Roasted Asparagus

This oven roasted asparagus recipe is an easy, delicious spring side dish. The spears are tender, juicy, and flavorful. Ready in 15 minutes!

This roasted asparagus recipe is my favorite spring side dish. I love how the spears become tender, juicy, and lightly browned in the oven, with frizzled, crispy tips. I think they’re delicious straight off the baking sheet (I’ve been known to eat half a pan while putting the finishing touches on dinner…), but they’re even more flavorful with seasonings like Parmesan cheese, garlic, fresh herbs, or a squeeze of lemon juice. Another reason to love roasted asparagus? It’s so easy to make. It only bakes for about 15 minutes, meaning that you can throw it together on a weeknight or…

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Creamed Spinach

This creamed spinach recipe features tender spinach in a rich, creamy sauce. It's one of my family's favorite side dishes for holiday meals!

This creamed spinach recipe is the most luxurious way to eat your greens. Inspired by Jack’s mom’s famous creamed spinach (a staple at Thanksgiving, Easter, and other family gatherings), it’s ultra-creamy, rich, and cheesy. If you ask me, it’s just as good as any steakhouse creamed spinach…if not better. While many creamed spinach recipes call for frozen spinach, this one uses fresh. I love the silky texture of the whole, just-wilted leaves in the cream sauce. I think it makes this classic side dish feel a bit brighter and fresher. Make it for a holiday or a simple weeknight dinner.…

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How to Make Grits

Learn how to make grits with this easy recipe! We love this rich, creamy Southern dish topped with eggs, fresh veggies, or a simple pat of butter.

We’ve been on a grits kick in our house lately. Jack grew up in the South, so he has a serious soft spot for this rich, creamy corn porridge (especially when it’s loaded up with butter and cream). Through years of enjoying grits together, I’ve become a huge fan too. I shared a grits recipe in my second cookbook, but I only recently realized that I’d never posted one here. That changes now! Below, you’ll find our simple method for how to make grits, plus tips for cooking them and serving suggestions. I hope you enjoy! Ingredients You’ll Need Here’s…

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Easy Homemade Biscuits

This biscuit recipe is easy to make with 6 simple ingredients. It yields the BEST homemade biscuits—they're flaky, buttery, and delicious!

Did you know that homemade biscuits are easy to make? Well, they are! If the thought of making flaky, buttery biscuits from scratch feels impossible or intimidating to you, I hope you’ll try this easy biscuit recipe. It calls for 6 basic ingredients and comes together in about 30 minutes—no special equipment required! Jack and I both grew up eating canned biscuits (think Pillsbury). The first time we made homemade biscuits, we couldn’t believe what we’d been missing. They are simply so much better. With this biscuit recipe, they have crisp, golden brown edges and moist, tender middles. Serve them alongside…

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How to Cook Rice on the Stove

Learn how to cook perfect rice on the stove! This easy method yields fluffy white rice every time. Find my best recipe tips and serving ideas below!

Learn how to cook rice perfectly every time! Below, I’m sharing my go-to method for how to cook white rice on the stove. It’s easy to make in under 30 minutes, and it always yields tender, fluffy rice. Sooo many people think that it’s impossible to cook perfect rice on the stove. I’m on a mission to change that! While there are some common pitfalls to cooking rice, this foolproof white rice recipe is easy to master. And once you have it in your back pocket, you can quickly whip it up to serve with curries, stir fries, and more. You…

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Easy Fried Rice

Got leftover rice? This easy fried rice recipe is the best way to use it up! I mix it with veggies and eggs in this delicious Chinese-inspired dish.

I make this easy fried rice recipe whenever I have leftover rice in the fridge. If you ask me, this Chinese inspired-dish is the best way to use it up. When the dried-out rice is cooked in a hot skillet, it takes on a delicious lightly crispy texture. Mixed with veggies, scrambled eggs, and seasonings like soy sauce and sesame oil, the humble rice becomes an incredibly flavorful side dish or quick meal. I’m sharing my basic vegetable fried rice recipe at the bottom of this post, but don’t feel like you have to follow it to the letter. One…

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Homemade Flour Tortillas

These homemade flour tortillas are soft and delicious—so much better than store-bought! The recipe is easy to make with 5 simple ingredients.

These homemade flour tortillas are soft, pliable, and delicious. They’re like an entirely different food from store-bought tortillas—they’re chewier, more rustic, and far more flavorful. Try one while it’s warm from the stove. You won’t believe how good it is! I started making homemade flour tortillas years ago, back when I first moved to Austin, Texas. I imagined that it would be a major cooking project that would require special ingredients and hours in the kitchen. But to my surprise, it turned out to be incredibly simple. So simple, in fact, that I’ve made flour tortillas many, many times since. I’m sharing…

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Air Fryer Sweet Potato

Learn how to cook a perfect air fryer sweet potato with crisp skin and fluffy insides! This easy recipe is quicker than baking sweet potatoes in the oven.

By popular request: air fryer sweet potatoes! I’ve gotten a lot of questions about how to cook a sweet potato in the air fryer, so today, I’m finally sharing my go-to air fryer sweet potato recipe. It’s super simple. I use the same method that I do in my baked sweet potato recipe: Poke holes in the sweet potatoes Cook them (with no foil!) until puffed and fork-tender I won’t say that one is better than the other—oven or air fryer. Both yield perfect baked sweet potatoes with lightly crisp, puffy skins and soft, flavorful insides. But if you’re only…

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Roasted Fennel

These roasted fennel wedges are tender, sweet, and deeply caramelized. Garnished with lemon zest and/or Parmesan, they're a delicious side dish.

This roasted fennel recipe is one of my all-time favorite side dishes. I adore roasted broccoli, roasted cauliflower, and roasted carrots, but I might love roasted fennel most of all. Raw fennel has a distinct anise flavor and crunchy texture. Roasted fennel, on the other hand, is beautifully tender, almost silky. As it caramelizes in the oven, its licorice flavor transforms into something sweeter, nuttier, and richer. There’s nothing else quite like it. If you’ve never tried roasted fennel, I hope you will soon. Serve it as a side dish with any weeknight dinner, or dress it up with garnishes like lemon…

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Popovers Recipe

Made with a simple 5-ingredient batter, these popovers are light, airy, buttery, and delicious! Enjoy them plain or top them butter, honey, or jam.

I love pulling a pan of popovers out of the oven. In that moment, they’re beautifully puffed, almost lifting out of the pan. They have crisp, golden brown exteriors, and they smell like melted butter. Freshly baked popovers are pure delight. I’m sharing my favorite popover recipe below. It’s super simple (just 5 ingredients!) and SO delicious. The popovers’ crisp, golden outsides give way to airy, custardy interiors. I’m happy eating them plain, but they’re also wonderful with butter, honey, or jam. What are popovers? Popovers are light, custardy rolls. They’re made with a simple batter of eggs, milk, flour, melted butter,…

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Caesar Salad

This classic Caesar salad recipe features crisp romaine, crunchy croutons, and Parmesan cheese. A creamy, tangy homemade dressing ties it together.

This Caesar salad recipe is classic and delicious. It features a base of crisp romaine lettuce topped with crunchy croutons and plenty of shaved Parmesan cheese. A creamy, tangy homemade Caesar dressing ties it all together. I’ve shared Caesar salad recipes with extra add-ins and other twists in the past (looking at you, kale Caesar), but this classic Caesar salad is the one I make most often. I love it because the ingredients are SO simple and the creamy dressing is easy to stir together (no raw egg yolk here!). It’s the perfect side salad for dinner parties or holiday gatherings. Even…

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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.