5 Ingredients or Fewer

You can use regular lemonade to make this Southern refresher, but we like to use the tart Italian Limonata made by San Pellegrino (it’s available in most grocery stores).

Gina: When it comes to hanging with our girls, no place beats our kitchen. Shelbi and Spenser love to cook, have always enjoyed spending time in the kitchen, from an early age. Shelbi in particular loves to bake, and these delicate butter cookies are one of her (and our) favorites. As I often mention on our show, I am a big collector of all things piggy, and if you come for a visit in my kitchen you’ll see HOW BIG! You can cut these cookies into any shape you choose, but in our house we choose to cut them into the shape of a—oink, oink—pig (pig cutter shapes can be found online or at specialty baking stores).

Tony: One of the most important skills for any grill master is knowing when a cut of meat is cooked to the desired temperature. This is particularly important when it comes to pork chops, because they can dry out quickly if they’re overcooked. Technology has made this easier, with the advent of instant-read meat thermometers, but Lord knows we’ve all been in situations where the thermometer has gone missing, and then what happened? Dad burned the chop! Which is why we recommend all cooks acquaint themselves with the Neely “feel test.” Gina: Tony’s just like Pat, always feelin’ things in the kitchen. I tease all the brothers about this, call them the “Feely Neelys.” And this is supposed to be a family cookbook! Tony: Most of us rely on sight and smell in the kitchen, Gina, but you gotta learn to feel as well, especially when grillin’. One surefire way of testing chops and steaks for doneness is our feel test, and it couldn’t be easier to master: All you need is a hand and a finger. Here’s what you do: Relax your left hand and turn it palm-side up. Now take the index finger of your right hand and poke at the soft area of flesh below the thumb on the left hand. Note the give in the flesh. That’s how a cut of meat with an internal temperature of rare (cool, red center) will feel. Now open up your palm, extending the fingers on your left hand. Again, take the index finger of your right hand and poke at the area of flesh below the thumb on the left hand. The flesh will be somewhat tauter, but it will still have some give. That’s how a cut of meat with an internal temperature of medium (warm, pink center) will feel. Now stretch the fingers on your left hand as far as they will go, tightening the hand and fingers as if they were a rubber band stretched to capacity. Again, take the index finger of your right hand and poke at the area of flesh below the thumb. See how tight that is, how little give there is. That’s a well-done steak. So there you have it: Rare feels fleshy, medium is taut but still has some give, and well done is tight as a drum. Next time your steak is on the grill, give it a poke. Gina: You can even poke at your gal, tell her you’re practicing (but make sure you say that her backside is tight as a drum)!

Gina: I’m always surprised to discover that folks in these parts tend to cook turnip and mustard greens more often than collard greens. I think the perception is that collards tend to be a little bitter. But I gotta tell you, you’re sleeping on this one! Rich in vitamins and nutrients, collard greens are actually the sweetest, best-tasting leaves you can buy (turnip and mustard greens, on the other hand, have a slightly spicy, peppery taste). In this recipe, the deep, full flavor of the collard greens along with a bit of sugar and some heat from the red-pepper flakes create an irresistible sweet-and-hot pot of goodness, while the ham hocks add a note of smoke that balances out the other flavors. Pat can’t get enough of these sweet greens. Trust me on this one, ladies—this is the recipe that’ll bring your man home every night! Five bunches of collards might seem like a lot of greens, but these jokers will cook down to a fraction of their original size.

Gina: These crispy crackers—cheese, nuts, and a serious visit from the spice fairy—are my kind of snack. I like this recipe because it makes several logs of dough, giving me a few to bake off now and a few more to have in the freezer, for the next time guests stop by. These crisps are the perfect holiday appetizer, when folks are overloaded on sweets and craving a savory snack to have with their drinks.

Thermometers—whether the instant-reading type used for meat, the large-dial models used to measure the temperature of oil for frying, or those used to test an oven’s temperature—are key tools to have in the kitchen. Why twice-fried potatoes? The first cooking, at a lower temperature, cooks the potato fully, and the second frying, at a higher temperature, makes a delicious crunchy crust. This comes in handy if you want to make the dish for company—the first frying can be done several hours in advance, and the second cooking takes only 5 minutes or so.

Make sure the radishes you choose are roughly the same size and have healthy-looking greens attached. If you find baby turnips in your supermarket or farmers’ market , try them the same way. These radishes go very well with the Veal Chops Stuffed with Taleggio and Broccoli on page 220 or the Chicken Breast Valdostana on page 271.

If you are lucky, you own a mandoline (a professional chef’s tool that makes slicing vegetables thin an easy chore) or even an old-fashioned coleslaw slicer. If not, shred the cabbage as thin as you can with a good sharp knife. The amount of salt you use depends on your taste and your cabbage. This makes a great winter salad, by itself or tossed together with salad greens.

You can enjoy this dish slightly brothy, or lightly caramelized by continuing to simmer the fennel after it is tender, until all the stock evaporates. If you are serving the fennel with a grilled piece of fish or meat, keep it nice and juicy. On the other hand, if you are serving the fennel as a contorno with a piece of meat or fish that has its own sauce, then cook off the liquid and serve the fennel dry.

Sometimes you see broccoli rabe cut into little pieces, but I like to serve the whole stems with the leaves attached. If you peel and trim them the way I describe below, the stalks will cook at about the same rate as the leaves. Broccoli rabe is a vegetable I like al dente. By that I don’t mean really crunchy, but with some texture left to it.