Three quick and easy vegetable recipes, each one pairing the vegetable with sour cream. Cucumbers with sour cream? Yes! Greens with sour cream? Yes, yes! Beets with sour cream? Yes, yes, yes! We'll ALL scream for sour cream! The 1924 Olympic gold medalist Doug Larson once opined, “Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon.” Me, I’ve long believed that if vegetables tasted anything like, say, ice cream or chocolate, we’d trip over each other at the farmers market. Truth is, I may have to eat those words, er, those vegetables, for these three simple dishes, stirred with sour cream, are every bit as good as the creamiest Chunky Monkey or the finest Belgian chocolate. ONTARIO GREENS Hands-on time: 25 minutes Time to table: 25 minutes Serves 4 1 – 1-1/2 pounds fresh greens, washed, chopped 2 tablespoons butter 1 large onion, chopped 1 tablespoon garlic Salt & pepper 1/2 cup sour cream Steam

An easy romantic meal inspired by my grandparents' life-long romance. It's a man-pleasing meal, a big steak with fried potatoes and at the end, crème brûlée. Lavender plays in all three but is light and surprising, not in the least bit overpowering. When my grandfather was courting my grandmother in the spring of 1920, he posted a soggy box of woodland violets still clumped in their forest-floor dirt. (Never mind that she was away at college and engaged to her high school sweetheart.) His romantic spirit reaped rich reward: four children and 29 grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren. With Valentine’s Day falling on a Tuesday, reservations are the easy answer. But this year, consider romancing your sweetheart with an almost-as-easy special meal cooked at home. Just shop for groceries and make the crème brulee on the Monday, then make quick work of the potatoes and steaks after work on Tuesday. Add a simple salad and a bottle of good wine:

A chicken curry reminiscent of London’s curbside curry take-away, one of my very favorite things to go-crazy for in London. (It's been too-too long!) Cashew Chicken Curry is surprisingly healthy and oh-so satisfying. Best of all? This one-pot meal is made with pantry ingredients! Check, you just might have everything you need on hand this very minute! Real Food, Fresh & Flexible. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. Weight Watchers Friendly. Naturally Gluten Free. High Protein. Great for Meal Prep.

Just One Per Month It was a good year for recipes, 2005. I'm extra-proud of this collection of best recipes from that year. In fact, it's not only that I still make every single one of these recipes almost two decades later , it's that I made every single one of these recipes in the last year! A Dozen of Favorites from All Kitchen Parade's 2005 Recipes including Quick Suppers, Soups, Salads, Sides and Sweets. All Whole Food, Made From Scratch & Family-Tested. Mostly Made with Simple Ingredients Relying on Pantry Favorites. Many Budget-Friendly & Weight Watchers-Friendly Recipes, One-Pot Meals, Year-Round Favorites, Seasonal Specialties.

The Original Overnight Oats, Swiss-Style How to make Bircher Muesli, the traditional oatmeal breakfast from Switzerland, just oats soaked with cider or juice or milk, then embellished with Greek yogurt, nuts, seeds, dried fruit and winter spices. It's an easy, healthy make-ahead breakfast for weekend and holiday mornings. Whole Food, Simply Prepared. Real Food, Fresh & Flexible. An Easy, Healthy Breakfast. Hearty & Filling. A New Addition to The Homemade Pantry , a Kitchen Parade Specialty. Budget Friendly. Weekday Easy, Weekend Special. Perfect When Cooking for One or Two . Scales from Small Plates to Large Platters. Easy DIY. Already Vegetarian & Easily Converted to Vegan. Naturally Gluten Free. So Good!!

aka "Christmas Crack" Yes, you can make candy! Just soak graham crackers with a quick hot homemade toffee that turns crisp, top it with a thin layer of chocolate and sprinkle with toasted nuts or without nuts, substituting bits of peppermint or ... let your imagination run wild! These crisp bites are addictive, that's why Graham Cracker Toffee is sometimes called "Christmas Crack"! If it sounds like a graham-cracker version of Matzo Toffee and Saltine Toffee? It is! Semi-Homemade Candy, A Christmas Classic. Easy Toffee with Just Four Ingredients, No Candy Thermometer Required. One Hour Start-to-Finish. Budget Friendly. Potluck & Party Friendly. Easy to Top with Almonds, Pecans, Walnuts, Pistachios and Other Nuts plus Sprinkles, Pretzels, Dried Cranberry and More.

So what happens when you substitute real dairy butter with a nut butter in a Christmas-y cranberry cookie? One excellent cookie, that's what. The dough starts with a nut butter made with macadamia nuts, you'll make it yourself by grinding the nuts in a food processor. The cookies turn out crisp on the outside, chewy in the center, bright with bits of dried cranberry and lightly spiced with fresh nutmeg. No wonder this cookie was voted my family's Favorite Cookie of the Year! Homemade Christmas Cookies, Made from Scratch with Macadamia Nut Butter. Real Food, Fresh & Inventive. Bright Color. Great for Food Gifts, Cookie Swaps & Holiday Platters.

Say hello to one of my "go to" dinners. It's a roasted pork tenderloin topped with a quick sauce of hoisin sauce, soy sauce and honey: easy enough for a weeknight, interesting enough that I'd happily serve it to guests for a casual supper. And the Butter-Simmered Carrot recipe? Fabulous! The name "butter-simmered" may imply lots of fat and calories but that's hardly the case with this recipe. That's because the special cooking technique infuses butter's distinctive flavor and richness into the carrots – but for an entire pound of carrots, needs only a tablespoon of butter! That's the "standard" proportion of 1T:1pound of fat:vegetables that I use for nearly all vegetable recipes. Real Food, Fresh & Fast. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. Weight Watchers Friendly. Naturally Gluten Free. High Protein. Great for Meal Prep.

Children Call Them "Golden Glow Potatoes" Definitely not your gramma's mashed potatoes, mine either. But this magical vegetable combo makes me ask "Why haven't we been doing this forever?" and wondering if this isn't the very latest "genius recipe". The trick? Just cook and mash potatoes and carrots together. You'll need hardly any (if any) added fat and they'll be creamy beyond belief. And that color! Real Food, Fresh & Comforting. Just Three Ingredients. Familiar Ingredients, Inventive Combination. Budget Friendly. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. Potluck & Party Friendly. Low Fat. Weight Watchers Friendly. Vegetarian. Naturally Gluten Free. Rave Reviews.

The Recipes: Three favorite make-ahead made-from-scratch spreads for sandwiches and crackers. Each one is fresh and just a little bit surprising. Each one works on its own, either as a spread that makes fabulous sandwiches or a light spread for crackers. (Or frankly? Anywhere you can think to spread a, um, spread!) All three together? They're a mash-up of color and flavor and texture. This is a great collection! I have a hard time picking a favorite! ~ Skip Straight to the Recipes ~ ~ Almond Cilantro Spread ~ (center) ~ Cranberry Orange Spread ~ (right) ~ Sun-Dried Tomato Spread ~ (rear left) It Looks So Easy, Doesn't It? Some people are simply born to entertain – not on stage, not on film, but at home. They make it look so easy, they’re so relaxed! The trick may be a little up-front effort. So with potlucks, parties and impromptu gatherings filling the year-end calendar, arm yourself with quick, make-ahead spreads that can serve double duty. Turn an every