Darcy Buch, Recipe Tester

For a more intimate holiday dinner, a smaller turkey cooked in under two hours might be just the thing. Juicy with crispy skin, it’s superb.

If you took all the best summer veggies, chopped ’em up and dressed them in a liltingly sweet and tangy dressing, you’d end up with this stunning salad.

Part bread, part cake, kugelhopf is made like brioche except it’s studded with raisins, brushed with butter, and dusted with sugar.

When it’s half past when you’d wanted to eat and you’re too exhausted to think, turn to this kid-friendly, adult-approved fix.

Earthy black-eyed peas, Portuguese tuna, sliced onion, garlic, and parsley are tossed together in a vinegar-y salad dressing for a quick, nutritious salad.

This cake is actually something of a misnomer, seeing as how nicely it plays with so many sippables beyond just coffee.

An easy toss-it-in-the-oven-and-forget-about-it sorta dish that’s still gonna make everyone ooh and aah at the dinner table for its tender, wine-imbued spectacularness.

Inexpensive everyday ingredients become incredibly satiating and comforting with very little effort. You know, in that rustic French home cooking sorta way.

A little sweet, a little savory, and altogether enticing as a fashionable and flavorful accompaniment to a simple cheese plate or even roast meat, including that traditional roast turkey.

Because yes, a properly constructed tuna melt is reason to get pretty darn excited. This exquisite specimen makes a pretty compelling argument.