Recipe Sifter

Slow-simmered vegetable soup with tomatoes, okra, pinto beans, potatoes, and mushrooms. Vegetarian, hearty, and meant for long, gentle cooking that deepens every flavor.

Grilled chicken breasts marinated in olive oil, garlic, lemon, and herbs, then sliced thin over pasta with herbed tomato sauce. A Mediterranean-style summer pasta dinner.

Carrot raisin cheesecake mashes carrot cake into a cream cheese filling on a graham crust, with shredded carrots, plump raisins, warm nutmeg and ginger, finished with an orange-spiked frosting.

Wine fruit cup with sliced plums, nectarines, and golden raisins soaked in a spiced white wine syrup infused with anise, cinnamon, and lemon. A chilled starter that doubles as a light summer dessert.

A no-bake chocolate hazelnut cheesecake: a buttery cookie crumb base under a creamy, gelatin-set filling swirled with choc-hazelnut spread and cookie pieces, dusted with cocoa. No oven required, just chill and serve.

Rustic Italian yeast bread made with durum semolina flour and loaded with sautéed butternut squash, roasted red peppers, tomatoes, and onions. Uses a biga starter for deep flavor and makes four golden loaves.

Pasta alla checca, a Roman no-cook summer pasta sauce of ripe tomatoes, kalamata olives, capers, fresh basil, and garlic steeped in olive oil for hours. No stove needed for the sauce.

Hands-off oven roast beef seared at high heat for one hour, then slow-cooked in the residual heat of a turned-off oven for five hours. Just one ingredient, zero fuss.

Whole chicken slow-cooked on a bed of potatoes, carrots, onions, and celery with basil and seasoned salt. The cooking liquid turns into a savory thyme and soy sauce gravy.

Traditional Caribbean callaloo soup with dasheen, okra, plantain, and yam puréed into a silky, spiced broth with a Scotch bonnet kick. Warm, green, and soul-filling.

The grilled chicken adds the "pop" to this traditional tex-mex recipe. I made this on game day for my boyfriend and me, and it was a hit!

Mexican mocha pie with a chocolate Kahlua mousse filling, whipped cream, and butter-toasted almonds in a baked pie shell. A no-bake chiffon pie with coffee liqueur and dark chocolate.

Chicken leg pieces marinated in spiced yogurt with ginger-garlic paste, mace, cumin, and gram flour, then roasted on skewers. Cook it tandoor-style, on the grill, or in your oven.

Pit-style smoked pork shoulder grilled over hickory wood chips with a tangy mustard-vinegar barbecue sauce. Low and slow for 3 hours until fall-apart tender.

Corn on the cob drenched in a from-scratch British barbecue sauce with malt vinegar, Worcestershire, ginger, green chili, and a splash of dry sherry. Tangy, smoky, and utterly different.

Perfection salad is a vintage molded gelatin salad with shredded cabbage, celery, green pepper, and pimento suspended in a tangy lemon-vinegar aspic. A retro potluck classic that chills until firm.