Recipe Sifter

Milan-style braised chicken breasts with tomato, white wine, and a soffritto of carrot, celery, and onion. A 30-minute Italian one-pot dinner with rustic Northern flavors.

Soft chocolate drop cookies packed with maraschino cherries and topped with a glossy chocolate frosting. Buttermilk keeps them tender. Makes 4 to 5 dozen in about 30 minutes, so they're built for holiday cookie trays and bake sales.

Aebleskiver - a Danish dessert, like doughnut holes, but sweeter & much better traditionally served with glogg during the Advent.

Chocolate almond cut-out cookies made with sweetened condensed milk for a soft, fudgy texture. Studded with finely chopped almonds, rolled thin, and optionally drizzled with chocolate glaze. Makes 6 dozen.

Buttery pecan shortbread cookie balls dipped in vanilla frosting and rolled in tinted coconut. Melt-in-your-mouth tender, baked low and slow, and perfect for holiday cookie exchanges. Makes 48.

A simple 4-ingredient cookie pie crust made with flour, melted margarine, and powdered sugar. Bakes up crisp and buttery in just 10 minutes. No rolling pin needed.

Sweet corn kernels stud tender drop biscuits with a kick of red pepper and honey. Quick buttermilk biscuits with cornmeal texture that pair perfectly with chili or BBQ.

A quick and easy snack that can be served plain or with a bit of jelly to give it a fruity taste.

Smooth, rosy pimiento soup made with chicken broth, half-and-half, and a hint of hot sauce. Ready in 30 minutes flat, this Southern charmer is comfort in a cup.

Date sticks: chewy bar cookies packed with chopped dates and nuts in a tender cake-like base, cut into strips and dusted with powdered sugar. Pantry-staple treat.

Chewy oatmeal cookies packed with semi-sweet chocolate and butterscotch chips for a sweet-salty one-two punch. Makes 60 golden cookies with crispy edges and soft, oat-studded centers.

Easy Bake Oven chocolate cake made from scratch with just six pantry ingredients. A simple homemade mix replacement so kids can bake without the store-bought packets.

Swiss Leckerli cookies: honey-spiced almond bars with candied citrus peel and kirsch, finished with a hardening sugar glaze. Traditional Basel Christmas market sweet that improves with age.

German filbert cookies shape buttery hazelnut dough into delicate crescents and dust them in powdered sugar or dip in chocolate. Holiday cookie classic with deep nutty flavor.

Ginger Puffs are soft drop cookies made with cooked oatmeal, molasses, brown sugar, ginger, allspice, and cinnamon. One bowl, 30 minutes, yields 4 dozen warm-spiced cookies.

Serve these waffles with asparagus and topped with sauteed morels in and herb garlic butter in the spring, when asparagus is in season.