Make Ahead

For her holiday party one year, my friend Elizabeth served a row of meat loaves that were presented on her finest China platters and had been stuffed with spinach and cheese. I loved that, and occasionally follow her lead for just a regular Tuesday night meal. To stuff, place half the meatloaf mixture in the loaf pan. Using a spoon, make a well down the length of the middle, then add thawed frozen spinach and mozzarella cheese into the well. Cover with remaining mixture and proceed as directed.

Transform jarred roasted red peppers into a fresh and flavorful dip seasoned with cumin and a pinch of cayenne.

On one of my first trips to India, at a bus stop in Poona, there was a street stand where the vendor was roasting potatoes over charcoal, chopping them, and tossing them with curry spices and crispy onions. He served the mixture wrapped in a piece of newspaper. It was amazing, and it inspired this dish.
There are so many curry spice mixtures from around the world. This recipe employs one of the most common. You can use either yams or sweet potatoes in this recipe.

This spiced-up blend is perfect for dipping and also serves as the ultimate multipurpose sauce for chicken, beef, pork, and seafood.

On the streets of Thailand, where the temperature sometimes soars over 100°, there's nothing more refreshing than a plastic bag of Thai tea! Since most of the tea shops don't have seating, the Thai people take their sweetened iced tea "to go" in a plastic bag with a straw sticking out of it. The flavors of these teas were the inspiration for this dessert. The thing that makes this dish so special is the lime in the caramel, which adds an unusual tang to the sweetness. Another bonus is the crunch and spice of the cashews that are sprinkled over the top of the pudding, adding a wonderful surprise.

In our never-ending quest for the best burger, we think we've hit on an outstanding version that requires nothing more than a trip to the supermarket and a short sojourn in the freezer for the bacon. Sure, there are those DIY purists who are going to buy several different beef cuts from a high-end butcher—if not butcher the beef themselves from their own grass-fed steer—then coarsely grind it with their own sterilized meat grinder, but most of us just want an easy recipe for a really great backyard burger.
Burger-meisters might be shocked, but this burger does best by being cooked a bit more slowly, over indirect heat. So sit back, pop open a cold one, and let these burgers baste themselves into a sublime place. Editor's Note: This recipe is part of Gourmet's Modern Menu for Burger Bash. Menu also includes Homemade French Fries with Five Dipping Sauces and Strawberry Cheesecake Milkshake.

Ditch the store-bought seasoning packet in favor of this DIY version that combines slowly caramelized onions with tangy sour cream.

This spiced-up Asian-inspired sauce is perfect for dipping French fries or crudité, or for drizzling over seared chicken or fish.

Filled with spices, buttermilk, and jam, this moist cake has been in the baking repertoire of my husband's family for over a century. Although this particular recipe hails from Bowling Green, Kentucky, I found many other recipes for jam cake that originated further south. At first glance, I mistakenly thought the jam was merely a filling between the cake layers but to my happy surprise, the jam is actually an ingredient in the batter, creating a lovely berry hue to the cake and an even better berry taste. This down-home cake traditionally calls for a sweet caramel frosting, but I opted for a decadent caramel chocolate ganache. Make the ganache before you make the cake as it needs about 3 hours to firm up at room temperature (and is so much better when not refrigerated).

This is a Baker & Spice original and it's our most popular cake—loved by men and women alike! The buttercream frosting is tinted pink by a raspberry puree (not food coloring)—be sure to save your extra whites from baking the cake to make the frosting. The cake itself is a rich, moist chocolate cake. If you want a go-to recipe for all your chocolate cake cravings, this is the one.

A wonderful make-ahead summer meal, this dinner is just as delicious served chilled as it is served warm.

The yield for these ice pops depends on the size of your molds — you could use anything from paper cups to store-bought specialty molds.

This recipe is part of the Epicurious Online Cooking School, in partnership with the Culinary Institute of America. To watch it being made, and to learn how to make other dessert classics, check out the videos.

This recipe is part of the Epicurious Online Cooking School, in partnership with the Culinary Institute of America. To watch it being made, and to learn how to make other dessert classics, check out the videos.

This recipe is part of the Epicurious Online Cooking School, in partnership with the Culinary Institute of America. To watch it being made, and to learn how to make other dessert classics, check out the videos.