Lisa O., Recipe Tester

A list of all the recipes Lisa O. has tested.

A wooden table with a pink gingham bag with 7 brown sugar cookies in it and a label.

Brown Sugar Cookies

These beauties aren’t unlike classic sugar cookies in terms of ease and appeal. They’re just a little richer and a lot less expected.

Three sweet and spicy tacos on a white plate with wedges of lime alongside.

Sweet and Spicy Tacos

Happy National Taco Day! Who needs those spice packets when you can make your own sassy, satisfying, and sophisticated tacos with a citrus zing?

A tarte tatin on a white plate on a wooden table.

Tarte Tatin

A tarte Tatin is nothing more than a tart turned upside down, nothing less than pastry perfection. It’s a lot of caramely apple goodness atop a buttery crust.

Sweet potato wedges piled on a white serving platter.

Sweet Potato Wedges

These subtly spiced, lightly crisped sweet potato wedges will have everyone clamoring for more–and, we dare say, no one guessing they’re healthful.

A whole cooked wheat beer roasted chicken in a deep oval baking dish.

Beer Roasted Chicken

A crisp-skinned bird that’s inflected with orange and coriander for a very unique flair. And it comes together in a single pot, making it a cinch to prep as well as clean up afterward.

A pretty saucer and teacup filled with game day chili, and topped with scallions, Cheddar, and sour cream.

Game Day Chili

With apologies to the politically correct, the froufrou, tea party-like semblance of this recipe is just a guise. Trust us. It’s an unfussy, hearty, stick-to-your-ribs kind of chili.

A zucchini cake with lemon and poppyseed topped with lemon frosting on a platter with half the cake cut into slices.

Zucchini Cake with Lemon and Poppyseeds

Nothing helps a vegetable go down without a struggle like a little sweetness. Come summer, we’re particularly fond of this old-fashioned—yet still fashionable—zucchini delivery system.

Bite-size bacon and cheese scones with smoked bacon and melted Asiago on top on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Bite-Size Bacon and Cheese Scones

Cute as a button, and not much bigger, these buttery, bacony scones are the most diminutive and darned good biscuits we’ve had in recent memory. Maybe ever.

A stack of several oatmeal raisin cookies on a wire paddle.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Crisp at the edges, chewy in the center, and (sorta) wholesome through and through, these are a revelatory riff on the classic.

A glass of Vietnamese iced coffee, made with layers of sweetened condensed milk, coffee, and ice cubes with a coffee drip over it.

Vietnamese Iced Coffee ~ Ca Phe Sua Da

A simple, satiating, summery Vietnamese tradition known as ca phe sua da, this seductive classic is simply coffee, ice, and sweet, sweet, sweetened condensed milk. Here’s how to succumb at home.

A trussed classic roast chicken on a rack, set inside a skillet.

Classic Roast Chicken

Succulent. Crisp-skinned. Simple. If that’s what you seek in a roast hen, your search stops with this ooh- and aah-inducing technique.

A cast-iron baking dish filled with fennel baked in cream on a wooden board.

Fennel Baked in Cream

Fennel turns meltingly tender and oh so sweet when slowly, slowly, slowly braised in cream, cheese, and butter. One more reason to be enamored with the holidays.

Three resealable plastic bags filled with freezer tomato sauce.

Freezer Tomato Sauce

1. Turn your glut of garden tomatoes into this sauce. 2. Stash it in the freezer. 3. Thank yourself come winter.

Several halves of tomato Provençal on a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet.

Tomatoes Provençal

Is there anything as sweetly satisfying as heirloom tomatoes eaten raw over the sink? Probably not. But when you tire of that, there’s always this deeply satiating tactic.

A baking sheet filled with cooked biscuits.

Easy Cream Biscuits

Scandalously simple. Ethereally airy. Magical. That’s but a sampling of what folks are saying about these two-ingredient, Southern-style cream biscuits.

A sheet pan with an onion thyme tart on it, covered with cooked onions, thyme on a puff pastry crust

Onion Thyme Tart

“Delicate.” “Flaky.” “Perfect.” “I could not stop eating it!” That’s what folks are saying about this hors d’oeuvre that’s a cinch to make—and devour.

Cast iron skillet of broccolini and potato frittata, with a wedge on a metal spatula

Broccolini and Potato Frittata

Breakfast. Brunch. Lunch. Dinner. Pretty much anytime you need an insanely quick, one-skillet, satiating something, this frittata is the solution.