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Every New Year my family and I celebrate with a Greek tradition, the Vasilopita Observance. This custom began in the fourth century when a bishop, Saint Basil the Great, wanted to distribute money to the poor members of his flock. To avoid demeaning this proud people, St. Basil commissioned the ladies of his church to bake coins into a sweet bread, thereby hiding his offerings. When the families cut into the nourishing bread they surprisingly found gold coins as well, and the New Year’s tradition of baking coins into a sweet yeast-risen cake-like bread was born....

This has become my go-to sauce for homemade pizza, pasta, lasagna, and the like! Made with canned tomatoes, onion, garlic, and lots of fresh basil, it tastes incredibly fresh and comes together in just about 20 minutes. What’s more, you can easily adapt it to make a quick, creamy vodka sauce! Last month, Memorial Day weekend’s frigid temperatures and relentless rain upended our annual camping trip with my sister’s family, sending us straight past the exit for the campsite, en route to her home instead....

Everyone needs a good, simple baked pasta recipe in their repertoire. This is the one I rely on often. You can make it with homemade sauce or jarred, and it lends itself well to all sorts of variations: sautéed greens, sausage, roasted vegetables, pickled peppers, and more. It can be assembled ahead of time, stashed in the fridge, and baked when needed 🎉. Hours before the party, the pans of pasta were assembled and ready to go....

Several years ago, while cooking my way through the soup chapter of Twelve Recipes , I discovered Cal Peternell’s black bean soup. What I loved about the recipe was the simplicity of the flavors: sautéed onion and garlic, toasted cumin seed and crushed red pepper flakes. But there was an element of surprise, too, lent by the zest of an orange. Somehow, through all of the bold, beany flavors, the citrusy brightness prevailed....

Last week, in preparation for a chat with Margaret Roach all about asparagus, I found myself scouring my favorite seasonally organized cookbooks, namely Canal House Cooks Every Day by Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer. Having followed the Canal House ladies for years now, I’ve come to associate asparagus with them — and them with asparagus. When I see fat spears at the market, I think of their insistence on peeling the bottoms, an effort I’ve yet to make, to ensure they cook evenly....

Last summer, my sister and I escaped to NYC for 36 hours. We packed in a show, some good shopping , and a lot of good eating including breakfast at Eataly and dinner at Momofuku. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this getaway before — sorry, I don’t get out much — but after discovering that Danish pastry dough can be made in the food processor and, as a result, that cheese danishes can be whipped up in just a few hours, I found myself dreaming about other danish-like pastries, croissants in particular, ones brimming with prosciutto à la Eataly specifically....

If you love a kale salad, you will love this Swiss chard salad. When dressed with a light, lemony dressing and tossed with garlicky bread crumbs and parmesan, Swiss chard’s leaves become soft and buttery. A pinch of crushed red pepper flakes offers a welcomed kick, too. As soon as the Swiss chard begins arriving in our CSA and popping up in the garden, this becomes our go-to salad — it’s irresistible!...

Making monkey bread requires understanding a method more than a recipe. Essentially, you take pizza dough (about a pound for a standard 9- to 10-inch skillet or baking dish), divide it into small balls, cram those balls together into a vessel, top with cheese if desired, and bake until golden. The variations are endless, but I love this one for its simplicity: a 4-ingredient pizza dough and a flavored butter, a mix of fresh garlic, parsley, and crushed red pepper flakes, brushed on post-bake....

I’ve long wondered if chickpeas could stand in for ground meat in my favorite taco recipe . This month’s Food and Wine , which featured a recipe with a chickpea-for-pasta swap encouraged me to finally give it a try. It worked beautifully, the method needing only a slight adjustment—double the amount of crushed tomatoes and water—because chickpeas soak up liquid like sponges. This chickpea filling is heartier than ground meat versions, and I prefer eating it bowl-style with all the fixins—I even find tortillas unnecessary (shocking!...

These roasted balsamic Brussels sprouts, a recipe from the Franny’s cookbook, are simple and delicious. Toasted almonds and Manchego cheese make it a hearty vegetable side dish, as perfect to serve alongside a simple roast chicken as a Thanksgiving turkey. A few weeks ago, I found myself at the library with Ella looking for yet another Calvin and Hobbes book. Once I found it, I ducked around the corner to the cookbook section for a quick peek and spotted Franny’s , a cookbook I did not know existed....

This salad features a very classic lineup of ingredients: beets, goat cheese, and walnuts. A shallot vinaigrette, seasoned with fresh orange juice, always a nice match for beets, brings it all together. Below you’ll find two simple methods for cooking beets: salt-roasted and steam-roasted. Have you ever salt-roasted beets? Don’t worry: the beets don’t taste overly salty; in fact, they don’t taste salty at all. They taste perfectly seasoned, sweet and earthy with a nice firm texture....

Meet spring in a bowl: shaved fennel and asparagus, sliced avocado, chopped parsley, red onion, dried currants, and parmesan all dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. Forgive me if I say this too often: I could eat this salad every day. But I mean it: the combination of textures and flavors just tastes so fresh. It’s raw and crisp meets creamy and rich meets sharp and sweet… a foolproof formula, really....

As far as sourdough pizza recipes go, this one is as simple as it gets: it’s made with all-purpose or bread flour, and there is no autolyse or preferment — everything gets mixed together at once. Ready? Wake up your starter! Read on to learn 5 secrets to sourdough pizza success . 🍕 🍕🍕 This sourdough pizza recipe produces a pizza with a ballooned, blistered edge and a crisp but pliable crust....

These buttery soft pretzels are super easy to make, require no boiling, and a quick one-hour rise. They are a huge crowd-pleaser! Soft, delicious, and truly irresistible straight out of the oven.! I knew I would love Vicki the moment I met her, which was two summers ago during our annual trip to Lake George with Ben’s family. Vicki is my brother-in-law’s girlfriend, she is 100% Greek, and food is her love language....

Friends, where to begin? I spent last Sunday’s rainy drive home from my sister’s house poring over new cookbooks, namely Deb Perelman’s latest: Smitten Kitchen Keepers: New Classics For Your Forever Files . Immediately upon returning home, I made a recipe from the book, broccoli rabe with broken burrata, which hit the spot, not only because I was craving vegetables after a few days of feasting on pie and punch, but also because it was so delicious, perfectly garlicky and a little spicy, the bitterness of the greens all rounded out by the dollops of creamy burrata melting into every bite....

A few weeks ago I was flipping through Yotam Ottolenghi’s Simple and came across a stunning photo of mashed potatoes. They swooshed across the platter, creating peaks and valleys, an herby olive oil pooled all around. The recipe was titled “aromatic olive oil mash”. Photos of mashed potatoes typically don’t get my juices flowing, but this one did. And while I’m sure the recipe, which called for making a garlicky oil infused with thyme, mint, and lemon zest, is delicious, I decided to go a different route: I would make Sally Schneider’s tried-and-true buttermilk mashed potatoes from A New Way to Cook and top it with the scallion-cilantro “sizzle” I use in this homemade ranch dip ....

I think I found a magic sauce. It transformed my chicken-breast eating experience and now my rack-of-lamb-eating experience. Never would I have guessed that a simple stir of mayonnaise, mustard and some fresh herbs would play such a role in my meat-cooking endeavors these days. Seriously, everything this sauce touches turns to mouth-watering goodness. Let’s see, how else can I sell this recipe to you? It takes five minutes to prepare....

<img loading=“lazy” src=“https://alexandracooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/mothersdaybook-683x1024.jpg" onerror=“this.onerror=null;this.src=‘https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhe7F7TRXHtjiKvHb5vS7DmnxvpHiDyoYyYvm1nHB3Qp2_w3BnM6A2eq4v7FYxCC9bfZt3a9vIMtAYEKUiaDQbHMg-ViyGmRIj39MLp0bGFfgfYw1Dc9q_H-T0wiTm3l0Uq42dETrN9eC8aGJ9_IORZsxST1AcLR7np1koOfcc7tnHa4S8Mwz_xD9d0=s16000';" alt=“Bread baked in a flowerpot. Brushed with butter, sprinkled with sea salt, does anything say, “I love you Mom!” more than this flower pot bread? // alexandracooks.com - 1”> About a month ago, a friend texted me a photo of an adorable loaf of bread baked in a flowerpot. She was at Terrain’s garden café in Westport, CT, which looks as magical as the pages of its catalog ....

<img loading=“lazy” src=“https://alexandracooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/fries1.jpg" onerror=“this.onerror=null;this.src=‘https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhe7F7TRXHtjiKvHb5vS7DmnxvpHiDyoYyYvm1nHB3Qp2_w3BnM6A2eq4v7FYxCC9bfZt3a9vIMtAYEKUiaDQbHMg-ViyGmRIj39MLp0bGFfgfYw1Dc9q_H-T0wiTm3l0Uq42dETrN9eC8aGJ9_IORZsxST1AcLR7np1koOfcc7tnHa4S8Mwz_xD9d0=s16000';" alt=“Although my use of flavored salt extends to this single recipe — “straw potatoes” seasoned with lemon salt (thanks to April Bloomfield) and fried with rosemary (thanks to Jamie Oliver) — the possibilities are endless. Salt might just become lemon salt from here on out. // alexandracooks.com - 1”> <img loading=“lazy” src=“https://alexandracooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/fries1.jpg" onerror=“this.onerror=null;this.src=‘https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhe7F7TRXHtjiKvHb5vS7DmnxvpHiDyoYyYvm1nHB3Qp2_w3BnM6A2eq4v7FYxCC9bfZt3a9vIMtAYEKUiaDQbHMg-ViyGmRIj39MLp0bGFfgfYw1Dc9q_H-T0wiTm3l0Uq42dETrN9eC8aGJ9_IORZsxST1AcLR7np1koOfcc7tnHa4S8Mwz_xD9d0=s16000';" alt=“Although my use of flavored salt extends to this single recipe — “straw potatoes” seasoned with lemon salt (thanks to April Bloomfield) and fried with rosemary (thanks to Jamie Oliver) — the possibilities are endless....

Many of you know I am a huge fan of the Baking Steel , a 1/4-inch thick slab of steel that creates crisp bottom crusts and airy edges on pizza and flat breads. Since seeing my first Baking Steel pizza emerge from my oven ballooned and blistered with a golden undercarriage, the Baking Steel has become my tool of choice for making great pizza at home. When I want to involve the children in the pizza-making process, however, I find it a little bit easier to use cast iron skillets....