Recipe Sifter

Empanadas de fruta filled with spiced dried fruit, raisins, pine nuts, and warm cinnamon-clove-nutmeg filling, deep-fried in a flaky homemade dough until golden and crispy.

Irish whiskey cake with raisins soaked overnight in Jameson, brown sugar, and a lemon glaze dripping down the sides. Traditional St. Patrick's Day cake with a warming whiskey-soaked crumb.

Pumpkin date bread with whole wheat flour, oats, buttermilk, and five warm spices. Lower in sugar than most pumpkin breads, with dates adding natural caramel sweetness.

Spiced molasses hermit bars with apple butter, raisins, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves. Chewy, warmly spiced, and lighter than traditional hermit cookies.

Lester's fruitcake is a heirloom holiday loaf: pounds of candied fruits, figs, dates, raisins, pecans, and walnuts bound in spiced molasses batter. Slow-baked, brandy-soaked, aged a month.

Pumpkin nut cake baked directly in sealed canning jars for long storage. Warmly spiced pumpkin-walnut cake with cloves, cinnamon, and allspice. A giftable holiday treat.

Marbled pumpkin cheesecake squares swirl a tangy cream cheese topping into a spiced pumpkin batter built with prune puree instead of butter or oil. Lower-fat fall dessert with cinnamon, ginger and clove.

Fideus with clams features toasted vermicelli cooked in homemade fish stock with steamed clams, topped with a chive-garlic mayonnaise. A Spanish-inspired seafood pasta worth the effort.

Dum gobi is a fragrant North Indian cauliflower and pea curry, the steamed florets folded into a creamy yogurt-tomato gravy spiced with garam masala, cardamom and turmeric. A golden, lacto-vegetarian classic.

Sweet onion pickles brined in a golden turmeric-spiced vinegar syrup with mustard seed, celery seed, cloves, and allspice. Crisp, tangy-sweet onions for burgers, charcuterie, and cheese boards.

Cream of sun-dried tomato soup thickened with rice flour and infused with a classic bouquet garni. A silky, intensely tomatoey French-style soup that works low-fat or with a swirl of cream.

George Washington's gingerbread cream pie: a spiced molasses gingerbread cake split and filled with a vanilla-apricot custard set with gelatin. A historic American dessert with deep, warm flavors.

Hot mulled spice mix with whole cinnamon sticks, star anise, cloves, allspice, coriander seeds, dried lemongrass, mint, and orange zest. Make a big batch for mulled wine, cider, and warm holiday drinks.

Veal stock built from roasted bones, mirepoix, leek, and tomato, simmered low for hours into a deep, gelatinous foundation. The classical brown stock that anchors French sauces and braises.

Sweet zucchini pickles with cinnamon sticks and cloves in a vinegar-sugar syrup. Refrigerator pickles, no canning, perfect for summer's zucchini surplus.

North Indian stuffed eggplant boats packed with spiced potato, peas, carrots and bell pepper, finished with toasted sesame seeds. Vegan and dairy-free with cumin, coriander, turmeric and ginger.