Recipe Sifter

Homestead salad with mixed vegetables and kidney beans in a cooked sweet vinegar dressing with mustard. Make a day ahead for the best flavor.

Welsh batch scone baked as one round and scored into wedges, spiced with cinnamon, ginger, and mace, studded with raisins and dates. Traditional teatime bread.

Sweet pickled cherry tomatoes simmered in a thick sugar syrup with fresh ginger, lemon juice, and lemon rind until jewel-like and transparent. Makes 6 pints of gorgeous homemade preserves.

Sugarplum cookies with dried or candied fruit hidden inside each ball of vanilla sugar cookie dough. Topped with creamy frosting and colored sugar for Christmas cookie trays.

Chinese dumplings - jiaozi are very popular in Chinese new year!

Old-fashioned quick graham bread, a no-knead pioneer-style whole grain loaf with brown sugar, graham flour, and milk. Bakes up in an hour with no yeast or rising time required.

Jan's 1940s apple pie heaped with McIntosh and Cortland apples, finished with a quick water-rinse trick on the top crust that produces an exceptionally flaky finish.

Fat-free bran muffins sweetened with molasses and applesauce, bound with egg whites and buttermilk. High-fiber, no butter or oil, and surprisingly tender.

Friendship cake brandied starter ferments pineapple, cherries, and peaches with sugar and brandy over 6 weeks. A slow-building fruit base you share and pass along.

Chewy chocolate cookies made with cocoa powder, corn syrup, and egg whites for a fat-free treat that's soft, fudgy, and guilt-free.

A savory and hearty meat dish that can be easily made with your crockpot. Serve with bread bowls and a soft, crusty bread.

This cake is absolutely delicious and looks very pretty with the different color fruit on top.

Vegetarian party pate made from pinto beans, TVP, and shiitake mushrooms with mirin and mace, baked in a water bath and served cold on crackers.

Pickled hot red peppers: whole small chilies canned in vinegar brine with garlic, allspice, peppercorn, and bay leaf. Topped with olive oil and processed for shelf-stable storage.

Peanut butter puffs made with phyllo dough folded into crispy triangles around a sweet peanut butter filling, then drizzled with melted chocolate and chopped pecans.

Ninfa's green sauce is the legendary Houston Tex-Mex table dip: simmered green tomatoes, tomatillos, and jalapeños puréed with avocado, cilantro, sour cream, and garlic. Pale jade, creamy, dangerously dippable.