Elsa M. Jacobson

Sometimes, you just want to make a few little jars of preserves without all the fuss of a day-long canning ordeal. We hear that—here's the perfect place to start.

This dip is creamy for sure, but it's really all about the dill. Loads of fresh, green, herby dill. As much as we love potato chips, try it on everything.

A simple and cooling salad made with an increasingly trendy spring green that's capturing the attention of home gardeners and restaurant chefs across the country.

Jacques Pepin's family recipe for cheese is a frugal approach to using scraps of cheese that's a very traditional French thing. A delicious, boozy, cheesy, French thing.

Sorta amazing what loveliness can be wrought from just a stick of cinnamon and some hot water. So simple. So soothing.

Warmly spiced with a pudding-like texture, this apple cake from Edna Lewis is truly easy—just stir together by hand. And it's unforgettable for reasons that have nothing to do with its ease.

Nothing says, “I love you” as sweetly as bringing your amour breakfast in bed with bourbon syrup on the side.

If you're going to splurge on brownies, you may as well, you know, SPLURGE on brownies. But not in terms of effort or expense. Just taste. These brownies handle it splendidly.

A superlative version of the classic clean-out-the-fridge stir-fry that reinvents leftovers. Beware the optional but addictive jalapeño garlic vinegar.

Hearty, healthy, comforting as heck, and it comes together in a single pot and makes ample leftovers to see you through the rest of the week.

Sweetly caramelized roasted squash is tempered with the earthy funkiness of blue cheese. Stealthy healthy yet luxurious. And still quick and easy.

If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. This rich, complex, boozy vanilla extract is no exception.

Frozen tater tots and Parmesan cheese. Seems so intuitive, doesn't it? And yet it's so wonderfully unexpected. Easy, kid-friendly, adult-appeasing.

Easy, easy, easy. Fast, fast, fast. Delicious, delicious, delicious. That's what we're hearing from those who've made these carrots. Even avowed curry dislikers.

There's chocolate bark and then there's chocolate bark. This bark is the latter sort, a sort that intrigues and surprises, that both starts and stops conversations, a bark that knows no boundaries.

The classic cookie benefits enormously from a hit of ginger here with these surprise sleeper hits of your Christmas season.

This simple yet spectacular riff on coffee cake—there's actually coffee in the cake—is rich and robust and rousing in that way only espresso can be.

Sweetly tart and almost too pretty to use, these translucent slices of citrus lend a quiet loveliness to all manner of desserts.

“This technique really did produce those long lovely strands allowing this squash to live up to its name!" We keep hearing this about this perfectly easy and healthy spaghetti squash.

Elegant enough for company, simple enough for every day, and versatile enough for breakfast and midnight snack and pretty much every moment in between.