It's Not About Nutrition

Easter is a little over a week away and I already have three bags of mini Cadbury eggs stashed in my pantry. They are absolutely essential in our home once March hits — anyone else? I would trade every jelly bean in my Easter basket for a handful of these little chocolate eggs, and honestly that obsession started young. So I thought — since mini Cadbury eggs are so irresistible on their own, why not fold them into a cookie? I took a simple brown sugar cookie dough, added chocolate chips and a generous pour of Cadbury eggs, and baked …

This slow cooker corned beef comes out fall-apart tender with almost zero effort — and the vegetables cook right alongside it, so dinner is completely hands-off. It feeds a crowd, reheats beautifully, and the leftovers make the best sandwiches the next day. I make this every St. Patrick’s Day, and honestly it’s become one of those recipes my family asks for in February, well before the holiday even shows up. My husband grew up eating corned beef made on the stovetop — boiled for hours, which works but takes constant attention. The slow cooker version gives you the same deeply …

My neighbor Deb mentioned this at a school fundraiser — one of those Tuesday nights in a gymnasium where you’re wondering how you got talked into volunteering again. She said, “I just do a brownie in a pie dish, everybody acts like you did something.” I went home and tried it that weekend. That was probably twenty years ago, and I’ve been making it ever since. Five ingredients, one bowl, about ten minutes of actual work. It bakes up fudgy and dense with those crispy caramelized edges you only get when the chocolate gets a little dark against the dish …

My mom never called this anything. She’d just slice the kielbasa, open a can of whatever soup was in the cabinet, and twenty minutes later dinner was on the table. Growing up in the Midwest, smoked sausage and potatoes together was just Tuesday — not a recipe, just food. I’ve been making my version of it for thirty-some years now, and somewhere in there it became this casserole. One bowl, one dish, and my family still scrapes the pan clean every time. Four ingredients. This is the recipe I text my daughter when she calls me panicked at 5pm. Why …

Last summer my friend Carol had a few of us over for dinner, nothing planned, the kind of evening that just happens. After we ate she set a plate of bars on the table and I had two before I even thought to ask what was in them. She laughed when I asked for the recipe — said it was the simplest thing, barely even a recipe. I went home that night and made them that weekend. I’ve been making them ever since. Why You’ll Love It Practically no effort — one saucepan, one bowl, and the oven does the …

This bacon brown sugar pork tenderloin is one of those recipes that looks impressive but comes together faster than you’d expect. Crispy bacon, a sweet-smoky spice rub, a quick sear, and the oven does the rest. My neighbor Paulette used to make something like this for her dinner parties — she called it her “company pork” — and honestly, that name still fits. Why You’ll Love It Weeknight easy, Sunday dinner impressive — it takes less time than you’d think and the oven does most of the work That sweet-savory glaze — the brown sugar caramelizes with the smoked paprika …

My brother Kenny has asked me to make these ribs at least a dozen times in the past two years. Maybe more. He texted me last Fourth of July — not “happy Fourth of July,” just “are you making the ribs.” That was the whole message. I made the ribs. They’re slow cooker country style ribs with barbecue sauce and brown sugar, and that’s genuinely it. Three ingredients, set it in the morning, and by dinnertime your whole house smells like a backyard cookout even though you haven’t done anything. Why You’ll Love It Basically impossible to mess up — …

There’s a dish I’ve been making for years — ground beef patties, a couple cans of mushroom soup, a gravy packet, and some water — that my family genuinely thinks I spent hours on. I don’t correct them. It all goes into the slow cooker in about ten minutes and comes out tasting like a Midwestern diner plate: rich brown gravy, fork-tender meat, the kind of thing you want to eat with mashed potatoes on a cold Tuesday when nobody has energy for anything. My neighbor Paulette gave me the idea, I think around 2009 or so. She showed up …

My mother had this battered enamel pan — dark blue with white speckles, chipped along one edge — and every Sunday afternoon she’d pull chicken out of the oven, skin dark and glossy, the kitchen smelling like caramel and soy sauce and something warm I still can’t fully name. I’ve been chasing that dish ever since. What I’ve figured out is that a slow cooker gets you most of the way there. Bone-in thighs go in, a simple brown sugar glaze goes over the top, and a few hours later you’ve got something that made me stand at the counter …

My husband Gary is not a fancy-restaurant person. Never has been. Early in our marriage I’d get these ideas about Valentine’s Day — reservations somewhere with cloth napkins, the whole thing — and he’d go along with it the way he goes along with most things I suggest, which is to say quietly and without much enthusiasm. One year we waited forty-five minutes past our reservation time at some Italian place downtown and he ate his entire entrée in about eight minutes flat, which is how he eats when he’s anxious, and I spent the drive home genuinely wondering why …