Best Mashed Potatoes Recipe

Learn how to make the best mashed potatoes with this easy recipe! Rich, creamy, and flavorful, they're always a crowd-pleasing side dish.

I can’t share a mashed potatoes recipe without mentioning my husband Jack. He LOVES homemade mashed potatoes, specifically ones that are rich, creamy, and flavorful. I’ve made plenty that he’s liked in the past (see these garlic mashed potatoes and these Instant Pot mashed potatoes). But this year, I finally made the potatoes he’d been waiting for: ones loaded up with butter, milk, and sour cream. I’m not kidding when I say that these are the best mashed potatoes I’ve tried. They’re ultra-rich and blissfully creamy, and the sour cream gives them a delicious tangy kick. They’re easy to make…

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Vegan Pumpkin Pie

This vegan pumpkin pie recipe is easy to make with 8 ingredients! With a rich, creamy filling and flaky crust, it's a delicious Thanksgiving dessert.

I’m making this vegan pumpkin pie recipe for Thanksgiving this year, and I already can’t wait. I’ll never turn down a slice of pumpkin pie—it’s been my favorite Thanksgiving dessert since I was a kid. But this vegan pumpkin pie recipe takes the classic dessert to another level. The pumpkin filling has an amazing creamy texture and rich, spiced flavor. It contrasts perfectly with the crisp, flaky crust. Tasting it, you’d never guess that it’s made without dairy or eggs. This vegan pumpkin pie recipe is easy to make with 8 simple ingredients. It needs to chill after baking, so…

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Vegan Pie Crust

Learn how to make vegan pie crust! This recipe yields a tender, flaky crust that's easy to make in the food processor and delicious in any pie recipe.

This vegan pie crust recipe rivals any regular pie crust I’ve tried. It has a perfect tender, flaky texture, and it’s easy to make in the food processor with just 4 ingredients. Even beginners can pull it off! I adapted this vegan pie crust from my all-butter pie crust, making a few minor tweaks to the recipe. For starters, I used dairy-free butter and omitted the salt because good-tasting vegan butter is always salted. Then, I reduced the amount of butter in the recipe. Vegan butter is significantly softer than regular butter, so I needed less to make a pliable…

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Best Stuffing Recipe

The BEST Thanksgiving stuffing! Based on my family's classic recipe, it's rich and savory, made with fresh herbs, celery, butter, and leeks.

If I told you that a no-frills, classic stuffing recipe was my favorite part of Thanksgiving, would you believe me? Well, it’s true! As a kid, I fell in love with my grandma’s stuffing recipe. Made with onion, celery, and dried herbs, it was simple and delicious. It had a crisp, golden layer of bread on top, with a moist and gooey center underneath. Rich, savory flavor filled every bite. My mom still makes this homemade stuffing recipe for my family’s Thanksgiving every year. Because I love it so much, I wanted to develop my own spin to share with…

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Green Bean Casserole

This green bean casserole recipe is an updated take on the classic dish. It's made from scratch with fresh green beans and a creamy mushroom sauce.

Green bean casserole is always on my family’s Thanksgiving menu, right alongside the mashed potatoes, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. We, like many folks, made the version with Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup, French fried onions, and canned green beans for years…until I set myself the task of making a homemade green bean casserole from scratch. Let me introduce you to the results: this green bean casserole recipe. It stars fresh green beans, crispy baked onions, and a rich and creamy mushroom sauce that blows the canned soup out of the water. Once I tried it, I couldn’t go back to…

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Roasted Acorn Squash

Learn how to cook acorn squash with this easy recipe! Roasted with olive oil, maple syrup, and herbs, it's a simple, delicious fall or winter side dish.

This roasted acorn squash recipe is my favorite way to cook acorn squash. It couldn’t be simpler: just cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds, and bake it with olive oil, savory herbs, and a drizzle of maple syrup. After roasting, the squash is amazingly tender, with a subtly sweet, nutty flavor. Who says recipes have to be complicated in order to be delicious?! This roasted squash is an easy side dish for fall weeknights, but it tastes so good that it would fit right in at Thanksgiving dinner too. Whether you’re learning how to cook acorn squash for…

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Sautéed Green Beans

This sautéed green beans recipe is a delicious, quick, and easy veggie side dish! Lemon juice, garlic, and fresh thyme fill it with bright, zingy flavor.

If you need a last-minute side dish for the holiday, this sautéed green beans recipe would be perfect. It calls for under 10 ingredients and cooks in under 10 minutes (bonus: no oven required!), so you can whip it up right before you eat. But don’t let its simplicity fool you. This sautéed green beans recipe might be easy to make, but it’s still bursting with flavor. I sauté fresh green beans until they’re crisp-tender and vibrant green. Then, I toss them with a zingy lemon-Dijon dressing. It gives the beans a bright, garlicky bite, making them so delicious that…

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Wild Rice Pilaf

This wild rice pilaf is flecked with shaved Brussels sprouts, herbs, and roasted vegetables. It's a fresh, festive side dish for the holidays or any meal.

This wild rice pilaf is a simple combination of some of my favorite fall ingredients. It starts with chewy, nutty wild rice. Then, I add caramelized roasted sweet potatoes and umami shallots. I toss in some shaved Brussels sprouts, which wilt against the heat of the freshly cooked rice and roasted veggies, and I finish it with dried cranberries, toasted pecans, and lots of thyme and parsley. I love eating this wild rice pilaf for lunch in the fall, the wild rice and roasted sweet potatoes making it hearty enough to be a satisfying meal on its own. But this…

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Roasted Root Vegetables

This roasted root vegetables recipe is so delicious that you'll want seconds! Fresh herbs and a fragrant sage oil pack the veggies with rich, earthy flavor.

This oven roasted root vegetables recipe elevates humble carrots, parsnips, turnips, sweet potatoes, and beets into a holiday-worthy side dish. I know these unassuming vegetables might not be the first ones you reach for at the farmers market or grocery store, but there are so many reasons to cook them. They’re nutritious and affordable. They’re colorful, and–best of all–they’re delicious. In this roasted root vegetables recipe, I chop them into big chunks and toss them with olive oil, salt, pepper, and lots of fresh herbs. Then, I roast them until they’re tender and caramelized. When they come out of the…

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Apple Pie Recipe

In this easy apple pie recipe, tender, cinnamon-spiced apples fill a flaky, buttery crust. Top it with vanilla ice cream for a mouthwatering fall dessert!

What do you look for in an apple pie recipe? A few years ago, the first time I volunteered to make a homemade apple pie for my family’s Thanksgiving, I scoured the internet in search of the perfect one. I wanted the filling to be juicy, but not so juicy that the pie wouldn’t slice. I wanted it to be warmly spiced with cinnamon and spiked with lemon for bright, tart flavor. The best apple pie recipe would yield slices thick enough to stand up to a big scoop of vanilla ice cream, and it would have a flaky, buttery, easy-to-make…

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Apple Pie Filling

Learn how to make apple pie filling from scratch! Sweet, tart, juicy, and warmly spiced, it's delicious in pies and on ice cream, pancakes, and more.

Once I started making this apple pie filling recipe, I knew I’d never fill an apple pie any other way. The apples come out with the perfect texture–tender, but not mushy–and they’re dripping with syrupy, cinnamon-spiced juices. If you’re making an apple pie this fall, I can’t recommend this filling highly enough. But even if you’re not making a pie, I still hope you’ll try this recipe. This homemade apple pie filling doesn’t need to hide inside a flaky, buttery crust to be a delicious treat. The soft, sweet-tart apples are fantastic on ice cream or yogurt, stirred into oatmeal, or…

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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.