Dried Fruit

With their assertive flavors, the dried cherries, pecans, and mushrooms in this dish pair well with poultry or game. You can also use this recipe to make a vegetarian stuffing for baked winter squash, such as butternut.

This sweet, fragrant breakfast dish is even more delicious and healthful when topped with slices of banana or strawberries and additional fat-free milk.

Experiment with different varieties of apple and with seasonal fruit when you make this refreshing salad.

This sweet-hot slaw gets its “attitude” from a combination of several highly flavored ingredients.

As the apples bake, their juice combines with brown sugar and orange juice to create a light caramel sauce.

With its sweet and sour crunch, this salad is sure to be a winner at your table.

Let’s face it, baking cookies or making candy can take a lot of time—time we sometimes just don’t have. But we do still want to offer treats that are made with love. These truffles are a simple, fast, and fun answer that will keep you from slaving over a stove and will keep your family fit and happy. In fact, they’re the perfect homemade sweet treat to impress everyone whether they’re interested in eating healthfully or not. And, they’re even perfect for getting the kids in the kitchen with you.

Gina: I don’t know if any of you have an appetizer before breakfast, but that’s what we sometimes do in our house, and it sure is fun. ’Course, when we do, the only appetizer we make is Nana’s Caramel Pecan Rolls. Nana was my godmother, who lived across the street from us while we were growing up. Nana is one of the best cooks in our family, and one of our most cherished matriarchs. She took care of me from the time I was six months old until I started school. Later, Nana took care of Shelbi when she was a baby. Nana always made the best caramel pecan rolls, and when we didn’t want to make them ourselves, we’d call her and request a batch for a special Sunday breakfast. After making these, you’ll know why.

Gina: Nothing is as warm or as inviting as an old-fashioned baked apple. Our baked apples are even more inviting because we pack them with golden raisins, dried cranberries, and nuts, splashed with rum for extra goodness (or try Calvados, an apple-flavored liqueur from France, for a special twist). Serve these warm, fragrant little gems with a scoop of caramel or rum-raisin ice cream. In the unlikely event that you have a few left over, there’s nothing like a cold baked apple for breakfast, served in a pool of cold half-and-half. (Chances are your sweet-tooth husband is also on to this secret, so don’t be surprised if he beats you to the kitchen.)

Gina: Ours is a spinach salad with some serious attitude. In addition to the bacon and creamy blue cheese dressing, we add sweetened pecans and tart dried cranberries, and the overall effect is to give this salad a festive feel. It’s a great dinner party starter, and it’s especially good partnered with a fat grilled steak. The spiced pecans are good enough to eat on their own as a snack, but try to save them for the salad! And even though we call for dried cranberries, you can substitute a variety of dried fruit, including dried cherries or golden raisins.

In this recipe, I prepare the zuppa inglese almost as you would a layer cake. Although the method is fairly easy, you may want to try the following more traditional and even easier way the first time you make it. Prepare all the components as described below, but assemble them thus: Line a 13 × 7–inch ceramic or glass serving dish with one layer of sponge cake, cut side up. Brush and fill the layers as described below, finishing with a layer of whipped cream over the top layer of cake. Chill and decorate as described below. To serve, spoon the zuppa inglese from the dish, passing any remaining whipped cream and pastry-cream sauce separately.

It is a good idea to roll up and fry one of these fish balls before forming the whole batch. You can check the seasoning and add a little salt and pepper if you like before you cook them all. Cooking a little sample is a good thing to keep in mind when you’re making meatballs, too.

Sometimes I peel eggplants completely, sometimes not at all. Leaving the peel on adds a slightly bitter taste—which I like—but also helps the eggplant hold its shape after you cut it into cubes or slices. If you want the best of both worlds, remove thick stripes of peel from the eggplant, leaving half the peel intact. Caponata can last several days in the refrigerator and is even better after marinating for a day. It is best eaten at room temperature, so remove it from the refrigerator about 2 hours before serving. Caponata is usually served as part of an antipasto assortment, although it makes a wonderful summer contorno, or side dish, to grilled meats or fish.

Traditional rice pudding contains cream, eggs, and sugar. You’ll find none of that here. You will find healthful whole-grain brown rice, raisins, creamy Greek yogurt, and lovely flavor from real vanilla bean and cinnamon. Eat any leftovers for breakfast.

You can make this dish again, subbing cubed white or dark meat chicken for the lamb if you have extra spice blend on hand.

This is my favorite fish dish in the book. Try it and you’ll taste why.

About ten years ago, my friend Donna told me she had made chicken with leeks—just leeks—for dinner the night before and she raved about it! I made my own version of Leek-y Chicken that night and I’ve been making it ever since. I included a version of this recipe in my first 30-Minute cookbook back in 1998, but I could not do a book on “Express” cooking without including Leek-y Chicken in some form. Here it is served on a bed of couscous.