Coleslaw Pasta Salad
I know it sounds like two separate side dishes that got confused about their lane. Coleslaw and pasta salad in the same bowl. But it works — and once you've made it you understand why it's been showing up at cookouts for decades. The coleslaw mix adds crunch and freshness…
Wacky Cake (Depression Cake)
The secret ingredient in this chocolate cake is a tablespoon of white vinegar. No eggs. No milk. No butter. Mixed directly in the baking pan with a fork. This is wacky cake — also called Depression cake or crazy cake — invented during the 1930s when those ingredients were either…
Golden Vanilla Bundt Cake with Vanilla Glaze
One bowl. A box of yellow cake mix and a handful of pantry staples. An hour in the oven. And what comes out looks like you planned a whole afternoon around it — a golden bundt with that glossy drizzled glaze, the kind that sits on a cake stand and…
Old Fashioned Potato Salad
This is my go-to potato salad. I've made it probably every summer for years — for cookouts, for the Fourth of July, for any occasion where I need to show up with something and not think too hard about it. It's the classic: Yukon Golds, hard-boiled eggs, fresh dill, mayo…
4-Layer Lemon Dessert with Pecan Sandies Crust
This is the kind of dessert that used to show up at every summer potluck and church supper — the pan that came home empty every time. Pecan Sandies crust, a cream cheese layer, lemon pudding, and Cool Whip on top. It sounds simple because it is. It tastes like…
Homemade Sicilian Cannoli
The first time I made cannoli the filling was a watery mess — I hadn't drained the ricotta properly and by the time I piped it into the shells the whole thing was sliding out. Second batch: better shells, still too soft inside. Third time I left the ricotta in…
Pork Souvlaki with Pita and Tzatziki
I made this for the first time on a Saturday afternoon when I had a pork loin, a lemon, and nothing planned for dinner. Started the tzatziki in the morning so it'd have time to settle, marinated the pork while the grill was getting going, and by six o'clock we…
Chick-fil-A Copycat Nuggets
I've tried at least six different copycat Chick-fil-A nugget recipes. Most of them get the coating somewhat right but miss on the chicken itself — it ends up chewy, or the flavor isn't quite there. The version I keep coming back to is this one, and the reason it works…
