Recipe Sifter

Crawfish dip with sauteed trinity, Rotel tomatoes, and cream cheese served cold. A rich, Cajun-style party dip loaded with crawfish tail meat.

English-cut short ribs braised low and slow in a tangy sweet sour sauce of brown sugar, ketchup, vinegar and garlic. Fall-off-the-bone Sunday supper.

Cucumber and radish salad marinated in zesty Italian dressing with sweet onion and parsley. Crisp, refreshing and low-carb, it gets better as it chills, a make-ahead side that needs no cooking.

Greek-spiced stuffed bread footballs filled with seasoned ground turkey, brown rice, and oregano. Football-shaped baked hand pies with sesame topping, served warm with cucumber-yogurt sauce.

Swedish tea ring with cinnamon-sugar yeast dough rolled into a ring and snipped into pull-apart sections. Traditional Scandinavian breakfast bread for special occasions.

Warm lobster tacos pair seared lobster medallions, jalapeño jack, and shredded spinach in flour tortillas, served over a bright yellow tomato salsa with serrano and lime.

Bread and butter pickles with thin-sliced cucumbers and onions brined with salt and ice, then packed in a sweet-sour brown sugar, cider vinegar, mustard, and turmeric syrup.

No-bake marbled raspberry cheesecake on an oatmeal cookie crust, with framboise liqueur and pink raspberry swirls. A summer-bright chilled dessert.

Chocolate-coconut macadamia pie: a Hawaiian-style dessert pie with semi-sweet chocolate chips, shredded coconut, and dry-roasted macadamia nuts in a brown sugar custard. Tropical pecan-pie territory.

Linda's giant cinnamon roll is a clever bread machine loaf shaped into one spiraled loaf with cinnamon-sugar, raisins and pecans rolled through every turn. A lazy baker's answer to weekend cinnamon rolls.

Hearty Mexican chili with three beans, eggplant, ale, and poached chicken. Slow simmered with cumin, oregano, and red pepper flakes, then finished with goat cheese and fresh cilantro.

Five-spice tofu simmered in soy sauce, star anise, and molasses for a deeply savory, aromatic Chinese-style appetizer. Make-ahead and keeps in the fridge for a week.

Crisp-tender cauliflower and green beans marinated in Italian dressing with dill weed, red onion rings, and red pepper flakes. A make-ahead chilled vegetable side that needs at least 4 hours to soak up flavor.

Basic refrigerator cookies (icebox cookies) with butter, sugar, vanilla, and a simple slice-and-bake method. Make the dough ahead, chill, slice thin, and bake in 10 minutes.

Madras beef curry slow-simmered with whole cloves, cardamom, green chilies, ginger, and tamarind. A fiery South Indian-style curry with tender braised beef cubes.

Oreo crumble cake with a crushed cookie base, chocolate-pecan fudge layer, and whipped vanilla ice cream top. A layered frozen dessert that slices like an ice cream cake.