Easy

When we're not drinking Manhattans, we'll take an Old Pal. Usually made with rye, we prefer it with bourbon (the higher the proof, the better).

American cheese gives this classic from Arnold's its melty consistency.

Chopped walnuts nicely complement the rich walnut oil in the dressing.

Tie 3 rosemary sprigs together with kitchen twine and use as a brush to slather this fragrant honey over everything from biscuits to chicken.

A bit of salty country ham goes a long way in this quick greens sauté.

Puttanesca isn't just for pasta. Anchovies and olives punch up a sauce hearty enough to stand up to meat or fish.

This sweet-tea cocktail from the Patterson House includes lime juice and honey for a modern front-porch favorite.

A rich dose of stout adds big flavor to these fudgy, chocolate-glazed brownies.

A&M: Teresa wrote: "Seems to me beets and oranges are a classic winter salad combination that you see everywhere." But this is no run-of-the-mill beet and orange salad. Teresa explained, "My friend Sophie's dad, Jim Broderick, gave me the idea that really makes this salad great: fennel and orange rind in the dressing." She's right: this trick gives her winter salad lift and fragrance and makes you want to keep eating it.

A&M: This may be the most thoughtful sautéed greens recipe we've ever encountered. Beet greens (we agree with Marissa Grace that they deserve more attention in the kitchen) are usually wilted in hot olive oil with a little garlic, and they're delicious this way, but Marissa Grace plotted out ways to amplify the greens’ sweetness while tempering it with chiles. She has you brown garlic with shallot and red pepper flakes, then layer in sugar, black pepper, and salt before adding the greens and wilting them. Just before serving, you splash the beet greens with sherry vinegar, which electrifies the whole dish. The key here is the sugar, which caramelizes with the garlic and tightens up the sauce, so by the time the greens are cooked (and beet greens really should be cooked), it wraps them in a cloak of sweet and fiery sauce.

A&M: When Amy N-B told her husband that she came up with this dish as an homage to a simple French peasant dinner, he teased her: "What peasants eat Bucheron cheese and drink Muscadet with their beets?" "Um, French ones?" Well, in our next life, we'd like to be French peasants, or at least eat like them. We have a soft spot for beet recipes that utilize both the sweet root and minerally tops. Here, Amy N-B has you caramelize slices of yellow and red beets (we used four large beets total; might do three next time) and then add a mix of beet tops and Swiss chard, cooking them just enough to wilt. You'll love the dish at this point, but you'll be riveted if you serve it with a soft Bucheron and good country bread.

This dip is a perennial hit. The last time I made it guests practically licked the bowl.

On their own, roasted mushrooms are golden, buttery, and delicious, but we've gone a step further and jazzed them up by showering them with a blanket of crunchy, chile-flecked breadcrumbs.

A porterhouse is the perfect steak for two to share because it contains good-sized portions of two of the most prized muscles in a steer, each located on either side of the center bone. The top loin, the larger of the two, is the same piece of gorgeous meat as that steakhouse staple, the New York strip. The tenderloin, attached to the other side of the bone, may be smaller, but it's a much larger portion (technically, it has to be 1 1/4-inches in diameter) than you get in a T-bone steak. If you can find dry aged, try it. It's a bit more expensive but yields more tender and flavorful meat. We pan-roast the steak with the Tuscan stalwarts of garlic, rosemary, and thyme, then serve it with a velvety red wine reduction.

This is part of the recipe Chicken Wings Five Ways.

This is part of the recipe Chicken Wings Five Ways.

This is part of the recipe Chicken Wings Five Ways.

This is part of the recipe Chicken Wings Five Ways.

Editor's note: Chef Donald Link of New Orleans restaurants Cochon and Herbsaint, shared this recipe as part of a special Mardi Gras celebration he created for Epicurious. Use the spice mix to make his Link Family Crawfish Boil. When I'm at home and want to cook something quick and easy, I love having this blend in my cabinet so I don't have to fish out a bunch of spices. There is no salt in this mix, so be sure to add salt to whatever you are cooking. (I do the salt separately because some food needs more of it than others.) I use this mix for everything from fish fillets to jambalaya.
For the record, I let a few people call me Donnie—my cousin Billy Boy, Richard Reddington, Grandma Hammack, and my coauthor, Paula. It was the latter who named this recipe.