Oven-Smoked Pastrami

Pastrami Hash

Reuben Sandwich

Celery Root Latkes with Pastrami

Savory Pastrami and Cheese Pie

Citrus Salt

Bloody Mary Salt

Porcini-Parmesan Salt

Vanilla Salt

Vanilla Extract

Basic Whipped Cream

Orange Frothy

Easy Vanilla Pudding

Orange-Vanilla Ricotta Cheesecake

Oven-Smoked Bacon

Triple-Pork Club Sandwich

Bacon-Maple Sticky Buns

Egg Yolk Ravioli (Uova da Raviolo) with Bacon-Sage Sauce

• Chile-Tamarind Trixy Stix Recipe
• Black Sesame Trixy Stix Recipe
• Yuzu Trixy Stix Recipe

• Spruce Tip Trixy Stix Recipe
• Beet-Rose Trixy Stix Recipe

Want more Cracker Jack? Read up on its history, or check out our interview with Jim Davis about his collection of antique Cracker Jack prizes.

Print your own custom CHOW serving cone

The good news is you can make your own fruit leather, and you don't need a food dehydrator to do it. Our recipes are simple: Just purée fruit with a little sweetener like honey or sugar, pour the mixture onto a nonstick baking mat, and bake. Here are our favorite flavors to get you started, but feel free to customize these recipes with a pinch of your favorite spice, or mix a couple of the purées together to create your own fruit combo.

Strawberry Fruit Leather

Honey and Apricot Fruit Leather

Apple and Raspberry Fruit Leather

Cinnamon and Pear Fruit Leather

Corn Dogs

Jalapeño-Cheese Corn "Dogs"

Mini Beer-and-Sausage Corn Dogs

Breakfast Corn Dogs

Mango and Cayenne Paletas

Halo-Halo Ice Pops

Honeydew Melon Ice Pops

Red Bean Ice Pops

Vietnamese Coffee Ice Pops

Malai Kulfi Ice Pops

Milk Tea with Tapioca Pearl Ice Pops

Mustard: ketchup's slightly less popular sidekick. When it comes to burgers, we still stick by this condiment duo. But mustard can also stand alone, lending its distinctive pungent flavor to dressings, marinades, and glazes. While some fancy store-bought mustards might seem artfully handcrafted and complex, it's quite easy—and arguably tastier—to make your own. All it takes is a few ingredients and a little time, and you'll have your personal house-made blend. So go toss out those crusty yellow squeeze bottles.

• 
  Beer and Caraway Seed Mustard
  
  Spicy Yellow Mustard
• 
  Dried Cherry Mustard
  
  Whole-Grain Dijon Mustard
• 
  French Green Bean Salad
  
  Chicken Salad Sandwich
• 
  Basic Potato Salad
  
  Soft Pretzels

Chocolate Pudding Pops

Vanilla Pudding Pops

Butterscotch Pudding Pops

Chocolate-Vanilla-Swirl Pudding Pops

Here's the thing: Vegetable chips just taste better than potato chips. This is not a subjective call. It's proven. (Not really, but we all agree, so let's say it is.) Forget all your preconceptions about vegetable chips being just a tasteless, soulless attempt to convince your brain that you're eating fatty, carby potato chips. It's much easier to convince your brain that you're eating something delicious. Because you are.

That said, don't buy veggie chips in a store. Commercial versions are often deep-fried and no more healthy than their potato or corn brethren. And you want your deliciousness to come with a healthy glow, right? The good news: Veggie chips are very easily made in your very own oven. Peel, slice, and bake. Dip and eat. Done.

• 
  Carrot Chips
  
  Basic Ranch Dressing
• 
  Taro Chips
  
  White Bean and Edamame Hummus
• 
  Sweet Potato Crisps
  
  Jalapeño-Cilantro Yogurt Spread
• 
  Kale Chips

Try these recipes instead: blocks of rich ice cream (or sorbet!) dipped in a thick coating of chocolate—tempered for a great snap. What would you do for one? (And for more icy treats, try our pudding pops!)

Chocolate-Dipped Vanilla Ice Cream Bars

Chocolate-Dipped Raspberry Sorbet Bars

Chocolate-Dipped Cookies and Cream Ice Cream Bars

Chocolate-Dipped Rocky Road Ice Cream Bars

Kimchi may taste complicated, but making it is not. Chop, brine, drain, and mix, then let time and fermentation work their magic. What you're left with is a spicy, addictive dish that's particularly healthy. While kimchi on its own is the perfect accompaniment to assertive Korean food, it also provides amazing flavor in dishes like braised short ribs, fried rice, roasted Brussels sprouts, and tofu stew.

Basic Napa Cabbage Kimchi (Kimchee)

Brussels Sprouts with Kimchi and Bacon

Kimchi-Braised Short Ribs

Kimchi and Shrimp Fried Rice

Kimchi Soft Tofu Stew (Soondubu Jjigae)

Almost 50 years later, it's time for a format change, so consider these recipes the Blu-ray of toaster pastries. We took everything we like about the idea of Pop-Tarts—delicious filling in flaky pastry with icing on top—and upgraded it to modern standards. We're not trying to kid you into thinking these are nutritious, but they certainly do taste great.

Apple-Cinnamon Pop Tarts

Double Chocolate Pop Tarts

S'mores Pop Tarts

Frosted Strawberry Pop Tarts

Brown Sugar–Cinnamon Pop Tarts

The loaded potato skin: Often found at diners and bars, but best served at television-watching events in your own home—March Madness being the most immediate candidate. We start with the basic topping: a sprinkle of bacon bits and cheese and a dollop of sour cream. You can keep the skins on their lowbrow playing field by stuffing them with barbecued chicken and coleslaw, or fancy them up with salmon, crème fraîche, and caviar. Expecting friends? Then pull out other game-day all-stars: quesadillas, chicken wings, and some finger-friendly green beans (for health, of course). The next morning, use up the leftover potato filling in a hearty breakfast potato cake.

• 
  Basic Potato Skins
  
  Philly Cheesesteak Potato Skins
• 
  Loaded Nachos Potato Skins
  
  Smoked Trout Potato Skins
• 
  Reuben Potato Skins
  
  Tuna Melt Potato Skins
• 
  Barbecue Chicken and Coleslaw
  Potato Skins
  
  Smoked Salmon, Crème Fraîche, and Caviar Potato Skins

Basic Potato Tots with Curried Ketchup

Indian-Spiced Potato Tots with
Cucumber-Yogurt Sauce

Cheesy Potato Tots with
Basic Chicken Gravy

Potato Tots Bravas with
Basic Aioli and Brava Sauce

Amaretto always makes me think of my failed teenage attempts to raid my parents' liquor cabinet. Invariably, all I'd find was an ancient bottle of almond liqueur with its cap sealed shut by sugar. And prying it open would only get me a sugar high, not a buzz.

Almond liqueur is, of course, supposed to be sweet, but most bottles are undrinkable sugar bombs full of artificial coloring and flavoring. The thing is, when this classic liqueur is made well, it really is delicious. So we decided to develop a simple recipe for making your own amaretto at home. Our version uses almonds, dried apricots, apricot kernels, and dried cherries to infuse vodka with big, almondy flavors. Then we sweeten it—just a bit—with brown sugar syrup.

The only hard part about our recipe is being patient: It takes about four weeks for the flavors to come together. But the payoff is big: You'll have a versatile liqueur suitable for gifting, mixing in cocktails, drinking straight, or baking with.

Here's our recipe for Homemade Amaretto.

And here are recipes you can use it in:
Amaretto Pound Cake
The Fedora
Cranberry Culprit
Olive Oil Cake
Amaretto Hot Chocolate

Vegans and vegetarians always seem to get the shaft on Thanksgiving, filling up their plates with starchy side dishes while everyone else attacks the turkey. The easy alternative is sliding one of those rubbery premade faux-turkey roasts out of a plastic wrapper and plunking it down on the table.

But we don't think that's good enough. Guests who don't want roasted turkey still deserve an impressive homemade main dish.

So the CHOW test kitchen set out to create a tofu "turkey" roast from scratch. After multiple tests with a variety of ingredients and techniques, we came up with a recipe that contains fresh tofu, herbs, and vegetables—stuff you can actually pronounce and find at any grocery store. We left out all the preservatives and stabilizers found in many commercial meat substitutes, loading our tofurkey up with flavorful ingredients like mushrooms, miso, and soy sauce.

And no, we did not stuff the whole thing into a turkey-shaped mold. We went the dignified route and made the tofurkey easier to bake by using a springform pan. Serve it with our vegan mushroom gravy for the full vegan holiday meal experience.

Here are our recipes for Homemade Tofurkey with Brown Rice Stuffing and Vegan Mushroom Gravy.

Fresh ricotta cheese is one of those things that seem to have a whiff of highbrow fanciness, so most people wouldn't think of making it themselves—but it's actually really easy.

How easy? Just warm some milk and cream, add vinegar and stir once, let it sit, scoop out the ricotta that floats to the top, and let the cheese strain. True ricotta is made with whey, the watery byproduct of cheesemaking. Since whey is difficult to find, our recipe uses a combination of whole milk and cream, which makes a rich, delicious-tasting homemade ricotta. And once you've made the cheese, you can do fancy things with it like make lemon ricotta pancakes. Or try any of the recipes below.

Here's our recipe for Homemade Ricotta Cheese.

And here are recipes you can use it in:
Baked Ricotta
Lemon Ricotta Pancakes
Swiss Chard Stuffed Shells
Herbed Ricotta Spread
Winter Greens Lasagne
Ricotta Gnocchi with Wild Boar Ragu
Orange-Vanilla Ricotta Cheesecake
Ricotta and Honey Tart
Tiramisu Dip