That’s right, I said delicious cafeteria meals. Back in my elementary years (waaay back in the 80s), a half-dozen seasoned veteran cooks arrived at the cafeteria every morning to start kneading dough, slicing apples, simmering green beans, and patting out hamburgers. Every meal was made by hand – from an actual recipe. They put the love in, and I swear you could taste it.

These days, school lunches are largely comprised of conveniently-packaged components. My son arrived at the table that day with a paper tray of chicken nuggets, a packet of cotton candy-flavored yogurt, a plastic baggie of apple slices, and a box of milk. Not an unhealthy meal, but just so very… contrived.

I don’t know how you put the love into a tube of Gogurt. So unfortunately for my own kids, they’ll have to get their home-cooked meals exclusively at home. Meals like this baked spaghetti, one of my favorite cafeteria staples, and an easy, retro casserole that’s perfect for weeknights.

My favorite brands of prepared marinara sauce: Rao’s, Giada de Laurentiis (available at Target), Trader Joe’s, Barilla. In that order.

Yes, my Tar Heel roots go down to the bedrock, so it should come as no surprise that I was well into my teens before I realized eastern North Carolina barbecue – which is smoked whole hog, pulled and served with a spicy vinegar sauce – isn’t the only kind. That the bottled “barbecue sauce” sold at the grocery store was some kind of gloppy, ketchupy stuff, and obviously in no way related to what I called barbecue, was one of those anomalies in life that children are so good at ignoring.

Since then I’ve traveled all over the US, and tasted a lot of regional barbecues. Texas, Tennessee, South Carolina, even western North Carolina - they’ve all got their own style. But I’ll take eastern North Carolina’s ‘cue any day of the week. The spicy tang of vinegar sauce turns smoked pulled meat into something sublime.

Traditional eastern NC barbecue is whole smoked hog. Period. That being said, this sauce is just as delicious on pulled pork butt, chicken, or even turkey. This recipe uses chicken breasts, brined and grilled.

Traditional eastern NC barbecue sauce does not contain apple juice, butter or Dijon mustard, and it uses red pepper flakes instead of cayenne pepper. That being said, this stuff is delicious.

Unfortunately, this isn’t one of those dishes that makes it seem like you spent hours in the kitchen. Depending on your knife skills, you may actually end up clocking over an hour of prep time, in addition to the hour-plus it spends simmering away in the oven and on the stove. The good news, as Ms. Child also aptly points out, is that you can make this dish in advance and reheat it when you’re ready to serve. In fact, that’s the best way to do it because, like good love and good wine, bourguignon only gets better with time.

Don’t stress over what wine to use in this dish – any red wine that’s not sweet will work nicely. I personally like something really dark and rich… so Malbec, Zinfandel, or Petite Sirah are all good choices.

When you read through this recipe, you’ll notice there’s a little fireworks show involving some Cognac (I recommend Hennessey VSOP) and a lighter. Don’t be scared. But I do recommend you make sure your fire extinguisher is nearby and hasn’t expired. Come to think of it, that’s a good idea even when you’re not lighting a pot of alcohol on fire.

One more thing: grocery stores, at least in my neck of the woods, tend to only carry frozen pearl onions during the holidays. I have no idea why. You can always peel fresh pearl onions, or you can leave them out.

One of my favorite dining stops in the Happiest Place on Earth is Boma – Flavors of Africa at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. One of their most popular dishes is a luscious chicken and corn chowder. (There’s nothing particularly African about this dish, but let’s be honest, there’s not a whole lot that’s particularly African about Boma.)

I grabbed the recipe on the internet and made a batch, then tweaked it to my liking (mostly in the form of a big handful of fresh Parmesan). It’s guaranteed to warm you up on a cold rainy day.

Something about the simple goodness of baked eggs makes me picture sitting at my breakfast table 30 years from now, enjoying them with my husband as we sip coffee, read a newspaper, and quietly muse about our highly successful children, our delightful grandchildren, and our upcoming stay at our vacation home in the French countryside.  (I realize there are a lot of big presumptions in that daydream…. the biggest of which is that there will still be newspapers in 30 years.)

Like nearly all simple recipes, this one is really easy to mess up. The tricky part is the cooking time, because if you do it right, the eggs will NOT look at all done when you pull them out. Watch them closely, and when the egg white has almost completely set, pull it. I assure you, if you wait until it looks ready, you’ll be smearing crumbly egg yolks on your toast sure as I’m standing here.

Individual gratin dishes are the ideal vessel for this recipe. A wide, shallow dish allows for quicker, more even cooking, and allows you to spread the herb mixture and brown it over a larger surface area. But use what you have – custard cups or other types of ramekins will work fine.

This morning I was greeted by a big ugly pile of newly blackened bananas, and I knew by the afternoon my house would be filled with the intoxicating aroma of fresh-baked banana bread.

Speaking of intoxicating, what could possibly make banana bread better?

How about bourbon? A little bourbon makes a lot of things better. And a lot of bourbon makes everything better.

I like using Maker’s Mark for this recipe because it’s smoother and sweeter than average. Woodford Reserve is also a very fine choice. Feel free to use your favorite, just keep it around 80-90 proof.

British food is often derided for being too heavy, but it’s hearty for good reason. Until recently (recently, at least, in the context of human history), the people of the British Isles depended on that calorie-rich food for the energy and extra fat reserves they needed to survive in their famously chilly, damp climate.

But these days, most of us could probably do without the extra padding. So I love this light version of my personal favorite British dish, Bangers and Mash. Chicken sausages can cut out as much as half the calories and about 80% of the fat versus pork sausages, and the lightened-up potatoes have a delicious mustardy kick.

Cheers!

Not just any cake recipe will do when you’re making a specialty cake. It has to be dense, slice cleanly, and provide a strong, stable foundation for your decorations. Most sponge cakes are too soft or light to hold up well, so I prefer cakes whose consistency is more like a pound cake.

I like to keep the flavors simple when I’m serving a big crowd. I’ve never had anyone turn down vanilla or chocolate, so I just stick with those basics.

Here are my favorite recipes for specialty cakes:

Deep Dark Chocolate Cake – If your cake is going to require a lot of sculpting, leave out the chocolate chips.

Vanilla Pound Cake

Mixing Tips

- Use fresh ingredients that are at room temperature (take out of the refrigerator at least an hour before you begin.) Check out my list of favorite ingredients.

- Be precise. A “little of this, little of that” attitude is usually fine when you’re cooking, but baking is an exact science.

- Beat the heck out of it when you’re creaming the butter and sugar. This step whips air into the mixture, which will make the cake lighter when it bakes.  But once you start adding flour or liquids, mix only as much as needed to fully incorporate all the ingredients. Over-mixing can make the cake too heavy.

- Stir together all the dry ingredients before mixing them into the wet. This ensures that they are evenly distributed with minimum mixing.

- Scrape down the bowl, scrape down the bowl, scrape down the bowl.

- Lick the bowl. You only live once.

Baking Tips

- Make sure your pans are non-stick and well-prepped. I use Pam for Baking for this and I won’t use anything else. It allows me to skip the tedious process of buttering and flouring, and I’ve never had a cake stick when I used it.

- For (almost) perfectly flat cake tops, there’s no substitute for baking strips. They’re insulated strips that wrap around your pans and keep the edges from cooking before the middle can catch up. The ones that attach with velcro are easier to use.

- Oven temperature can make or break your cakes. Get an oven thermometer if you’re not certain the temperature is correct.

- Don’t open the oven door before the minimum baking time has elapsed. You’re letting out a lot of heat when you open that door, and fluctuating temperatures can kill your cake.

- Let the cake cool in the pan a bit before you remove it. It’s too fragile when it’s piping hot from the oven.

Some Cake Bible beaters might say starting with a boxed mix is cheating.

Their loss.

I’ve got some favorite brands that I always use in this cake. I think it makes a big difference in the final result.

- Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix
- Jell-O Instant Pudding, Devil’s Food flavor
- Daisy Light Sour Cream
- Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Baking Chips

Okay, so maybe a big plate of creamy pasta isn’t something you’d chow down on every night, but that’s all the more reason to make it fabulous, right? And this one’s got it all: Indulgently thick, wide pappardelle pasta… Check. Creamy gorgonzola sauce… Check. Meaty, flavorful baby portobellos… check. Salty, chewy country ham… check. The nutty crunch of toasted walnuts… Check.

So pour yourself a big glass of chardonnay and enjoy. You can think about how to work it off in the morning.