Say hello to my new favorite cookies. I know, you’re not surprised, because you know how much I love lemon. But these(!) lemon cookies have that bakery-perfect chewy middle with a lightly crisp edge and a perfect balance of light & bright citrus flavor. A real treat, especially now that we’re entering the holiday season, although I would happily take one of these lemon cookies any day of the year.

This lemon cookie recipe comes from my friend Melissa Coleman’s book The Minimalist Kitchen. You may know of her blog, The Faux Martha. If you don’t, go check it out – you’ll absolutely love her. She has wonderfully approachable meal-time recipes, highly do-able organizational tips (check out her pretty pantry), and, man, can that girl bake.

What I love about these lemon cookies is that they have substance – particularly from the cornmeal and poppy seeds. Plus, the mix of olive oil with butter gives them a bright flavor that brings out the citrus essence so well.
  

These photos actually make them look kind of small, but made with a 1/4-cup cookie scoop, these lemon cookies are a perfect 1-cookie afternoon indulgence with a cup of coffee or tea.

For more cookie recipes, check out the dessert section of our recipe index!

From muffins and scones to gooey brownies and towering layer cakes, who doesn’t love a treat every now and then?

The good news is that recreating your favorite dessert at home is more than doable if you’re equipped with the right tools for the job. Let us help guide the way. Here are our top ten picks to treat the baking enthusiast in your life this holiday season!

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This Pear and White Wine Sangria is what you need for your holiday parties! Make it ahead and let guests serve themselves. It's made with pear nectar, white wine, ginger beer, and warm holiday spices. Cheers!

Photography Credit: Nancy Mitchell

If you are starting out with dry beans (recommended), to speed up the process you can put beans into a bowl and pour boiling water over them by 2 inches and let them sit for an hour instead of soaking them overnight (then drain).

You can also use a pressure cooker to cook the beans more quickly than on the stovetop without needing to pre-soak them.

You can also use canned white beans. If you use canned beans, drain them from their juices and combine them with the turkey stock in step one.  Only heat the beans and turkey stock enough to bring the stock to a simmer. You don't need to cook the canned beans because they are already cooked.

This recipe can easily be doubled.

Method

Soup season continues! While I’ve made cauliflower soup before, this time, I have a special guest ingredient that I’ve yet to use here on the blog: celery root! I had never cooked with celery root prior this fall, probably because I never saw it at the farmers markets in Austin. That’s been part of the fun of moving somewhere new – new city, new vegetables.

Celery root has a wonderful, savory celery-like flavor and a creamy consistency when blended. For this soup, I combined it with roasted cauliflower, sautéed mushrooms, leeks, thyme, Dijon, and a pop of lemon at the end.

I also just love celery root’s gnarly, funky shape:

This cozy soup is winter comfort food at it’s best! Serve it with crusty bread or crispy croutons. I also sautéed a few mushrooms to put on top, but you’ll see in the recipe below that all of these garnishes are optional. You can keep this simple, or make it fancy.

You can also make it ahead and store it in the fridge, or freeze your leftovers (I like these glass containers) to save for a day when it’s too cold to leave the house.

For more cozy soups, take a peek at the soup section of our recipe index!

My favorite salad of all time was not a salad in the traditional sense. It was a vegetarian dish that was merely sprinkled with arugula.

The greens served as a garnish to add a peppery flavor to the rest of the meal: a quarter of a roasted acorn squash, dressed in olive oil. Toasted nuts, garlicky roasted tomatoes, and creamy chevre were the celebrated final touches.

The café where I ate that salad is gone now, but I’m still impacted by my meal there.

SALADS DON’T HAVE TO BE JUST LETTUCE

A good salad can be made of anything—no lettuce required.

In the summer, you can build salads out of thinly sliced tomatoes, peaches, and onions dressed in freshly cracked pepper and drizzled with basil- infused olive oil.

In the cooler months, you can use the remains of last night’s roasted potatoes to dress today’s lunch of frisee and soft-boiled egg for a riff on a classic Salad Lyonnaise.

HOW TO BUILD A GOOD SIDE SALAD

When building a basic salad, with or without greens, anything goes. But it’s nice to include a combination of flavor and textural elements.

When prepping a side salad, I usually think, “Do I have something sweet, spicy, salty, bitter, crunchy, or creamy?”

My squash salad, for example, had sweetness from the squash, crunch from the nuts, creaminess from the cheese, and a bit of spice from the arugula. The combination of those elements made my mouth sing.

You can do the same thing at home, as long as you know a little bit about the different elements and what they have to offer.

TRY THESE SALADS THAT GO BEYOND LETTUCE!

Below are different side salads that go beyond leafy greens, and some recipes you might like to try! Any of these would work alongside a main course like roast chicken, pork chops, or seared fish.

SALADS WITH GRAINS

Grain salads are some of my favorites. The chewy texture of farro or wheat berries pair well with the soft green anise-flavored fennel, roasted tomatoes, cabbage, and red onions. Add a handful of minced parsley and fennel fronds, and then finish it with glug of olive oil. Fluffy, protein-rich quinoa loves a combination of olive oil, lemon juice, oregano, sliced sweet peppers of any color and cucumbers. Toss in some Kalamata olives to add a briny flavor, and add crumbled feta to add another sharp note, because feta loves olives. Try some of these recipes for grain salads!

SALADS WITH VEGETABLES

Roasted, pickled, or raw vegetables contribute layers of flavor and texture to salad. Decide what to add based on your end goal. Do you want something light and cooling? Then opt for cucumbers, peas or shaved fennel. Do you need something sharp to stand out? Use thinly sliced pickled carrots, beets or onions. Here are just a few vegetable ideas to get you started: cucumbers, peas, carrots, asparagus, beets, onions, kohlrabi, shaved fennel, radish, zucchini, peppers (hot and sweet), jicama, avocado, potatoes, butternut squash, acorn squash. Try these salads!

SALADS WITH BEANS

Beans are a wonderful way to add texture, fiber, and protein to a meal. Eat them lightly dressed in a vinaigrette and dotted with freshly chopped herbs or combine them crunchy vegetables for a sharp contrast between the creaminess of the beans and the bite of thinly sliced raw vegetables. Try these salads!

SALADS WITH FRUIT

Fruit can add body, sweet or sour flavors and texture to a salad at any time of year. To add an extra layer of flavor, soak dried fruit in port, rum, or brandy just until the fruit plumps up. Fennel and orange segments are a classic combination. Dried cranberries, thinly sliced red onion, and mix of mild, delicate greens like spinach dressed in a red wine vinaigrette make a simple side salad. Combine cantaloupe, watermelon and cucumbers with feta for a sweet and salty flavor explosion. Tomatoes, oranges, grapefruit, strawberries, dried cranberries, raisins, cantaloupe, watermelon, raisins, cherries (dried and fresh), grapes, mangos, plums, apples are just a few of the fruits to consider. Try these salads!

GREEN SALADS THAT GO BEYOND LETTUCE

Last but not least: Try a new salad dressing!

Dressing is just one more ingredient in the salad. It shouldn’t overwhelm every other flavor you’ve worked to build. Less is more. That’s the rule. If you pre-dress a salad, do it just before serving. With delicate greens put a little bit of dressing in a mixing bowl and lightly toss the greens with your hands. Taste it and add a little more if you think it needs it. Serve it immediately. Use creamy dressings with a heartier greens such as iceberg or romaine. (There’s a reason why many delicate greens are tossed with vinaigrettes; heavy cream-based dressings can weigh down them down.) If you’re serving a kale or mustard green salad, they benefit from a good massage to soften them up. I use a touch of olive oil. Then rub and kneed the leaves before building the rest of my salad.