold.

Autumn breakfast muffins built on pumpkin puree, applesauce, chopped apples, and warm spices, with bran and granola for fiber-rich crunch. Egg whites and applesauce keep them low-fat without sacrificing moisture.