Vegetarian

When I make this dish I buy the Asian-style baked tofu so I don’t have to marinate it. It is difficult to find in regular grocery stores, but you can find it at most health food or specialty stores. If you can find it, you can skip the marinating and just stir in the teriyaki sauce at the end. For you meat eaters, a chicken breast can be used instead of the tofu.

Taco Salad is awesome because it is literally a whole meal in one salad—and a vegetarian meal at that. If you want to add meat to the salad, you can cook and drain 1 pound of ground beef, stir in 1 tablespoon of chile powder, and spoon it onto the salad before you add the cheese. Tortilla shell bowls can be difficult to find, but you can just line a bowl with tortilla chips and get the same effect.

I was intimidated by the prospect of making a broccoli cheese soup, but I like it so much, I had to try. The recipe we came up with turned out to be one of the fastest, easiest soup recipes I’ve ever tried. Just to clarify, a bunch of broccoli is what you buy rubber-banded together in the store: a stalk is one of the pieces within the rubber band, and florets are the flowery tops.

This is Megan’s version of split pea soup, my version skips the croutons and includes ham. But, because we occasionally have to make something she will eat, I just add the ham to my bowl. If you don’t have a vegetarian in your house, putting ham or a ham bone in the soup while it is cooking adds a great flavor.

Deviled eggs were the very first thing I learned to make myself when I was five years old. My mom would boil the eggs for me, and I would peel them and cut them in half using my pumpkin-carving knife. She talks about how many pockmarked, lumpy eggs we ate, but I just remember being really proud of myself.

I love this dish! I know you’re thinking, ewww, goat cheese, but don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it. It has a great, soft texture and a slightly tangy flavor that is very mild when heated. The warm cheese with the tomato sauce and bread is so good that I can make a meal out of it.

If you make these for your friends, make sure you eat some right away, because they will evaporate if you walk away. Megan and I like our salsa saucy, more like a picante sauce, so we add some tomato sauce. But, if you like chunky salsa, you can skip the sauce and just use the diced tomatoes.

The key to making good maki rolls is to never refrigerate the rice. When rice has been refrigerated it becomes hard, and it completely changes the texture of the rolls. You can buy tied-together sheets of tiny bamboo strips, called “sushi mats,” for a few dollars. They make it easier to keep the rolls tight, but if you don’t have one, plastic wrap also works pretty well.

Crepes are one of my favorite French desserts, so of course I had to come up with a way to also have them for breakfast. This strawberry filling is light and not too sweet, making it the perfect way to start your day. Crepes can be kept in the refrigerator for several days, so save any extras and eat them with jam, fresh fruit, or chocolate sauce.

Fried Apple Rings are a great substitute for donuts. I actually learned to make these in Germany when I was an exchange student. My host family made them for special occasions. Although they are sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, the tart apples keep them from being overly sweet. They are best eaten warm, because when they cool, the juice from the apples can make the batter soggy.

Roman Apple Coffee Cake is just about the yummiest food in the world. The inside is moist and loaded with apples and the topping is sweet and crunchy, a perfect combination in my book. This is my grandmother’s recipe. She serves it for dessert, but we figure that all the apples give us a great excuse to call it coffee cake and eat it for breakfast.

All of my friends think that you have to have pancake mix to make pancakes. I call this successful marketing by the makers of the mixes. Pancakes are so easy to make and are lighter, fluffier, and more tender when made from scratch. They only take about five minutes extra to make, so forget the mix and see how pancakes are really supposed to taste.

Cinnamon rolls are a family favorite. We used to make them with yeast and had to let them rise twice. But, while visiting Germany I found this faster method of making the dough. These are best eaten warm for optimal gooeyness (that’s the technical term). But don’t worry if they get cool, they reheat perfectly in the microwave. These are also really good with a cup of chopped pecans sprinkled in the bottom of the pan.

Kids, naturally, love this ice cream. And it’s easy enough that kids can put it together themselves with a minimum of help from Mom or Dad. To make it even more fun, layer in a swirl of their favorite jam.

We always have bananas in our house, and therefore, we always seem to have a few that are too ripe to eat. What better way to use them up than to turn them into banana bread? Don’t let the color throw you. You can use bananas that are still all yellow, but you’ll need to mash them with a fork first to break them up. I actually prefer to use the ones that have a lot of brown spots or that are even almost totally black because they are very soft and mix in easily.

There’s nothing like the pleasant crunch of crisp, freshly toasted nuts. And there’s nothing worse than biting into an acrid, rancid nut. Since nuts have a relatively high amount of oil, you should taste a couple before using them to make sure they’re still fresh. Hazelnuts, pecans, and walnuts are particularly susceptible to spoilage. Buy nuts from a store that sells in high volume and turns over its stock regularly and store them in a cool, dark place in a well-sealed container. Nuts can also be frozen in zip-top freezer bags. Most nuts taste much better if they’ve been toasted, which brings out their flavors and gives them a crunchy contrast in ice cream. The only nuts I don’t toast are pistachio nuts, since they’ll lose their delicate green color. Buy fresh pistachios from a good source so they’re crisp and vibrant green.

If you’ve never made crêpes before, you’ll find that it’s one of life’s most satisfying accomplishments. You spend a few minutes dipping, swirling, and flipping and end up with a neat stack of delicious crêpes. As with traditional pancakes, the first one is usually a dud, so don’t be discouraged. Once you’ve slid a few out of the frying pan, you’ll feel like a pro. This recipe can easily be doubled and they freeze beautifully, so there’s no reason not to keep an extra stack in the freezer for a last-minute crêpe fix.

Crispy nests of meringue—also known as vacherins—add a certain savoir faire and offer a very dramatic presentation for any ice cream or sorbet, especially when you add a ladleful of sauce as well. The combination of crackly meringue, luscious ice cream, and a complimentary sauce is justifiably known as one of the great French dessert classics. It is certain to become a well-loved part of your repertoire as well. Use a deft hand when folding in the confectioners’ sugar. Aggressive overmixing can cause the meringue to start deflating.

Many people come to Paris with dreams of falling in love, and I know more than one person who’s returned home starry-eyed after a steamy love affair—with profiteroles. Who can resist eggy, buttery pastry filled with vanilla ice cream, heaped on plates, served with a gleaming silver pitcher of warm chocolate sauce? It’s a table-side ritual that takes place nightly in romatic restaurants and cozy cafés across the city as dashing waiters douse profiteroles with warm sauce and the molten chocolate gushes over the golden puffs, filling every little nook and crevice possible. The profiteroles are served forth with a sly grin (and perhaps a bit of a wink), leaving you free to indulge. Profiteroles are seductively simple to make at home, and you can’t go wrong with any ice cream and sauce combination that sounds good to you. My personal favorite is profiteroles filled with Chartreuse Ice Cream (page 57), drizzled with Classic Hot Fudge (page 164), and scattered with lots and lots of crispy French Almonds (page 189). J’adore!

The unexpected crunch of poppy seeds in these very pretty, delicate cookie cups is the perfect foil for any homemade ice cream or a fruity sorbet.