A. Bjorkman's Drop Shortcake
A Northern, drop-style shortcake — pie-crust mixing method, dropped onto a sheet, split open with a fork, piled with macerated berries and whipped cream.
Blanched Broccoli Salad with Pecans, Cherries, and Cider-Honey Dressing
A potluck salad with a real point of view — tangier, crunchier, and brighter than the version you grew up with.
Bag-Shortcut Buttermilk Slaw with Pickle Brine
A 10-minute side that earns a spot at every cookout, picnic, and Tuesday-night sandwich — bagged slaw mix, a quick salt-rest, and a buttermilk dressing tuned with sweet pickle brine.
Cheryl's Carrot Cake
A single-layer family carrot cake with toasted walnuts and plumped raisins. Cream cheese frosting optional, but recommended.
Chocolate Cheesecake with a Salted Pretzel-Cocoa Crust
Dense, dark chocolate cheesecake on a salted pretzel-cocoa crust, with a hint of bourbon and espresso in the filling that makes the chocolate taste deeper.
Cookies-and-Cream Chocolate Chip Cheesecake
An Oreo-crust cheesecake with a hidden Oreo layer running through the middle, mini chips and chocolate shavings folded into the batter, and a dulce de leche swirl on top.
Flourless Chocolate Cake with Espresso and Olive Oil
A dense, almost-truffle flourless chocolate cake with espresso to deepen the cocoa, olive oil swapped for some of the butter, and a flaky-salt and cocoa-nib top.
Grandma M.'s Crinkled Sugar Cookies
A butter-and-oil sugar cookie with crisp edges, a tender almost cake-like center, and a crinkly cinnamon-sugar top from being pressed flat with a glass jar.
Millie Keel's Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies
A Keel family recipe — pecan-rolled, raspberry-jam-filled, double-baked. The cookie that's been on Christmas trays in our family for longer than I've been alive.
Mom's Puffed Apple Pancake
The Sunday breakfast my mom has been making since 2002. The one I learned to flip the pan for. The one I'm passing down.
Orange-Almond Buttermilk Bundt with Streusel Ribbons
A tall buttermilk Bundt with three ribbons of brown-buttered, mace-and-orange almond streusel running through it like geological layers.
Pretzel-Crust Key Lime Pie with Salted Whipped Cream
A tart, creamy key lime pie on a brown-buttered pretzel-graham crust, finished with whipped cream that leans tangy instead of sweet.
Sour Cream Apple Streusel Coffee Cake with Almond-Cardamom Crumb
A tall sour cream coffee cake with diced apple folded in and two layers of brown-buttered, cardamom-laced almond streusel running through and across the top.
Honey-Harissa Salmon with Butter Beans and Charred Scallions
Honey-harissa salmon roasted on a bed of charred scallions with crispy butter beans, tahini-yogurt drizzle, and quick-pickled shallot.
Sorghum-Vanilla Cold Brew with Salted Cream
Cold brew layered with vanilla-spiked sorghum syrup and a float of salted cream — Southern pantry roots, café-shop feeling.
Skillet Chicken Orzo with Charred Lemon and Brown-Butter Herbs
A skillet supper with buttermilk-tender chicken, leeks, a parmesan-rind broth, and charred-lemon orzo finished with brown-butter herbs.
Rye Brown-Butter Cookies with Dark Chocolate Puddles
Rye flour, brown butter, hand-chopped dark chocolate, and a touch of molasses — the chocolate chip cookie that doesn't taste like every other internet chocolate chip cookie.
Black Pepper & Strawberry Olive Oil Cake with Whipped Crème Fraîche
A buttermilk olive oil cake with cracked black pepper, finished with macerated strawberries and whipped crème fraîche.
Crispy Smashed Potatoes
Boiled until tender, smashed flat, and roasted until shatteringly crisp. The side dish that steals the show.
Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes
Tall, fluffy pancakes studded with juicy blueberries. The Sunday breakfast we make on repeat.