Spoon bread is a classically Southern dish that you probably won’t find just anywhere. The best way to describe it is to say that it is a hybrid of polenta, cornbread and a souffle - and that only partially describes it. A good spoon bread should be light, have an at least slightly custardy center and a crisp top. And it should be soft/tender enough that you can eat it easily with a spoon.

Spoon bread, which is sometimes written as spoonbread, starts with a thick base of milk cooked with cornmeal until thickened. This base always has some additional ingredients for seasoning. Basics would be butter, salt and pepper, but you can add in almost anything, from chopped up pieces of ham to grated cheese to minced herbs. The base is cooled down and then has egg whites folded into it before being baked in the oven.

My spoon bread is a very simple recipe and is quite plain on its own. I combine all the base ingredients in a saucepan before heating it, although there are many recipes that direct you to stream in the cornmeal once your liquid has already been heated. I find that this latter method can be tricky and, if done improperly, can leave you with a very lumpy cornmeal mush. Mixing everything before you turn on the heat and then stirring it frequently ensures even, easy cooking and still allows the recipe to turn out well.

The bread does get a good butter flavor from both the buttermilk and the butter in the cornmeal base, but it is best when served with butter to top off a warm piece. It is very tender, and while it is a bit more substantial than some almost souffle-like spoonbreads I’ve had, it is far moister and lighter than your average cornbread. I think that it works with just about any meal and can certainly be a stand-in for regular cornbread with chili or soup, especially if you cook it for a few extra minutes to firm it up more. There is no flour and no gluten in this recipe, so it is also a great choice to serve if you or your guests are gluten intolerant.

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Hearty and hot foods, from roasts and stews to soup, are definitely the order of the day during the winter. They warm us up and give us enough energy to fight the cold when we have to go outdoors. Of course, here in Southern California the cold that I’m fighting is nowhere near the cold elsewhere in the country, so I like to mix in some lighter fare with my hearty dishes.

This salad is a super easy and satisfying mix. I started with a baby green salad mix and added dried cranberries, feta cheese and avocados, as well as a handful of candied pecans for some crunch. It’s sweet, but gets a little bit of bite from the dressing and some saltiness from the crumbled feta cheese. And the salad is very colorful - a good choice for a Christmas side salad with red, white and green - so it looks gorgeous when served.

Feel free to increase the amounts of the add-ins to suit your preferences, and use as much salad mix (lettuce, raddiccio, baby spinach, etc) as you like to suit the number of people you want to serve. The amounts given below are for about 1 average-size bag of baby greens, which should serve 4-6.

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It’s traditional for fried foods to be served during Hannukah, celebrating oil in memory of the miracle (a small amount of lamp oil lasting for eight days instead of just one) that started the holiday. Latkes and sufganiyot (doughnuts) are two of the most popular items, staples at just about every Hannukah party/celebration. Both are tasty, but I am a particular fan of latkes. The potato pancakes are deliciously crispy and, when served with applesauce and sour cream, immensely satisfying. They are also not the healthiest thing you can eat during the holidays. A little indulgence is not a bad thing, but I prefer to make an oven-baked version for snacking at home.

I’ve been making this recipe for quite some time now. My pet peeve with baked latkes is that they are often either undercooked or not crispy at all. I avoid both of these pitfalls by making the latkes fairly thin, so that they cook all the way through, and by baking them at a high temperature to ensure that they crisp up well. I use spray cooking oil to grease my pan, but there is no oil in the latkes themselves, just a mixture of potatoes, onions, egg, flour and seasoning. I tend to season generously with salt and pepper, as potatoes can be a bit bland, adding 1/2-1 tsp of salt per batch. Overall, I think that they’re a good substitute for the “real” thing, with a lot of good potato flavor.

These pancakes should be served hot, within an hour of being baked, for maximum crispness. If you want to serve them at a party, you can make mini pancakes with the same potato mixture, but since the baking time may need to be adjusted, bake a test batch before hand to make sure you don’t overcook (i.e. burn) any minis.

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There are some schools of thought that say you shouldn’t use the same kind of cornbread that you like to eat plain when you are making a cornbread stuffing. They suggest using denser or sturdier cornbread that won’t break or crumble when mixed in, but will hold its shape just like bread cubes do. My feeling is that if your cornbread is good when eaten on its own, it will make great stuffing even if the cornbread cubes crumble a bit when you go to mix them up with the rest of the stuffing ingredients. With this in mind, I used part of a batch of Maple Cornbread to make some sweet and savory stuffing.

This stuffing is the type that is baked alongside a turkey, rather than being stuffed inside of one. It has a soft and most interior and a lovely crispy crust on top. The flavor of the stuffing is a little unusual for a couple of reasons. The fact that cornbread is used gives it a lot of flavor and texture, but putting that aside, the most interesting elements here are the fresh cranberries. Cooked slightly before being mixed in, the berries are juicy and tart - not common flavorings in stuffing. The mixture also has red pepper flakes for heat, cumin for some smokiness, maple syrup, and a mixture of celery and onions.

Sausage is an optional element here. You can add in some sausage (I recommend something slightly spicy) when you are sauteing the celery and onions, but you can also easily omit it to make the stuffing completely vegetarian. With the sausage, the stuffing is really a meal on its own, so it might be best to keep it veg if you’re planning on using it as a side dish during an already big holiday meal.

My final note on this stuffing is that it can be prepared a day in advance and baked just before serving. Once the ingredients are mixed and placed in your baking dish, cover with aluminum foil and refrigerate for up to 24 hours before baking. The stuffing can also be reheated in a 375 oven - covered if you like yours soft and open if you like yours crunchy - for about 20 minutes.

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Coleslaw seems to make a lot of appearances during the summer months. Despite the fact that it needs to be refrigerated (due to the presence of mayonnaise), it is pretty much a staple of every picnic, potluck and bbq when the weather is hot. Its popularity mystified me for many years since I hated the stuff. One day, however, I stumbled upon a coleslaw that was light, flavorful and crunchy, which gave me a new appreciation for the dish and prompted me to try my own hand at it.

Since that time, I’ve had many variations on ’slaw (and still don’t particularly care for mayo-heavy versions) but this is one of my favorites. It combines Waldorf salad - another mayo-dressed salad with apples, celery, walnuts and raisins - and classic coleslaw. The celery is replaced with cabbage, giving the salad a more substantial feel than the traditional Waldorf and a bit more interest than traditional coleslaw.

I believe I originally saw this recipe in an issue of Cooking Light, but I have made it enough times now that I don’t always rely on the basic recipe when I mix it up. I tend to “eyeball” the ingredient amounts more often than not. I like to use more yogurt than mayonnaise in my dressing to keep the flavor light, but you could certainly use even amounts to balance the flavor more towards a traditional one. Another variation is to use a mixture of green and purple cabbage, or one of raisins and dried cranberries, to add a little more color. Any way you make it, though, it’s a great summer side: cool, crisp and tasty.
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A large container of fresh heirloom tomatoes and a block of feta cheese can be combined into many things, though I’d be willing to bet that more often than not, they end up in some kind of salad or pasta dish. Tomatoes, cucumber and feta is a classic combination that makes a side dish to match just about any meal. The delicious combination of feta and tomatoes can work well in many other things, and after trying a crostini that had tomatoes and feta on top, the pair seemed a natural one for other baked goods, as well.

Focaccia is a versatile bread that can be used as an accompaniment for soup or salad, eaten alone as a snack or halved and used as sandwich bread. The versatility of the bread makes it a natural choice for flavorings and toppings, which is why I chose it to be a canvas for the feta and tomato combination.

Starting with a focaccia recipe I know well, I adapted it to make a smaller batch (enough for a 10×15-in. baking pan) and topped it with the tomatoes and cheese. I also threw on some fresh lemon thyme, which has a mild lemon-herb flavor, as a finishing touch. It didn’t take long to make and the end result was delicious. The bread was light in texture and the toppings were outstanding.

The bread would work well with a variety of salads and pasta dishes, but could also be served with most chicken or steak dishes. If you make it a day ahead, you can reheat it in the oven on even on the grill before serving to give it a hint of crispness. As tomatoes are now in season, as long as there is feta in the fridge, a fresh batch of this bread will never be far away.

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