Puff Pastry Brie Bites

These brie bites are one of my favorite holiday appetizers! I love how the crisp puff pastry and rich, creamy cheese play off the sweet fig jam on top.

This post is in partnership with DeLallo. I’ll be making these brie bites for every party this holiday season! Easy to make with 5 ingredients (and easy to eat with your fingers), they’re the perfect festive appetizer. A delicate shell of puff pastry surrounds the melty brie cheese, and a spoonful of DeLallo Fig Spread creates a sweet, glossy glaze on top. I finish them with a sprig of rosemary and toasted pecans for crunch. I often see brie and cranberry sauce paired around the holidays, but if you’ve never tried brie and fig spread together, you have to make this recipe. The…

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Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes

These cauliflower mashed potatoes are just as smooth and creamy as classic ones! Ready in 20 minutes, they're a delicious, easy low carb side dish.

Don’t tell Jack, but we probably won’t have classic mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving this year. I’m planning to make these cauliflower mashed potatoes instead! That’s because we’re celebrating with his parents, who eat a low carb diet. I wanted to create a rich, creamy alternative to mashed potatoes that everyone at the table would enjoy, and after testing and tweaking this recipe, I think it’s going to be perfect. These cauliflower mashed potatoes are smooth, creamy, and flavorful, made with Parmesan cheese, butter, garlic, and sour cream. I won’t tell you that they taste exactly like potatoes (they do have a…

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Cranberry Sauce

This easy cranberry sauce recipe is tart, lightly sweet, and scented with orange. Ready in 15 minutes, it's a classic, delicious holiday side dish!

Meet my best cranberry sauce recipe! Easy to make with 5 ingredients in under 15 minutes, it’s delectably tart, not too sweet, and studded with whole cranberries. I’m not a turkey eater, and I still spoon this sauce all over my Thanksgiving plate—it’s just that good. This homemade cranberry sauce is an updated version of a recipe I shared a few years ago. I’ve added more orange juice and zest for bright, fruity depth of flavor and shortened the cook time, which is 1) convenient and 2) means that more cranberries stay intact. If you ask me, their bursty texture…

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Stuffed Acorn Squash

I love making stuffed acorn squash in the fall. With a hearty wild rice filling, it's cozy, fresh, and festive. Perfect for Thanksgiving or any fall dinner!

Stuffed acorn squash is one of my favorite fall dinners. I often make it after trips to the farmers market, when I come home with more squash than I know what to do with. It’s also my go-to vegetarian main course for Thanksgiving. Loaded with a fresh fall filling, the tender, golden squash halves look so pretty at the center of a holiday table. I’ve made countless stuffed acorn squash recipes over the years, but when I tried this version, I knew it would be one that I’d make on repeat. The hearty filling consists of nutty wild rice, crisp…

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Pumpkin Tiramisu

This pumpkin tiramisu is a stunning fall dessert! With layers of pumpkin cream and chai-spiced ladyfingers, it would be perfect for Thanksgiving.

This pumpkin tiramisu recipe is a show-stopping fall dessert! No offense to pumpkin pie, but it might just steal the spotlight on your Thanksgiving dessert table. It features luxe layers of pumpkin cream, chai-soaked ladyfingers, and a gorgeous dusting of warm spices. Rich, creamy, and packed with fall flavors, it’s impressive and delicious. It’s been on my list to develop for months, ever since I made this strawberry tiramisu over the summer. I thought a pumpkin version would be so fun for fall. It took me a few more tests than I expected (four, to be exact), but I can confidently…

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Creamy Gnocchi Soup

This creamy gnocchi soup recipe is perfect for fall and winter weeknights! Filled with flavorful vegetables and ready in 30 minutes, it's cozy and quick.

Trust me, you want this gnocchi soup recipe in your weeknight rotation. Ready in just 30 minutes, it’s quick and cozy. The tender, pillowy gnocchi float in a rich, creamy broth that’s seasoned with aromatic veggies, fragrant herbs, and a touch of tangy Dijon mustard. Served with a drizzle of olive oil on top and crusty bread on the side, it’s pretty much my ideal fall dinner. If you’ve eaten gnocchi soup before, there’s a good chance you had it at Olive Garden—their chicken gnocchi soup is fairly famous at this point! I wouldn’t call this recipe a copycat (you…

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Easy Sugar Cookies

Craving something sweet? Make these sugar cookies! Easy to make with 8 ingredients, they have lightly crisp edges and perfect chewy middles.

Hands up if you love soft and chewy sugar cookies! If you have your hand raised, this sugar cookie recipe is for you. Adapted from my snickerdoodle recipe, it yields sugar cookies with perfect chewy middles, lightly crisp edges, and a warm, buttery flavor. Best of all, it’s super easy to make. You just need 8 basic ingredients…and you don’t even have to chill the dough. You could totally make these cookies for a holiday—roll them in red and green sugar for Christmas, or top them off with pink frosting for Valentine’s Day. But honestly, we just love them as an…

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How to Cook Turnips

Learn how to cook turnips! Roasted with salt and pepper, this underrated veggie becomes sweet, tender, and nutty. It's a delicious, healthy side dish!

Turnips are one of the vegetables I buy most often in the fall. I can never resist them at the farmers market—bright white, pink, or tinged with purple, with lush green tops attached. They often look more humble in the grocery store, but they’re still worth reaching for. Turnips have a lightly sweet, peppery flavor with delicious nutty, mustardy undertones. Why not add them to your root vegetable rotation? I’m sharing a guide to how to cook turnips below, complete with my favorite roasted turnips recipe. It’s easy to make with 4 ingredients, and it cooks in right around 30 minutes. If…

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Easy Pumpkin Cake

My family can't get enough of this easy pumpkin cake. Moist, warmly spiced, and topped with tangy cream cheese frosting, it's a delicious fall dessert!

This pumpkin cake recipe is my family’s new favorite fall dessert. I made it for my mom and my sister’s family when we all got together a few weeks ago, and it disappeared within minutes of me setting it on the table. The adults kept raving about the moist texture and rich, spiced pumpkin flavor, and the kids couldn’t get enough of the tangy cream cheese frosting on top. I’ve already posted a few pumpkin baked goods this fall, but this one was such a hit that I had to share it too. 🙂 This pumpkin cake recipe is easy…

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Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal

This easy pumpkin baked oatmeal is everything I want for breakfast on a crisp fall morning! It's comforting, warmly spiced, and great for meal prep.

If you love cozy fall flavors, you need this pumpkin baked oatmeal in your breakfast rotation! I’d be happy eating it every morning in October. It’s hearty, filling, and packed with pumpkin, warm spices, and pecans. It has a lightly crisp brown sugar top, and it pairs perfectly with coffee too. 🙂 I adapted this pumpkin baked oatmeal from my blueberry baked oatmeal, and just like the blueberry version, it’s great two ways. You can either meal prep it and enjoy slices for a healthy breakfast on busy mornings, or you can serve it freshly baked for brunch. In that case,…

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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

These pumpkin chocolate chip muffins are super moist, perfectly spiced, and loaded with gooey chocolate. They're an easy, delicious fall treat!

These pumpkin chocolate chip muffins are the perfect fall treat. They’re incredibly moist, warmly spiced, and studded with melty, gooey chocolate chips. To give you an idea of how much I love them, I’ve already made them 3 times this fall, and I’m about to head to the kitchen to make another batch. On a crisp October day, they’re simply the best breakfast or snack. Like all my muffin recipes, these pumpkin chocolate chip muffins are easy to make. But they have something else going for them too: they use an entire can of pumpkin. I actually tested them with less pumpkin originally, but…

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A food blog with fresh, zesty recipes.
Photograph of Jeanine Donofrio and Jack Mathews in their kitchen

Welcome to Love & Lemons!

I'm Jeanine Donofrio, a New York Times bestselling cookbook author and recipe developer. I share fresh, delicious vegetarian recipes that celebrate seasonal ingredients and flavors.

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