Food

LIMA — Alicia Thornton, dietary director at Baton Rouge Health Services, sometimes has the cards stacked against her.

LIMA — Khadijah White grew up watching her grandmother and aunts get together and make big family meals, and she was always in awe.

LIMA — Alex Moore’s mother may soon be crying the blues.

LIMA — Perfect appetizer? Check.

Here are a few recipes to whip up for Easter, whether you're looking for something gourmet to impress or something so simple the kids could prepare it.

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LIMA — Not Italian?

On a normal day, thirsty revelers easily drain two kegs of Guinness at Boston’s Black Rose tavern. Come St. Patrick’s Day — an official holiday in Bean Town — and they’ll plow thorough 55 kegs.

PARIS — The funny thing about being a food writer and cookbook author is that people think since I’m in the kitchen all day long, dinner must be a snap.

Maybe it’s the sense of danger that reels you in at first. The crazy name, the wild picture slapped on the bottle. Before you know it, you’re on for the ride, and the best ones leave you reduced to a sweaty and speechless mess. When it’s finally over, you can’t help but want more.

In winter, there’s nothing more comforting than a warm, meltingly tender bowl of beans — whether as soup, side dish or cassoulet.

Valentine’s Day is Thursday. Are you ready?

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CHICAGO — Born and bred in southern China, Fanny Go did not grow up eating egg rolls.

Having a Super Bowl party is a license to eat crazy amounts of junk food, simply put. Here are some ideas on what to serve, and some recipes — surprise! — are actually in the "healthy" category.

LOS ANGELES — Meghan and Carter are getting married. Like so many friends of my daughter, they are bright, funny and, sometimes, almost preternaturally serious. A couple of weeks ago, they asked my wife if we would talk to them about how to stay married — and about how to cook.

In the fall of 2011, local cookbook author Judith Fertig took on an ambitious assignment: Write a book of cinnamon roll recipes in 60 days.

I’ll cook, you clean. That’s something single folks don’t get to say unless they’re hanging out with friends. When the sole beneficiary of your kitchen time is looking back at you in the mirror, you become cook and dishwasher in one.

The best way to keep warm this holiday season is with a festive twist on the nog and toddy. Rich, frothy homemade eggnog can be so decadent, you’ll likely forget about dessert. And hot toddies are so easy — they’re nothing more than booze + hot water + sweetener — it’s no wonder they’re just what the mixologist ordered to keep your insides toasty.

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Put Nancy Baggett’s “au naturel” holiday cookies next to more-traditional ones, and the difference is hard to miss. Her cookies whisper with soft pastels; the others shout.

No holiday food is more ridiculed than the fruitcake.

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We’re officially in holiday party season.

Does this ever happen to you? A food-porn image leaps off the pages of a magazine and imbeds itself into your cortex. Before you know it, you’re scrupulously following the recipe’s every word. Yet despite your best efforts, the finished product isn’t a twin of the one that appeared in the magazine. It’s more like a second cousin, from the ugly side of the family.

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One of the most commonly repeated assertions made by American home cooks might often be the most untrue: “I make a mean chili.”

LIMA — When Tammy Point was in the Navy and stationed in Hawaii — try to choke down your envy — she bought a boxed carrot cake mix on a whim one day. On the back of that box was a recipe that she has made her own over the years.

LIMA — Steve Maki has long enjoyed grilling, but a chance happening opened his eyes to gourmet possibilities.