Recipe Sifter

Homemade banana butter made from 10 ripe bananas, maraschino cherries, and pectin. This spreadable fruit preserve yields 8 to 9 half-pints for gifting or stocking the pantry.

Slow cooker sweet and sour shrimp with pineapple chunks and snow peas in a ginger-soy glaze. Hands-off cooking, served over hot rice. Set it before work, eat like royalty after.

Quick pickled green peppers with garlic and bay leaves in a simple vinegar brine. Pack into canning jars for a crunchy, tangy condiment that lasts for months.

An ideal fruit salad or dessert for Winter, because the tropical fruits are available year-round and ripen naturally. The riper and more fragrant the fruit, the better the salad.

A tangy-sweet piccalilli relish made with salted green tomatoes, fresh corn, bell peppers, and red onion in a spiced vinegar-sugar brine. Keeps for weeks in the fridge. Great on burgers and hot dogs.

Green Pepper Jalapeño Jelly with Red Pepper Flakes recipe

Slow cooker pork loin roast braised in a sweet cranberry glaze with mustard and cloves, finished with a thickened cranberry pan gravy. Set it and forget it for 6 to 8 hours.

Barbecued pork ribs with currant glaze rubs ribs in ginger, coriander, and paprika, then bastes them with a sweet-tart red currant, orange juice, and Dijon mustard glaze in the final 15 minutes. Glossy ruby-jeweled finish.

Chewy almond paste macaroons with crackled tops and tender centers, baked from a homemade four-day-aged paste of blanched almonds and egg whites. The classic Italian-style cookie before the French sandwich version took over.

A great side dish to accompany a simple dinner or a Thanksgiving feast!

A refreshing blended melon drink with fresh mint, lime juice, and ice. Use cantaloupe, honeydew, or crenshaw melon. Ten minutes, no sugar added, naturally sweet and hydrating.

Spice-rubbed chicken baked with dark rum, brown sugar, ginger, and cloves, then glazed with mango chutney for a sweet-heat island finish.

Chilled strawberry and white wine soup blended from fresh berries, lemon zest, and dry white wine. Elegant five-minute summer starter served cold in chilled bowls.

A gallon-jar fermented vegetable pickle with cauliflower, green beans, peppers, onions, green tomatoes, and olives cured in a garlicky dill brine. Ready after 10 days of room-temperature fermentation.

Traditional lemon barley water made with pearl barley, fresh lemons, and sugar. A soothing, old-fashioned British drink that keeps in the fridge for five days.

Homemade mead recipe with honey, cloves, cinnamon sticks, and lemon. A simple beginner-friendly honey wine fermented with active dry yeast and ready to drink in about a month.