Apricot jam adds just the right amount of sweetness to balance the spicy, salty and umami flavors in this sauce that lightly coats tender pieces of pork and crisp green beans. If gluten is not a concern, soy sauce may be used instead of tamari.

Pork & Green Bean Stir-Fry

Serves 4

Active Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

1/4 cup ...Read more

Papaya is a sweet fruit ripe with vitamins, minerals, and health protecting compounds.

The folklore

The popular tropical treat papaya is native to the warm, humid regions of southern Mexico and Central America. Ancient Mayans, who ate the fruit and used it medicinally for skin problems and other issues, called the papaya tree ...Read more

The other day I was talking to my dentist, who shared his recipe for avocado pesto. Since avocados are rich in healthy fats and fiber, I thought, what a good idea! I wondered how it would be to replace olive oil with avocado and discovered that this adapted Seriously Simple recipe offers a pleasant flavor and satisfying texture.

Pesto is ...Read more

Chives and mint sprigs have been pushing up in the garden for several weeks now. Thankfully, much of this country will see the first skinny, emerald green asparagus spears and tiny, tender peas at local farmers markets soon.

Green is the color of spring itself, especially the green of a perfectly cooked asparagus or pile of sweet peas. The ...Read more

Simple, creamy, and ridiculously delicious, buttercream is what our sweet dreams are made of. This buttercream whips up super fluffy super quickly, and is literally the icing on the cake of any homemade treat. It’s made with simple, real ingredients, like butter and vanilla, and it’s ready in a handful of minutes. It’s time to stop buying ...Read more

I am a sucker for shrimp. I grew up with an uncle who mastered the art of cooking seafood. He made his way from Nayarit, Mexico, to Las Vegas, Nevada, where he is now the chef and owner of homeandleisure/recipes/varietymenu/s-3698009">Read more

When you need to throw something together for a fast and easy weeknight meal, tacos are often a busy cook's first choice.

That's because you can stuff almost anything inside a hard or soft tortilla — including leftovers — top it with some shredded lettuce and/or crunchy veggies, add a generous sprinkling of cheese and feel like a total ...Read more

We can’t help ourselves. We are, after all, merely apes — or at least close enough relatives to share 98.7% of their DNA.

Apes like sugar. So it is only natural that humans, too, are drawn to sugar.

I recently read a long and funny article in the New York Times by Caity Weaver where she made this very argument.

“How My Trip to Quit ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — My Japanese grandmother lived on the opposite coast when I was little. I only met her a couple times, but she would annually send a box of homemade Japanese treats, including red bean-stuffed buns.

As a kid growing up in a New York suburb, these were not exactly something I yearned for. I probably — no, definitely — would ...Read more

Boxed pasta is an easy sell for so many reasons.

For starters, you can find it just about everywhere. Even the tiniest grocery or camp store in the teeniest, out-of-the-way town is bound to stock it.

It's also really easy to prepare (just boil!) and even without a cookbook to guide you, pasta is incredibly versatile, lending itself to sauces ...Read more

Let’s admit it, whole wheat pasta is misunderstood.

It’s different from the white, semolina pasta — nuttier, denser and toastier — and delicious when allowed to shine in its own right. Don’t use it as a one-to-one swap; rather, lean into its nutty flavor and grainy texture. It’s a perfect match for savory, earthy and/or oniony ...Read more

The classic combination of strawberries and rhubarb is delicious in this easy cake, but you can substitute 3 cups of any ripe fruit you like. Yogurt adds a creaminess that pulls the whole cake together.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake with Yogurt

Serves 12

Active Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

1 1/2 cups sliced rhubarb ...Read more

Chewing gum in one form or another has been around for thousands of years. For centuries, gum consisted of the latex, called chicle, of the sapodilla tree. After World War II, a variety of waxes, plastics, and synthetic rubber mostly replaced chicle in chewing gum. Today, chewing gum is made of a few basic ingredients: a gum base, flavorings and...Read more

The other day I invited my 2-year-old grandson to come over so we could make a dessert. Oliver is a typical toddler who is a very picky eater, but when it comes to combining strawberries and chocolate together, he couldn’t wait.

Strawberries are at their prime now, so I thought it would be fun to make chocolate-covered strawberries. I worked ...Read more

Seeing the local, bright-green fresh asparagus at the market makes my heart beat faster (and healthier). Pencil-slim or thick and sturdy, it’s all good.

After eating our fill of gently steamed and lightly salted spears, I look for swankier cooking methods and flavor additions. Roasting vegetables proves a perfect technique for medium-thick ...Read more

Classic English muffins are perfect when you want a base for breakfast sandwiches or lots of nook and crannies to trap ...Read more

You’ve probably had a version of this salad. You might even love this salad. But do you know this salad? While it is often called a Chinese chicken salad, the dish originated in California in the 1960s. Sylvia Wu, a ...Read more

When it comes to fixing a fast dinner, I go with trout fillets. A rich, fatty fish, trout is as flavorful as salmon but the thinner fillets cook off in a jiff.

Most often sold skin-on, the fish has a high skin-to-flesh ratio. Even if you don’t care for the skin, cooking with it on intensifies the flavor and helps keep the fillet tasty and ...Read more

As a professional recipe developer focused on baking, I am more aware of the cost of eggs than most folks. Try making a custard tart that calls for eight egg yolks, then testing it three more times. That’s two dozen eggs for one recipe. Ouch.

Many common bakes and desserts don’t need eggs: shortbread cookies, most bread, almost any fruit ...Read more

I have never been one to ask if it was worth it. To me, the joy of cooking, serving and eating good food is worth any amount of trouble and effort to make it.

But last week, I decided to make a batch of mole poblano.

I had been looking forward to it for weeks. My wife, who is not as fond of spicy foods as I, was visiting a friend in Florida, ...Read more