Brown Butter Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Most pumpkin cookies are cakey and soft in a disappointing way — they have the texture of a muffin top and no chew. The reason is almost always the pumpkin: it holds a lot of water, and that water turns into steam in the oven and puffs the cookies up…
Creamy Steak Pasta
I made this on a Wednesday night when I wanted steak but didn't want to think too hard about dinner. Sirloin, some cream, Parmesan, pasta. Thirty-five minutes from fridge to table. The sauce gets its depth from the steak — the browned bits left in the pan after searing dissolve…
Lemon Ricotta Semolina Cake
This cake is not sweet. I want to say that at the start because it's the first thing people notice and the first thing that surprises them — it looks like a dessert, it's dusted with powdered sugar, and then it tastes mild and light in a way they weren't…
Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing
Bottled blue cheese dressing is never quite right — it's too thin, the blue cheese flavor is too mild, and it has a background taste that's hard to place but definitely there. This version takes ten minutes, uses one bowl, and is noticeably better. The base is mayo, sour cream,…
CPK BBQ Chicken Salad (Copycat)
I've made a lot of versions of this salad trying to get it right, and the two things that most copycat recipes miss are the jicama and the way the dressing works. It's not one dressing — it's ranch tossed through the base and BBQ sauce drizzled on top separately.…
Raspberry Filled Chocolate Bites
Four ingredients. No oven. The freezer does everything after about fifteen minutes of actual work. These are the bites I make when I want something that feels like a treat but is genuinely made from real things — raspberries, chia seeds, honey, dark chocolate. That's the whole list. The technique…
Holy Cow Cake
Devil's food cake. Poked full of holes while it's still warm. Soaked with sweetened condensed milk and caramel until the whole thing is dense and gooey and barely resembles the cake it started as. Then hot fudge, toffee bits, and a full layer of whipped topping. It's a lot. This…
Funeral Potatoes
This is my go-to casserole for feeding a crowd. Cheesy hash browns with a buttered cornflake crust, baked until golden and bubbling. It's called funeral potatoes because it's the dish that shows up at every church potluck and post-funeral gathering across the intermountain West — and there's a reason it…
