Apple Cider Sangria

I'm making this apple cider sangria for every party this fall! Made with white wine, fresh apples, and warm spices, it's fruity, festive, and serves a crowd.

This apple cider sangria recipe is my new favorite cocktail for fall entertaining! It’s my family’s favorite too—they liked it so much the first time I served it that I made it again for another family gathering the next weekend. It’s been a staple at our fall get-togethers ever since. Sweetened with apple cider, packed with fresh apples, and warmly spiced with cinnamon and star anise, it’s full of festive fall flavor. If you’re looking for a fun cocktail to serve at Thanksgiving, Friendsgiving, or any celebration this season, I can’t recommend this apple cider sangria enough. It’s easy to…

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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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Whiskey Sour

This classic whiskey sour recipe is sweet, tart, rich, and refreshing. Easy to make with 4 simple ingredients, it's one of our favorite whiskey cocktails.

A whiskey sour is one of Jack’s favorite cocktails to order when we go out to dinner. Made with bourbon, lemon juice, simple syrup, and optional egg white, it’s brighter than most whiskey drinks, which Jack thinks makes it the perfect start to a good meal. It also means that though I’m not usually a whiskey drinker, I do enjoy a whiskey sour. I love its sweet/tart flavor, rich texture, and foamy top. Since we’re both fans of this classic cocktail, Jack and I have gotten into making whiskey sours at home. Turns out, you don’t need to be at a…

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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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Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

We love to make this roasted pumpkin seeds recipe after carving pumpkins in the fall. Crisp and golden brown, they're an easy, delicious snack!

Let’s make roasted pumpkin seeds! Instead of tossing the seeds from your Halloween Jack-O-Lanterns this year, save them to make this roasted pumpkin seeds recipe. It’s a delicious fall snack or salad topper—the seeds come out nice and crunchy, with a toasty, nutty flavor that I absolutely love. I’ve experimented with lots of different methods for how to roast pumpkin seeds over the years, and I’ve found that this simple one is my favorite. It calls for 3 ingredients (plus optional seasoning, if you like) and has 3 basic steps. Kiddos can help out here too. My son Ollie loves…

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35 Best Soup Recipes

If there's one thing I love about cold weather, it's soup! Read on to find over 30 easy soup recipes I'll be making all fall and winter long.

Soup season is here! There’s a lot to love about fall—beautiful weather, changing leaves, cozy baked goods, and hot drinks—but the soup recipes are hands down my favorite part. I adore soup. I love making it, I love eating it, and I love packing up the leftovers so that I can enjoy it again the next day. When I’m stressed, I turn to soup because I find it meditative to cook. When I’m snowed in, I turn to it because I keep a stash stored away in my freezer. And when I’m in need of a healthy reset, I turn…

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Apple Cider Cocktail

This apple cider cocktail is my idea of the perfect fall drink. Easy to make with 5 ingredients, it's bright, boozy, and packed with warming fall flavors.

Jack and I love making this apple cider cocktail recipe for cozy fall nights in. It combines some of his favorite cocktail ingredients (bourbon and Angostura bitters—this man loves an old fashioned!) with some of mine (ginger beer and a squeeze of lemon). Then, we throw apple cider into the mix for a sweet, seasonal finishing touch. As much as we enjoy making this apple cider cocktail for ourselves at home, I really wanted to share it with you because it’s perfect for fall entertaining. This fruity, fizzy, and warming drink fits right in at a holiday party or gathering…

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21 Best Fall Pasta Recipes

Craving comfort food? These fall pasta recipes are for you! Packed with seasonal produce and cozy autumn flavors, they're perfect for cool nights.

Is anyone else making fall pasta recipes on repeat? With the sun setting earlier and the temps getting cooler, I’ve been craving comfort food lately, and nothing hits the spot like a cozy bowl of pasta. In case you feel the same, I’ve rounded up our best fall pasta recipes below. They include classic Italian tomato sauce pastas, ultra-creamy ones, and of course, others that are packed with the season’s best produce (bring on the butternut squash!). Whether you’re looking for a quick weeknight fix or a crowd-pleasing dish for a special occasion, I’m sure you’ll find some fall pasta…

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

Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.

We love to eat, travel, cook, and eat some more! We create & photograph vegetarian recipes from our home in Chicago, while our shiba pups eat the kale stems that fall on the kitchen floor.