Recipe Sifter

Sour cream Christmas cut-out cookies with a tender, slightly tangy dough, finished with a buttery coffee frosting. Makes 6 dozen cookies. Chill dough overnight for clean edges when cutting shapes.

Turkey primavera with browned turkey tenderloin cubes in a hearty tomato-beef broth sauce with mushrooms, green peppers, and herbs. Served over fettuccine or spaghetti with Parmesan.

Kushli are deep-fried Indian half-moon pastries stuffed with toasted coconut, almonds, semolina, sugar, cardamom, and raisins. Crisp, fragrant sweets for festivals and tea-time treats.

Braised pork shoulder chops with sliced pimento-stuffed green olives. Garlic-rubbed and dredged in flour, simmered tender in their own juices. Old-school stovetop comfort.

Italian chocolate cookies with cocoa, cinnamon, cold coffee, and grape jelly in the dough. An old-world recipe with no eggs that makes a huge batch of soft, cakey cookies.

This delicious Italian snack is perfect with a cup of hot tea or coffee.

Oreganato bread machine loaf with polenta, dried oregano, garlic, and parsley. A rustic Italian herb bread that fills the kitchen with Mediterranean aromas.

Old-fashioned chicken and dumplings made from scratch with stewed chicken, rich broth, and hand-rolled flat dumplings. Southern comfort food the way Grandma made it.

Layers of steamed cauliflower, sliced tomatoes, and water chestnuts smothered in a homemade cheddar cheese sauce with basil and a hint of cayenne. Topped with seasoned breadcrumbs and baked until bubbly and golden.

Bean soup with dumplings simmers kidney and black beans with corn, green chiles, and chili powder, then steams fluffy cornmeal dumplings right on top. A hearty, Southwestern one-pot meal with cornbread-style dumplings.

A lighter blueberry pear cobbler with a fluffy drop-biscuit topping. Made with pears packed in juice and skim milk, this fruit-forward dessert keeps things simple and satisfying.

It takes some time to make this decadent cake, but whoever tastes it will tell you how delicious it is. They might think this is from some high-end bakery.

Purple prune plum pie with halved plums arranged in overlapping circles on a cinnamon-sugar base in a single pie shell, dotted with butter. A rustic, open-face fruit pie for plum season.

Soft banana cookies with brown butter penuche frosting: mashed ripe bananas in a cake-like dough, topped with a boiled brown sugar icing that hardens into a shiny, fudgy shell.

Czech kolaches made with soft yeast dough and a homemade apricot filling. These pillowy rolls get an indentation pressed in the center to hold sweet fruit puree.

Fat-free apple coffeecake skips the butter and yolks: skim milk, egg whites, and corn syrup keep it tender and moist, with sliced apples and cinnamon sugar baked across the top. Brunch without the guilt.