Recipe Sifter

Chinese-style lamb hot pot with paper-thin slices cooked tableside in boiling chicken broth, dipped in a soy, sesame, peanut butter, and bean curd sauce. Served with spinach, cabbage, and cellophane noodles.

Creamy chile dip made with sour cream, diced green chiles, and ranch dip mix. Only 3 ingredients and 5 minutes of prep for a cool, tangy, mildly spicy party dip.

Jalapeño beef and bean chili with three fresh jalapeños, ground beef, kidney beans, and a thick tomato base. Two-hour stovetop simmer builds deep heat without raw spice. Built for chili lovers who want kick.

The everything bagel sandwich loaded with corned beef, liverwurst, Monterey Jack, and a tangy dill-pickle slaw. Open-faced deli-counter overload that tastes like a New York lunch.

Elegant French-style bread pudding layered with dark sweet cherries, baked in a rich egg custard, and topped with silky homemade vanilla sauce. A show-stopping dessert from simple ingredients.

Mom's peppered ham: poached ham shank coated in cracked black peppercorns and dried in a low oven for paper-thin deli-style slices. Old-school deli cooking at home.

Grilled polenta cake with orange blossom yogurt, fresh strawberries, and pistachios. A sophisticated Middle Eastern-inspired dessert built from pantry staples and summer fruit.

Homemade flour tortillas need just four ingredients and a hot griddle to beat anything store-bought: soft, pliable, lightly blistered rounds ready to fold around tacos, burritos, and fajitas.

Nutter Butter chocolate-peanut butter pie packs a crushed peanut butter sandwich cookie crust under a frozen mousse of whipped cream, peanut butter, and toasted peanuts, swirled with melted semi-sweet chocolate.

Savannah ice cream cake stacks coconut cake layers with strawberry, chocolate, and orange ice creams, finished with whipped cream and chocolate glaze. A Southern showpiece dessert for special occasions.

Vegetarian lasagna with broccoli soup sauce, carrots, mushrooms, three cheeses, and eggs. A creamy white-sauce lasagna without traditional tomato sauce or meat.

Hand print sugar cookies traced from paper cutouts of each family member's hand. Refrigerated dough shortcut, decorated with icings and candies. Memory-keeper recipe.

Full-spread taco bar: chipotle-spiced ground beef simmered in tomato broth, chunky homemade guacamole with lime and garlic, and fresh serrano pico. Twelve tacos' worth of filling with every fixing on the table.

Whole chicken braised in a clay pot with crispy bacon, onion, and garlic. Fall-apart tender bird cooked from a cold oven, finished with a simple pan-juice gravy.

Plunder Flechten, a traditional German twisted pastry filled with candied fruit and cinnamon sugar, brushed with apricot preserves. Made from Plunderteig, an enriched laminated dough.

Calcutta pasta sauce blends Indian spices with the Italian tomato sauce concept: cumin, garam masala, ginger, jalapeno, and yogurt for an exotic East-meets-West pasta topper. Curry-style sauce.