Favorite Holiday Green Salad

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My favorite holiday green salad features a festive mix of seasonal ingredients and a delicious shallot vinaigrette.

Can we just agree to bejewel all our salads with pomegranates this time of year? ♡

I always think these lovely little red gems add such a festive touch to green salads for the holidays, and this pomegranate salad in particular is one of my favorites. It’s tossed with your choice of greens, sliced apples, toasted walnuts, creamy avocado, crisp fennel, salty shaved Parmesan, and my favorite shallot vinaigrette. I make some version of this salad every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas (and plenty of winter evenings in between), and it’s always just as delicious as it is gorgeous.

That said, this pomegranate salad is also incredibly flexible. So if you feel like swapping in a different kind of nuts, greens, cheese, or even vinaigrette, please feel free. I’ve also written this recipe to be naturally vegetarian and gluten-free, but you’re welcome to add in an extra protein (such as chicken or bacon) if you’d like. I just insist that you generously sprinkle lots of beautiful pomegranate arils over the top like confetti, and then share and enjoy.

Happy holidays, everyone!

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Hot Honey

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This homemade hot honey recipe is quick and easy to make with 3 ingredients and can be used in countless delicious ways!

Is there anything that isn’t better with a drizzle of hot honey?! 😍

I don’t know about you all, but we’ve become thoroughly obsessed with this spicy-sweet condiment over the past few years. Drizzled on everything from pizza, biscuits, fried chicken, baked salmon, shrimp boil, roasted veggies, cornbread, baked brie, or corn on the cob? Yes, please. Stirred in to sweeten your next cocktail, cup of hot tea (or hot toddy!), or even a batch of salad dressing? Excellent idea. Served as a dipper for fries, chicken fingers, or a charcuterie board? For sure. That surprise kick of heat adds an irresistible extra touch to countless dishes where you might normally just use a plain sweetener, and we major fans here in our house.

Nowadays, hot honey is pretty commonly available in local grocery stores or online, but the markup is quite high and it’s usually much cheaper to make a batch yourself. Plus, it’s incredibly quick and easy to make at home. And with homemade hot honey, you get to be the one to decide which type of hot peppers to use and how spicy to make each batch. All you need are about 15 or 20 minutes and 3 ingredients and you’ll be good to go.

One more thing — with the holidays coming up, I also just wanted to mention that hot honey makes for great DIY gifting! Just grab some cute jars (you can rinse and reuse some old jam jars, order my favorite mini tulip jars, or use these adorable honey bear bottles), simmer up a quick batch of hot honey, and I’m certain your friends and family will put it to good use.

Alright, let’s make a quick batch!

Hot Honey Ingredients

Before we get to the full recipe below, here are a few notes about the three basic hot honey ingredients that you will need:

• Honey: The type of honey that you use is completely up to you. I prefer a basic clover honey that’s not overly floral, but you’re welcome to use any variety you prefer. (If possible, please consider purchasing a local honey to support bees in your area!)
• Hot peppers: I most often make hot honey with basic crushed red pepper flakes, since I always keep them on hand in my spice cabinet and using dried peppers (vs fresh) allows the honey to be stored longer. However, this recipe is also fantastic made with fresh chile peppers (such as jalapeños, serranos, habaneros or Thai red bird chiles) or you can also have fun experimenting with other dried chile peppers (such as dried anchos, guajillos, pasillas or chiles de àrbol). The heat level of this recipe is very easy to adjust by adding more/less peppers or letting the peppers simmer longer. So have fun experimenting — you’ll learn what type and amount of hot peppers that you love best!
• Vinegar: I like adding in a splash of apple cider vinegar (or red wine vinegar) to cut the sweetness a bit, a la Mike’s Hot Honey. You’re welcome to leave the vinegar out entirely if you prefer, or you can experiment with adding more or less to taste.

How To Make Hot Honey

The full detailed recipe for how to make hot honey is included in the recipe at the bottom of this page, but here is the basic overview (with a few optional variations): (more…)

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Garlic Parmesan Mashed Sweet Potatoes

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This Garlic Parmesan Mashed Sweet Potatoes recipe is easy to make, irresistibly sweet and savory, and always a crowd fave!

This may just be my favorite Thanksgiving sweet potato recipe yet. ♡

Inspired by the famous garlicky Parmesan sweet potato fries at one of my favorite local restaurants, these mashed sweet potatoes strike that irresistible balance of sweet and savory and seriously could not be more delicious.

They’re made with a simple base of sweet potatoes, milk and sour cream, mashed together until perfectly soft and creamy. Then a simmering pan of garlic butter, a generous pile of freshly-grated Parmesan, and a sprinkling of chopped fresh chives join the party. And once stirred together and dished up nice and warm — well — let’s just say that people went back for thirds the last time I served these mashed sweet potatoes. So, so good!

The great thing about this recipe is that it’s easy to make and also naturally gluten-free and vegetarian. (Although if you happen to eat meat, I wouldn’t argue with some crispy bacon sprinkled on top as a garnish too!) And if you’d like to cut down on entertaining stress and make these sweet potatoes in advance, I’ve included make-ahead instructions below for prepping and reheating this recipe too.

Okay, let’s make some mashed sweet potatoes!

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Potato Bacon Fennel Soup

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This potato bacon fennel soup recipe is incredibly easy to make and simmered in a cozy garlic-rosemary broth.

Every winter, I seem to find myself adopting a new potato soup recipe. And I have to say that this year’s version has been especially delicious. ♡

It’s made with a triple hit of fennel — an entire fresh bulb (which we’ll thinly slice and sauté into the soup), its delicate fronds (which are lovely as a garnish), plus an extra tablespoon of dried fennel seeds (to build in one more layer of flavor) — whose earthy, mildly-sweet, anise-like notes pair beautifully here with the garlic rosemary broth. Then we’ll also add in in lots of creamy Yukon golds, fry up some crispy bacon to sprinkle on top, and add a generous pinch of red pepper flakes in there to give the broth a bit of a surprise kick. And everything comes together to create a potato soup that’s deeply flavorful, refreshingly not-too-heavy, and totally delicious. We’ve been making it on repeat here lately and can’t get enough of it!

That said, if bacon isn’t your thing or you would prefer to make this recipe vegetarian, it’s just as delicious made with Italian sausage (either traditional or plant-based). The recipe also happens to be naturally gluten-free. And if you’d tend to love creamier potato soups, you’re of course always welcome to add in a splash of cream too.

This is such a cozy and delicious one. So add some fennel to your grocery list, and let’s simmer up a big pot of potato soup together!

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Butter Chicken and Cauliflower

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This Indian-inspired butter chicken and cauliflower recipe is easy to make, naturally gluten-free, and simmered with the most delicious richly-seasoned curry sauce.

Is there anything better than a cozy bowl of curry on a cold winter’s night? ♡

This Indian-inspired butter chicken and cauliflower has quickly become one of my favorite ways to warm up this season. Made with tender chicken and cauliflower simmered in a richly-seasoned creamy curry sauce, this dish comes together easily with minimal hands-on prep time. And when ladled up over hot rice, served with a slice of naan if you’d like, and garnished with lots of fresh cilantro and lemon, this full-flavored comfort food is sure to hit the spot.

As with just about any curry, this recipe is inherently quite flexible if you’d like to play around with the components. Have extra curry-friendly veggies hanging out in your freezer or crisper drawer? Toss ’em in! Want to make this curry vegetarian? Skip the chicken and add a can of chickpeas instead. Want to make it dairy-free or vegan as well? Use coconut milk and plant-based butter and you’ll be good to go. There are endless ways to customize this recipe to your liking, so please feel free to make it your own.

Let’s make some butter chicken and cauliflower together!

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Pasta alla Carbonara

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This pasta alla carbonara recipe easy to make with 4 classic ingredients and tastes so decadent and delicious.

Ok, I couldn’t spend a month in Rome studying and seeking out the best pasta alla carbonara the city had to offer without coming back to this post to share a few things that I learned. ♡

First of all, can I just say how much I appreciate this city’s passion for talking about good pasta?! One of the first souvenirs I purchased during our month in Rome was this tote bag, and the number of nods and conversations it prompted with everyone from market vendors to our AirBnB neighbors to restaurant servers to local playground parents were downright delightful. “That’s right.” “All you need.” Or the most common refrain muttered, “Correct, no cream!” You also can’t help but love a city where everyone, when asked who makes the best carbonara, quickly replies with the obvious —“mia nonna” (my grandmother). Certainly true, I’m sure. But I have to say that the bowls of pasta alla carbonara that I had the pleasure of sampling in restaurants were also downright exceptional.

My favorite, no surprise, ended up being the pasta alla carbonara developed by the “King of Carbonara” himself, Chef Luciano Monosilio. Served with a supremely decadent and silky egg sauce, a few crispy large cubes of guanciale, and a perfectly al dente twirl of thick spaghetti, Chef Luciano’s carbonara tasted just as legendary as you would hope. And it turns out that he also has a brilliant modern method for making it that I’ve now wholeheartedly adopted.

Instead of tossing the egg sauce in a very hot pan with very hot pasta, a classic method that is notorious for sometimes accidentally scrambling the eggs, Chef Luciano first tempers the eggs in a metal mixing bowl with the guanciale grease and hot starchy pasta water. And then he transfers the pasta directly to the mixing bowl, and places the bowl over the pot used to cook the pasta water (essentially creating a double boiler), and tosses the pasta with the sauce over the heat until it has cooked and thickened. It’s a simple method that I’ve found to be much more reliable when it comes to creating a perfectly glossy egg sauce and I’m convinced that all of you fellow carbonara lovers out there are going to love it too.

So today, I’ve updated my favorite pasta alla carbonara recipe below to include the double-boiler trick, along with a few additional tips that will hopefully be helpful. This recipe is definitely full-on rich, full-flavored, classic comfort food. So when you’re ready to indulge, grab a fork and let’s dive in!

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Cacio e Pepe

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My favorite cacio e pepe recipe is easy to make in about 30 minutes with just 4 simple ingredients.

Anthony Bourdain once said that cacio e pepe “could be the greatest thing in the history of the world.”

And I have to say, I wholeheartedly agree. ♡

This classic Roman pasta easily ranks up there as one of our family’s all-time favorite comfort foods. We happily make a big batch at least once or twice a month, often turning to it in a pinch because we can always count on three main ingredients — “cacio” (cheese), “pepe” (black pepper), and pasta (we usually go with bucatini) — being stocked in our kitchen. Barclay’s usually in charge of grating up a big pile of cheese while I make a big green salad or some roasted veggies to go on the side. Then once the pasta is ready to go and tossed with that irresistibly glossy cheese and pepper sauce, we always waste zero time dishing it up and grabbing a fork and diving in. A steaming hot bowl of cacio e pepe is pasta perfection!

That said, as simple as the ingredient list may be, cacio e pepe is famously finicky when it comes to technique. If the cheese is overheated or the starchy pasta water isn’t emulsified properly, the dish can turn into a sticky, clumpy mess, which I can vouch from experience is always such a tragedy. So while we are revisiting the four classic Roman pasta recipes this week, I’ve gone in and updated this post with all of my best tips for cacio e pepe success that I’ve learned over the years. We also added in a new video below that will hopefully provide some visuals to help you with each step of the process. So if you’re new to cacio e pepe or have had mixed results with it in the past, don’t be nervous — you can do it!

I do want to note that I prefer to add a bit of butter to my cacio e pepe sauce, which I’m well aware is not “authentic” or included in the traditional Roman recipe. However after having made and ordered this dish dozens and dozens of times with and without butter, I just personally find that I like the extra flavor that it adds.

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