Holidays recipes

A quick, fun Halloween soup made with artichoke hearts, celery, and rice with chicken. Just toss everything together, simmer, and serve with crackers.

Creepy-crawly edible hornworms made from cucumber strips, cream cheese, and string cheese, served in hollowed-out tomatoes. A no-cook Halloween snack kids can help make.

For Chinese New Year, this vegetarian ham is always welcomed.

Fruity pineapple cake studded with golden raisins, candied cherries, and crushed pineapple, baked low and slow in a tube pan. A retro holiday loaf that ages beautifully and slices clean.

Homemade chocolate covered cherries with rum-soaked maraschino cherries wrapped in fondant and double-dipped in chocolate. Liquid-center holiday candies just like the ones in the gold box.

Thanksgiving Day tofu: a savory tofu loaf wrapped around classic sage-and-bread stuffing, then baked into a sliceable vegan holiday centerpiece. A homemade tofurkey that gives plant-based eaters their own showpiece.

Roasted pheasant a l'orange with orange slices tucked under the skin and a caramelized red wine vinegar sauce. An elegant holiday-worthy bird served over wild rice.

Homemade low-calorie cranberry concentrate with lemon, simmered and strained into a tart syrup. Refrigerate or freeze in cubes for instant cranberry drinks all season long.

Triple-chocolate Halloween brownies with espresso, walnuts, and chocolate chips, chilled and cut into festive shapes with cookie cutters, then frosted in orange.

Oysters Philadelphia: sherry-poached oysters on a bed of sauteed celery, topped with bechamel, Parmesan, and paprika, then baked golden on rock salt. An elegant holiday appetizer.

Halloween Jack-O'-Lantern cupcakes made with pumpkin, buttermilk, and pumpkin pie spice, topped with pumpkin frosting and decorated with black licorice faces and green gumdrop stems.

Nuclear Waste cocktail with blue curacao and Irish cream liqueur topped with cider for a murky, sci-fi green drink. A deliberately ugly Halloween party drink that tastes surprisingly good.

Layered pumpkin walnut pie hides a buttery brown-sugar walnut praline beneath a creamy, cream-cheese-rich pumpkin custard in a shortbread crust, crowned with baked pastry leaves. A Thanksgiving showpiece.

This traditional bread served in Mexico celebrates the Epiphany! Usually hidden inside is a coin or toy baby and whoever finds it gets to make the tamales for Candelmas!

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New Year's Eve chocolate clock cake stacks three layers of egg-white sponge with stovetop chocolate cream filling and Hungarian chocolate frosting, then iced with a clock face for the midnight countdown.