Getting the Jump on Thanksgiving

Mark Bittman has 101 ideas for Thanksgiving dishes that can be made in advance of the holiday, allowing you to pace yourself when T-Day does actually does arrive.

In Praise of Ragu

In the Los Angeles Times, Russ Parsons sings the praises of ragu ( the sauce that comes in a jar or that guy from "Laverne & Shirley").

In Season: Summer Fruit Desserts

Los Angeles Times: Salads, crisps, tarts, and other things to do with sweet summer fruit.

From the Archives: Cool Off, Catania Style

Guest author Renée Kaplan contributed this post on how to fight back against the oppressive heat she calls "City in the Summer Syndrome" (which New York seems to be oddly immune from so far this year). Learning a lesson from the Sicilians, she writes about the ideal heatwave breakfast: thirst-quenching almond granita and a brioche for dunking.

Read More: City in the Summer Syndrome

In Season: Green Garlic

While I’ve been getting ready for season two of the square foot garden, I was able to harvest one last crop from last year that I managed to reap after a long, cold Winter.

During last fall, I decided to try growing green garlic, the quintessential gastronomic sign of early spring.

I broke up a head of garlic into cloves and planted them in one of the squares in the garden. Short green stalks shot up quickly, and then they stopped growing and remained like that for the winter. But, as it started warming up last month, they began growing again. Some of the outer leaves, which had withered and started turning brown, were now joined by new ones that were growing fast.

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A New Player in Recipe Search

Scripps Networks, the parent company of The Food Network, has quietly launched a new website that might just be a "killer app" for online recipe search.

Currently in "beta," Food.com sports a clean, almost zen design -- lots of white space, a bunch of carrots, a sprig of rosemary -- which stands in stark contrast to the brash style of its sibling site, the Food Network. Food.com is a vertical search engine for recipes and an online repository for recipe collections. Down the road, Scripps also plans to add social media tools to enable commentary and interaction between users.

Surprisingly, it's not just a search engine for Scripps' proprietary recipes on the Food Network website and Recipezaar (which Scripps also owns). Rather, Food.com searches all of the major recipe publishers on the web -- from epicurious to Food & Wine (it presently skips over blogs). Unlike these other sites, which search only within their own sites, Food.com's search has no walls. Aside from FoodieView, I believe it's the only recipe search engine of its kind.

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Suzanne Tracht's Pot Roast

Suzanne Tracht, chef at L.A.'s Jar restaurant, shares the recipe for her famous pot roast.

Passover Postscript: Pecan Crisps and a Mexican Chocolate-Pecan Cake

I ended up making two desserts this year for Passover. Although I've had a pretty good track record in the previous years, I like the challenge of trying something new, particularly on this flour-challenged holiday, and went with Gourmet's crunchy pecan cookies and Patricia Jinich's flourless chocolate-pecan cake.

The pecan cookies were very easy to make (and you really wouldn't suffer eating them any time of year). They contain no flour or matzo meal, just sugar, pecans, cinnamon, potato starch and egg whites. The nutty cookies, enlivened by the cinnamon, are thin, light, and crisp.

The recipe indicates that you can make them in advance and store them for up to a week. I made them the same day as the seder, but I would actually recommend baking them earlier. After a couple of days, the cookies lost any chewiness and became completely crunchy (which I preferred).

Jinich's cake is a surprising variation of the ubiquitous flourless chocolate cake: a Mexican take on the dessert topped with fresh berries, lime, and sugar.

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Passover Desserts: Mexican Chocolate Pecan Cake

A Mexican take on the usual flourless chocolate cake.

Test Kitchen: Suzanne Goin's Creamsicle Floats

If there was one thing that stood out for me from the New York Times' recent battle of the budget dinner parties, it was the creamsicle floats which Julia Moskin made for her dessert.

The recipe, which comes from L.A. chef Suzanne Goin, is barely that -- just a combination of three ingredients: vanilla ice cream, fresh tangerine juice, and seltzer.

I loved the way the tart flavor of the tangerine juice was offset by the creamy vanilla ice cream (store-bought in my re-creation, though the recipe calls for homemade).

The complete recipe (which serves 6) is available online at the Times website.

To make a single serving, add one scoop of vanilla ice cream to a glass with approximately 1/2 cup fresh tangerine juice (about the juice of two tangerines) and top with seltzer (be careful, it foams up). Serve with a straw and a spoon.

The recipe got me thinking about other juice/ice cream combinations that might make for delicious floats. If you have any suggestions, leave a comment below.