This is the easiest French toast you will ever make, and I believe it’s the best, too. It’s crisp on the exterior, moist on the interior, and emerges from the oven piping hot. Heaven! I have a real weakness for any sort of breakfast carb, especially when I’m out to eat. Challah French toast. Lemon-ricotta pancakes. Blueberry-cornmeal hotcakes. You name it. If it’s floured, fried, and dripping in syrup, it has my name all over it....

Say hello to your new favorite party trick: 4-ingredient balsamic-roasted mini peppers. The beauty of this pepper recipe is that you don’t have to do any prep — no stemming, no seeding, no peeling. You simply dress, roast, and serve. It’s kind of a miracle. My mother, who learned this recipe from cousin Kristina , makes these often for company, and I’m telling you, you soon will be, too....

I haven’t made a muffin in ages, and truthfully, muffin recipes rarely call my name anymore. But this “Apple Orchard” muffin, from the Red Truck Bakery cookbook, sounded too good not to make immediately. For one, the recipe calls for all of my favorite ingredients: oil (as opposed to butter), buttermilk (aka the magical milk), and maple syrup (actually sorghum syrup or honey, but I didn’t have either). Second, each muffin is sprinkled with turbinado sugar, which always makes the tastiest and prettiest top....

Made with rich but sturdy brioche bread, this bread pudding is perfectly sweet, custardy, and delicious. It’s topped with seasonal fresh fruit and homemade caramel sauce, a combination that creates an exceptionally tasty bread pudding. I never expected to receive a return phone call. I had been agonizing over how I was going to make the bread pudding, wavering between baking it with fruit or without? Did Tartine really not add any fruit to the bread pudding while it baked?...

Shortly after reading about Lukas Volger’s toasted bulgur bowl on the Tipsy Baker , I made it in its entirety. We then feasted on the leftovers the following two evenings, and yesterday for a little Olympics-viewing get together, I introduced the neighbors to what I can’t seem to get enough of: a mix of bulgur and lentils, chopped cucumbers and tomatoes, toasted almonds, cilantro, and a lemon-tahini dressing. I’ve adapted the recipe a little bit to what I’ve had on hand — this, after all, is the beauty of a grain bowl, right?...

I left the grocery store yesterday morning with a somewhat renewed sense of optimism: some of the previously empty shelves — flour!! — had been re-stocked, and the general supplies throughout the store looked good: bananas! kale! milk! (Still no toilet paper). But the shopping experience continues to feel surreal: there’s an uneasiness in the air; no one is making eye contact; everyone is on a mission, moving through the aisles with real urgency, hoping to get in and out as quickly as possible....

Shortly after making the candied pepitas last week, I threw them into a salad with shaved cabbage, fennel, greens and Manchego. It’s been years since I’ve made the effort to candy a nut or seed to throw into a salad, and I’ve forgotten how delicious and festive they are, this time of year especially. Use the recipe below as guide. Here, I’ve used both vinegar and fresh citrus in my favorite shallot vinaigrette , but you if you don’t have an orange on hand, you can keep it simple....

Cowspiracy , the latest documentary revealing the devastating impact of animal agriculture on our environment, left me wondering: Can anything today be eaten in good conscience? If you haven’t seen Cowspiracy, you’re probably thinking you’ve heard this message countless times. Didn’t Food, Inc. tell us back in 2008 that our food system is in peril? Yes, but Cowspiracy is different (and also hilarious). In addition to shedding light on the issues surrounding factory farming — that it’s responsible for more greenhouse gases than the transportation industry and is the leading cause of deforestation, water consumption, pollution, etc....

About a year ago, my mother came to visit my husband and me in Philadelphia and brought us, as always, a delectable basket of goodies. Included amongst the spoils was a plastic container of quince membrillo, something I had seen in specialty shops but had never tasted it. My mother suggested pairing a sliver of the quince paste with a slice of Zamorano cheese (a raw sheep’s milk cheese produced in northwestern Spain), which she also had included in our package....

Roger. There is no “recipe” for ghee in Indian-ish , just a little guidance: “Melt a stick of butter, turn off the heat, skim the white stuff off the top, and you’ll be left with clear ghee.” Since I had many recipes in Indian-ish flagged, I made a pound of ghee. Advised by a friend, I strained the nutty, clarified butter through cheesecloth, and it worked like a charm....

Every so often I get an email from someone with questions regarding blogging and where to begin. This blog is in its 17th year of existence, and I’m still learning and tweaking all the time. Getting started: First things first: you need a name. If only I had given the naming process five minutes of thought, I could have prevented years of confusion. When I named this blog Alexandra’s Kitchen, the URL “alexandraskitchen....

If you’re a vodka sauce fan, this recipe is for you. Ina’s vodka sauce = the best vodka sauce ever. After reading the preface to this pasta alla vecchia bettola recipe in The Barefoot Contessa’s Foolproof , I had to make it immediately. More than being a mainstay on the menu of one of Ina’s favorite restaurants for 20 years, what struck me about the recipe was the method, which calls for roasting the sauce in a covered pan for one-and-a-half hours....

These sourdough discard pancakes are light, fluffy, and so utterly delicious — one bite will make you never want to waste a drop of your sourdough discard again! This one-bowl, same-day recipe will leave you with dozens of pancakes to enjoy now or freeze for later 🥞🥞🥞 If you make a lot of sourdough bread , it’s great to have an arsenal of recipes that put your sourdough discard to good use....

Making popovers couldn’t be simpler: the 5-ingredient batter comes together in seconds, and 30 minutes later, they’re done! Read on to learn the tips for making foolproof popovers every time. There is nothing more festive than pulling a pan of lofty popovers (also known as Yorkshire pudding*) from the oven just as everyone is gathering around the table to eat. Piping hot and light as air with custardy centers begging for pats of butter, popovers are a treat to behold....

Made with a mix of sunflower, pumpkin, and sesame seeds, this no-knead three-seed bread is a snap to mix together and yields a hearty loaf, great for toast but light enough for sandwiches as well. This three-seed bread originally appeared in my cookbook, Bread Toast Crumbs. For practicality purposes, I’ve rewritten the recipe to work in a single loaf pan. This bread, as you can gather, has three seeds — sesame, pumpkin, and sunflower — and in the book, I have you toast them....

This week the Fair Food Farmstand came through again with another excellent recipe in their weekly email. A few weeks ago, after receiving eight Roma tomatoes (among many other treats) in my CSA, I opened my email to find Ann Karlen’s “tried and true” recipe for oven-dried tomatoes, just the guidance I needed to preserve these seasonal gems. The recipe required six to eight hours of cooking, so I set the oven to 200ºF, as instructed, placed the prepared tray of tomatoes inside, and went to bed....

These overnight oats are loaded with fiber and protein, and I find them irresistible. They take no time to assemble and the recipe can easily be doubled or tripled for make-ahead breakfasts for the week. In May, en route home from the Pizza Night photoshoot in Northern California, I grabbed a cup of the overnight oats from the Dolores Park Cafe stand at SFO. I typically don’t love overnight oats from these places for a few reasons — they tend to be too sweet and the fruit included often is on its last legs — but I was short on time and craving something healthy-ish....

I typically don’t/never do this: 1. Post a recipe I’ve made only once. 2. Suggest you make something I’ve never tasted. Why am I making the exception today? Well, this is the thing: preserving, as many of you know, takes time, and while I would prefer to wait a month to tell you how these preserved lemons turn out, I would prefer more if in a month from now you actually had these preserved lemons on hand, so when in the event I post about something else, something perhaps like the chicken tagine with preserved lemons and green olives I had at Tara Kitchen in early December, a dish I cannot stop thinking about and so hope to recreate at home, you’ll be able to participate, too....

Made with aged Parmigiano-Reggiano, extra-virgin olive oil, garlic, and a mix of fresh and dried herbs, this salsa di Parmigiano is irresistible, perfect as an appetizer with bread or crackers, delicious tossed with pasta and more. You will want to put it on everything! Yesterday I spent the afternoon with two of my aunts in northern Virginia. Over the course of seven hours, we found a reason to use this sauce — salsa di Parmigiano — three times....

Easter is going to feel different this year. There will be no epic gathering of relatives around a lamb at my aunt and uncle’s in Vermont . There will be no intimate reunion of siblings at my parents’ house in Connecticut. And alas, there will be no punch . Am I sounding very glum? Sorry! I’m just finding it a little hard to get into the holiday spirit this year, and although I have a small spiral ham in the freezer that I might thaw for Easter dinner, I’m leaning towards making this spatchcocked roast chicken with dates and artichoke hearts....