Easy

One of the few vodka-based tiki drinks.

A Confederacy of Dunces (1980)
By John Kennedy Toole Originally handwritten on piles of paper, A Confederacy of Dunces found life only after its author lost his own; John Kennedy Toole committed suicide, his mother found those secret pages, and she began hawking the thing around their home state of Louisiana, claiming it was the next great American novel. (Sorry, guys: sometimes moms are right.) Now a universally adored Pulitzer-winner starring a brilliant New Orleans nut with a heart of odd, this classic goes best with another: the Big Easy's own Sazerac. Raise a glass to the tragically shortchanged Toole—and everything else he might have written.

You could spoon the first layer into the molds after the ice cream has churned. To finish, combine an additional 1 1/2 cups (350 ml) ice cream with the coffee essence and whiskey and fill the molds.

Use the whole mint sprigs, stalks included, for a good minty hit.

Tex-Mex Perfection for Everyone. Our Fajitas recipe relies on GOYA® Mojo Criollo as a flavorful marinade that delivers juicy, tender meat, and GOYA® Flour Tortillas for a pocket everyone can pick up.

I encourage rolling up your sleeves and using your hands to mix these spices—it helps to capture a feeling of nostalgia for cooking.

This is one of my pantry staples; you'll find it in many of the recipes throughout this book. It makes for a super-easy sauce on its own, or you can mix it with lemon juice or vinegar to create a great dressing in less than a minute. Whenever almonds are on sale at the local store, I grab a few bags and make big batches, freezing some for future use. Each time you use this oil, make sure to grab an even proportion of oil to almonds so that you don't end up with a lopsided ratio.

This is simply one of my favorite dishes, and it has a legendary place in the history of my marriage. My wife was not a fan of the vegetable—or of any vegetable. Fan might not be the right word. It's not that she just didn't like them; she actively campaigned against them, prosecuting them, all guilty as charged, although on scant evidence. It was this simple dish that got her to at least begin to consider laying down her sword. The crisp texture, the smoky, charred burn, the transparency of the whole process got her to let her guard down. And now it is a staple. So you might say that this recipe is a gateway vegetable. Other kale varieties are fine for this, but lacinato is the only variety that crisps rather than wilts, allowing you to get great texture very quickly. This is wonderful with a little Chunky Almond Oil drizzled over the top.

Fish deserve some salty foreplay just as much as pork and poultry. Every type of seafood is different in terms of density of the flesh, so different brine times are needed for different fish.

Kick off your Independence Day bash with a patriotic take on homemade chips featuring baking potatoes, purple potatoes, and beets that are sliced and then fried into a hot, crispy red, white, and blue snack. Gather your ingredients and check out our tips on the dos and don'ts of deep-frying.

This salad can be made with raw fava beans, as long as they're especially fresh. But blanching them quickly makes them much easier to peel.

If you don't have a punch bowl, do what van Boven does: "Use a big glass vase—it's nice and tall and doesn't take up too much space on your table."

Parcooking in vinegar water helps set the starches so the potatoes get crisp, rather than floury, when roasted.

We love a classic pesto Genovese. But why be limited to basil? Swapping in flat-leaf parsley makes for a balanced sauce that allows you to really taste the nuts, the olive oil, the Parmesan. Sturdy parsley is also easier to find year-round (and more affordable) than basil. Use this sauce as you would any pesto: spooned over grilled vegetables, spread on a sandwich, and, yes, swirled into pasta. Bonus: Parsley pesto holds its vibrant color much longer than the other stuff.

For a zippier, more refreshing cocktail (that's what summer drinks are about, right?), it's all in the wrist. Muddling extracts essential oils to deliver maximum herb impact. Tarragon flavors the boozy lemonade here, but basil makes an excellent sub. And while muddled mint is essential to a Mojito, you won't believe what it can add to a Margarita. Shake up a few and see.

"I like the fact that just three or four main ingredients can make a smashing result," says van Boven about this sweet and crunchy salad.

Gently heating chives— or almost any herb—in oil creates a concentrated, Technicolor elixir that's a favorite weapon of restaurant chefs: It's ideal for whisking into vinaigrettes and drizzling over fish, scrambled eggs, or ricotta crostini.

For the quick pickles, try using other crisp vegetables, such as radishes, celery, or fennel.