French Toast

This French toast recipe is a delicious, easy breakfast. The thick slices are fluffy, tender, and warmly spiced with cinnamon. Serve with maple syrup!

This French toast recipe is one of my favorite things to make for brunch. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a holiday or a regular old lazy weekend morning: just thinking about French toast makes my mouth start watering. What could be more crave-worthy than thick slices of bread with tender, fluffy middles, crisp edges, and a mound of fresh fruit on top? This French toast recipe is delightfully quick and easy, so I make it whenever we have day-old bread in the house. Still, it has the flavor of a special occasion treat. An egg batter makes it nice and rich,…

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Mulled Wine

This mulled wine recipe is perfect for the holidays! Simmered with citrus, apple cider, and warming spices, it's cozy, festive, and delicious.

Jack and I love to make this mulled wine recipe during the holiday season. Packed with notes of citrus, apple, and aromatic spices, it’s cozy, flavorful, and festive. Sipping a steaming mug of it is the best way to warm up on a cold winter night. This mulled wine is the perfect drink for holiday parties. For one, the recipe is easy to scale up or down depending on the size of your group. It also makes your kitchen smell amazing. The heady, spiced aroma on its own is reason enough to try it! Mulled Wine Ingredients Here’s what you’ll need…

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45 Christmas Breakfast Ideas

With recipes for cinnamon rolls, breakfast casseroles, French toast, waffles, and more, these Christmas breakfast ideas include something for everyone.

All our best Christmas breakfast ideas, all in one place! In case you’re still figuring out your menu for the holiday morning (don’t worry, I’m right there with you…), I thought I’d share some of my favorite festive brunch recipes today. They include Christmas breakfast ideas of every size and style—sweet ones, savory ones, ones you can make ahead, and ones you can whip up at the last minute. Some are great for a group, while others are meant for smaller celebrations. I hope you find some you love! Christmas Breakfast Ideas for a Crowd Serving a crowd on Christmas…

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Creamy Mushroom Soup

This mushroom soup recipe is creamy, comforting, and bursting with savory mushroom flavor. Make it with or without cream—it's delicious either way!

This mushroom soup recipe has become one of Jack’s favorite comfort foods. He loves anything and everything with fresh mushrooms, and this creamy, savory soup is positively packed with them. One and a half pounds of mushrooms cook down with onion, garlic, and tamari to create the soup’s umami base. Fresh thyme brings out the mushrooms’ earthy flavor, and white wine adds a nice tang to brighten it all up. I puree part of this mushroom soup, so it’s creamy with or without heavy cream. Jack likes the rich flavor of the cream version—it tastes like a classic cream of mushroom…

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Best Sugar Cookies Recipe

These easy sugar cookies have crisp edges and soft middles. Cut out into shapes and decorated with icing, they're a delicious treat for any occasion.

Meet my best sugar cookie recipe! It’s an updated version of one I shared a few years ago, with streamlined steps, simple ingredients, and absolutely delicious results. These cut out sugar cookies have crisp edges, soft middles, and a warm, buttery flavor. Decorated with icing, candies, and/or sprinkles, they’re a festive treat for Christmas, Valentine’s Day, or any occasion. Heads up that this recipe requires chilling the dough, so plan to mix it up at least 2 hours before you roll out and bake the cookies. If you’d like to space out the steps of this recipe even more, you can…

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Acorn Squash with Chickpeas & Chimichurri

Warmly spiced chickpeas, tangy chimichurri, and roasted acorn squash fill this recipe with an unexpected—but delicious—combination of flavors.

Every year in November, I like to share at least one vegetarian main dish recipe. I find that Thanksgiving hosts often like to have a special option for vegetarians at their table, especially if they’re newer to the family. But what people don’t know is that, for the most part, herbivores are usually happy filling up on sides like stuffing, mashed potatoes, and roasted veggies. I certainly am! So this year, I’m bringing back a “main dish” that can double as a side dish: acorn squash with chickpeas and chimichurri. I stuff roasted acorn squash quarters with warmly spiced chickpeas…

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Sweet Potato Casserole

Without question, this is the best sweet potato casserole recipe I've tried! Smooth and creamy sweet potatoes are topped with a savory pecan crumble.

This sweet potato casserole recipe is one of my favorite Thanksgiving side dishes. Instead of topping it with mini marshmallows, I cover it in a crisp pecan crumble. I love how this nutty, savory topping balances the creamy sweet potato filling. It’s delicious…and it tastes like it belongs at dinner, not dessert. 🙂 This recipe is great for the holidays because the ingredients are super simple (ALDI shoppers, you can get all of them there!) and you can make it ahead. Prepare the filling and topping up to 2 days in advance, and store them separately in the fridge until the…

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Healthy Pumpkin Muffins

These easy pumpkin muffins are moist, tender, and warmly spiced—the perfect fall treat! Make a batch, and it'll disappear before you know it.

These pumpkin muffins are perfect for fall! They’re soft, super moist, and deliciously spiced—cinnamon, allspice, and more fill them with seasonal flavor. But best of all, they’re so easy to make. You can whip them up in less than an hour with a couple of mixing bowls and a whisk. No mixer required here! I love that these pumpkin muffins taste sweet, but not too sweet, so that they can pass for breakfast or a healthy snack. Enjoy one (or two) in the morning with a cup of coffee, and then grab another for an afternoon pick-me-up. If you have any…

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Hot Toddy

This classic hot toddy recipe is a great way to warm up on a cold night! This soothing drink is easy to make with hot water, whiskey, honey, and lemon.

Learn how to make a hot toddy! Made with hot water, whiskey, honey, and lemon juice, this classic drink is a famous home remedy for a cough or a cold. When Jack has a sore throat, he always makes this hot toddy recipe to soothe it. But you don’t have to be under the weather to enjoy this simple cocktail. Though I’m typically not a whiskey drinker, I love a hot toddy on a cold fall or winter night. Garnished with a cinnamon stick and a slice of lemon, it’s such a cozy way to warm up. Cheers! What’s in…

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Soft Pumpkin Cookies

These pumpkin cookies are soft, moist, and filled with pumpkin spice flavor. Enjoy them plain or with cream cheese frosting for a delicious fall treat!

These pumpkin cookies are soft, cakey, and filled with pumpkin spice flavor. You can think of them as little pumpkin muffin tops. They’re not chewy like chocolate chip cookies. Instead, they’re airy and moist. I love them plain (especially alongside a cup of coffee), but they’re also delicious with cream cheese frosting. If you need more reasons to love this pumpkin cookie recipe, here’s a big one: you don’t have to chill the cookie dough! When you’re in the mood for fall baking (which for me, lately, has been often), you can quickly whip these cookies up. I hope you…

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Vegetarian Chili

Meet the best vegetarian chili recipe I've tasted! It's thick, hearty, and comforting, filled with flavorful veggies and two types of beans.

This vegetarian chili is the ultimate cold weather comfort food. I make it on repeat throughout the fall and winter because it’s warming, hearty, and flavorful. Made with two types of beans, corn, peppers, and more, it packs in a hefty amount of veggies, but it’s still a hit with meat lovers (just ask Jack!). This easy vegetarian chili recipe calls for a short list of pantry ingredients. To make it, you only need to do a few minutes of hands-on prep. Then, let it simmer away on its own. 30 minutes later, this thick, smoky, spicy veggie chili will…

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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.