Make Ahead

This is our hands-down favorite way to make mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving.

Two Halloween favorites—candy corn and pumpkins—meet in these irresistible blondies.

To learn how to cut endive into long, layered spears for an elegant look.

Silky, with a texture somewhere between pudding and panna cotta—and no water bath required.

A colorful and spicy (but not fiery!) side breaks up all the heavy, rich dishes on the table.

You can also bake this candy bar of a tart in an 8x8" pan, but whatever you do, toast those nuts.

This dark-red mixture will bubble and spit like a vat of lava as it cooks. Okay, slight exaggeration, but really: Cook this in a deep pot, and use a long whisk.

You'll never be tempted to buy packaged again.

You will fight your own relatives for the bits of cheesy goodness stuck to the bottom of the pan.

Parsnip, a vegetable usually roasted or pureed, is crunchy, sweet, and delicious raw. Who knew?

This recipe—a rhapsody for sweet, bitter, and salty—is based on one from Ruth Reichl, published in Gourmet Today.

Roasting white chocolate was a popular technique a few years back in a lot of pastry kitchens. I don't use white chocolate a lot because it is so sweet, but roasting it first caramelizes the sugar and toasts the milk solids to give it a nutty flavor, like brown butter, that balances its high sugar content.

One of my favorite post-shift hangouts was Painkiller NYC, where my buddy Richie Boccato made a mean Dark and Stormy at his tiki cocktail haven. Sadly, the bar is long gone; I raise my glass to Richie and the best Dark and Stormy anywhere. It is a favorite cocktail of mine, so I thought the combination of rum, lime, and lots of ginger would be really refreshing in a frozen dessert. This is a great summertime treat-light and airy but with a nice boozy kick. What really makes this is the fresh ginger juice. Grate peeled fresh ginger into a small fine-mesh strainer set over a bowl. Once you have a fair amount of pulp, squeeze the juice out of it. You'll need a fairly large piece of fresh ginger, about 12 ounces (335 grams) to get enough juice.