Why, hello! Leite's Culinaria is the James Beard Award-winning site that helps home cooks and bakers put dinner on the table and laughs in the kitchen. Hungry for more? Join more than 30,000 food lovers and subscribe.
The annual holiday party is coming up...and remember last year's incident with the mysterious brown dip? Let's make sure you're not THAT person this year.
Holiday Party & Potluck Appetizers
Walking into a party carrying these snacks? You'll have the same swagger as a mall Santa who knows he's rocking that velvet suit.
Artichoke hearts are an essential store-cupboard ingredient for me. This recipe is one of my favorites—delicious, quick, and simple to make, it's inspired by my mother. I always serve this at Christmastime, with toasted rosemary focaccia. It is rich, comforting, and everyone always wants the recipe.
This easy slow cooker cassoulet calls for beans, garlic, store-bought duck confit, and sausage, just like the traditional cassoulet recipe from France.
This butternut squash gratin is a lot like like a scalloped potato casserole except it's made with winter squash instead of spuds along with onions, garlic, butter, heavy cream, cheese, and bread crumbs. A simple--and simply elegant--side for Thanksgiving as well as a random weeknight.
Think of the most delicious hermit bar you ever ate, the moistest, chewiest, nicely spiced bar, with a crisp shiny top and dense center. Okay? This bar beats that one, we guarantee it. If you count molasses cookies, spice cake, or gingerbread—any of the old-fashioned, dark and spicy baked goods with their long international history—among your favorites, you’ll love these bars.
Think of these twice-baked potatoes as an easy mashed potato casserole loaded with bacon, Cheddar, sour cream, and chives. Talk about awesome game day grub or meals kids—heck, any of us—can't resist.
This wild rice with roasted chestnuts and cranberries is a healthy Thanksgiving side dish that also happens to be gluten-free. Made with dried fruits and chestnuts, it's ideal for holiday entertaining as it can be made in advance.
Who doesn’t love garlic bread? And this tear-and-share style is always a winner. I’ve written the recipe for 12 because it’s an easier quantity of dough to work with. What I like to do is make up both pans of bread, then whack one in the freezer, ready to bake another day—you won’t regret it.
These mac and cheese canapes, essentially baked mac and cheese bites, are made from macaroni and sharp Cheddar cheese and baked in mini-muffin tins. Perfect finger food for kids and adults. Cocktail party, anyone?
These IKEA Swedish meatballs, made with ground beef and pork, and served in a Dijon cream sauce, are the real deal, except you don't have to leave the house or walk through the store to enjoy them. Here's how to cook them.
Why, hello! Leite's Culinaria is the James Beard Award-winning site that helps home cooks and bakers put dinner on the table and laughs in the kitchen. Hungry for more? Join more than 30,000 food lovers and subscribe.
Hi Reader, The first truly cold day always catches me off guard. I’ll be typing away, pretending productivity, when I realize my shoulders have crept up around my ears like I’m auditioning for “The Hunchback of Roxbury.” That’s my cue - it’s soup o’clock.The One rolls his eyes when I declare it, but he knows the ritual: stock pot, wooden spoon, something starchy, something soulful. Within minutes, the kitchen fogs up like a Portuguese sauna, and the windows sweat in solidarity.I used to think...
Hi Reader, There’s a moment every December when the kitchen quietly changes its tune. Not a full-blown Hallmark movie kind of thing. More like the sigh of cinnamon, the shushing of cold butter being grated, and the faint click of a wooden spoon finding its rhythm again. That feeling is what sparked this month’s special series: My 5 Days of Classic Christmas Cooking. The story behind it A while back, I tried to make every holiday dish I’d ever loved. The show-stoppers, the old-school...
Hi Reader, Every December, I tell myself this will be the year I glide through the season like Martha-freaking-Stewart on a sleigh. I’ll bake ahead. I’ll gift-wrap like an adult. I’ll remember where I hid the presents. And yet every December, I end up standing in front of the oven at 3 AM, flour in my hair, muttering, “I hate the holidays!” And always feeling guilty. So, so guilty. (You can read all about my pathological guilt in this essay.) Still, there’s something about the glow of that...
