Sure, sandwiches from the grocery store don't exactly have a reputation for being the tastiest kind. Make that a sandwich from a grocery store that used to be a gas station, and you might want to run the other way. But Nancy shows how one turkey club sandwich from Pensacola, FL, might just change your mind.

Sometimes, sandwiches taste better when they're totally unexpected — for instance, served at a grocery store in an old gas station in Florida. Equally unexpected: finding forgotten, six-month-old photos on my laptop that are making my mouth water all over again.

See the pictures — and more — when you keep reading.

We bet you've never seen garlic like this before. Thanks to Fresh Tart's baked garlic recipe that comes with fresh herbs and zesty cheese, you'll have yourself a popular party appetizer that's guaranteed to be a hit.

I'll confess: I meant to get this recipe to you before New Year's Eve. But in the crush of the holidays, and illness, it did not happen and . . . well, Happy New Year? The good news is that New Year's Eve is not the only Winter night to invite friends over for dinner, and this easy appetizer is meant to share with friends.

This is a pretty old school recipe at this point, given roasted garlic's heyday (perhaps even Kardashian-level overexposure?) around the turn of this century. I think it's fair to say that we all know that garlic becomes gorgeously sweet and spreadable when roasted; but add fresh herbs, tangy cheese, and a splash of broth and you create a rich swiping sauce that elevates it to a party food that stands the test of time.

Find out the origins of the recipe — and more — when you keep reading.

We're all about working smarter, not harder, so naturally we're smitten with Fresh Tart's ideas for transforming one meal into many different enticing treats throughout the week.

I've written before about the beauty of braising a pork shoulder one day, then crafting several meals from it as the week wears on. This version is more basic than the Pork Braised with Chiles & Cinnamon, which means you can eat it even more ways. Seasoned with onions, garlic, salt, and pepper, the finished roast can be eaten as is with its rich pan juices. (Mashed potatoes would be a perfect accompaniment.)

Then the next day you can warm some of the pork with hoisin sauce and roll it in lettuce leaves with rice, scallions, pickled vegetables or kimchi, and a dab of chile sauce. Or ginger scallion sauce. Oh my goodness YES.

Keep reading for two more ideas of how to make the most of a batch of braised pork shoulder and the recipe.

If you're anything like us, the shadow of holiday indulgences past has led to an increased desire for lighter fare as of late. Thankfully, blogger Fresh Tart has come to the rescue with a dreamy (yet light) mushroom soup that is practically tailor-made for these blustery Winter days.
Happy New Year! It's time for vegetables! I know that I don't really need to explain why, given universal post-holiday puffiness and such. For me, all sorts of high-carbohydrate, gluten-free grainy flours made their way into my diet and while festive, I certainly noticed how 1) tired, and 2) starving it all made me feel. Sometimes it takes little reminders that what works best — and for me that's not just gluten-free, but primarily grain-free eating — is exactly what works best.

As a bonus, all of the foods that make me feel and look like myself — high quality meats, fish, vegetables, eggs, nuts, fats, and small amounts of dairy and fruit — are all of my favorite foods anyhow.

So 2013, let's lead off with soup! I'll confess I didn't plan this one out, it sort of made itself out of the fridge. I'm quite sure that you could use vegetable broth, and skip the chicken, and enjoy this as a vegetarian treat. Dried porcini mushrooms make the broth — and everything — delectably meaty, for very little effort. When you're making up a soup, keep in mind that the most satisfying soups are texturally layered — this version is brimming with tender chicken, chewy mushrooms, crisp broccoli, with crunchy nuts to finish. That's how I like it! Kablam!

Keep reading for the recipe.

French toast is usually sweet, but blogger Fresh Tart experiments with a savory version, served with a rich, creamy mushroom sauce.

I couldn't eat much of anything this terrible, sad weekend, but as my desire to cook has slowly returned, I'm turning to comfort foods. I made pan-seared steaks with a dried-and-fresh-mushroom pan sauce, and it was just really nice to serve John and Nathan one of their favorite meals.

I made a good amount of the mushroom sauce with savory french toast in the back of my mind. If you only enjoy french toast for breakfast, you're missing out on a terrific and fast lunch or dinner. I used gluten-free bread for the pic (and my stomach), but if I could eat gluten, I'd use challah. Any type of bread works nicely, though, really whatever you have on hand. Because that's the point — savory french toast is a filling, comforting base for leftovers of almost any type, to put on the table quickly.

If you're not a mushroom fan, try spinach sautéed with garlic, perhaps with a spot of sausage in the mix as well, perhaps with a pinch of red pepper flakes. Or thin slices of ham and a spoonful of braised beans. Or roasted squash and fried sage leaves. Or in the Summer, slices of ripe tomato and crispy bacon. (Best. Thing. Ever.) French toast is rich, so a touch of acid and a shower of black pepper strike a delicious balance.

In case you ARE a mushroom fan, the sauce below is a terrific finish for any pan-seared meat that leaves lovely, crusty drippings behind: chicken, steaks, lamb, venison, veal, pork. Just stir in the completed sauce into the hot pan juices, scraping the pan while simmering for a couple of minutes. That's it. However, the sauce is also rich and flavorful on its own, thanks to the beauty of dried wild mushrooms. And sherry. And butter.

See the recipe when you read more.

What to bake when you prefer the salty over the sweet? And you're busy? And you can't eat gluten? Fresh Tart has an answer: almond triangle cookies.

As a gift to the baker, these are bar cookies, which Minnesotans know are the most magical (and easy!) of all. Other than allowing time for the shortbread crust to chill before baking, they come together in minutes. After they cool for awhile, cut them into tidy triangles, pour yourself a glass of milk, and dig in.

Despite their simplicity, the triangles are elegant on a cookie plate AND disappear blessedly quickly. You can focus on how nutritious almonds are to lull yourself into cookie complacency, but a cookie isn't Christmas without a hearty dose of butter and sugar, and these are no exception.

For the recipe, check out Fresh Tart, and then be sure to share your food photos in the YumSugar Community or by starting your own blog. If you're on Instagram, then chime in on the conversation with the hashtag #savorysight.

For a new spin on hummus, take note of Food Orleans's blog and swap out butter beans for standard chickpeas.

I started making hummus from scratch last year, when I discovered the organic dried chickpeas in bulk at the neighborhood Rouse's. I love to make it, but let's be honest: chickpeas take forever to cook, especially when you want them really soft, for hummus. But you can make a serviceable hummus out of just about any dried bean or pea: black-eyed peas, lima beans, black beans . . . and butter beans! While all of these might be tasty, the prettiest ones are going to be made from white or very light-colored beans. I've made black bean hummus before, and it turns out kind of blue-gray. Not untasty but not winning any beauty contests.

Butter beans, a.k.a. large limas, are perfect for making a from-scratch hummus, because they cook very quickly — just about 45 minutes in gently boiling water. You can also use canned, of course, just as you would use canned chickpeas for hummus. I like the fact that butter beans are a Southern cooking staple, too. Try some! 

Use your own favorite hummus recipe, or if you don't have one, here are some amounts to get you started.

Keep reading for the easy yet enticing recipe.

Update your bagel and lox breakfast routine with this smoked salmon breakfast pizza from Food Orleans.

This super-easy tortilla pizza is a spin on a quick snack we make often around here, usually with pepperoni and mozzarella, but it makes a tasty breakfast when you've got some lox to rock out. To make a pepperoni or other kind of pizza, use the tortilla-crisping method described here, then return to the oven after topping the pizza until the cheese melts and everything's hot.

See the recipe after the break.

If you've ever wondered what other countries serve gingerbread cake, la ménagère débutante (French for "the domestic novice") takes on a Swedish spice cake called mjuk pepparkaka. We've translated the recipe and the measurements for you, so you can enjoy the spice-enriched cake here in the States.

One of my favorite traditional sweets of the holiday season is gingerbread. The mixture of sweet and exotic spices, in my opinion, is one of the most comforting flavors available. Enjoyed with a cup of full-bodied coffee, this is the ideal treatment to combat the darkness and chill of December.

Each Nordic country has a similar cake in its repertoire, but the version that I present today is found mainly in Sweden. Although the cake alone is tasty during a coffee break (or fika in Swedish), it is traditionally served with whipped cream and lingonberry jam. This cake is simply divine.

For a more Norwegian or Danish take, bake it in the heart-shaped mold, sold at Ikea and decorate it by drawing a border all around with buttercream or cream cheese icing. Then, pipe God Jul! (Swedish for "Merry Christmas!") in the center.

Keep reading for her moist spice cake recipe.

Life Above the Clouds combines pumpkin and Nutella for a cookie match made in heaven.

Wowie kazowie these are delicious! They're little clouds of pumpkin cookies (that are so soft I'll almost call them cake) with Nutella swirled throughout. And let's face it, Nutella makes anything better; but it's not too sweet or overwhelming. Yum yum yum!

For the whole story (and the recipe), check out her blog, and then be sure to share your food photos through our Savory Sights community group or by starting your own blog. If you're on Instagram, chime in on the conversation with the hashtag #savorysight.

Hosting any vegetarians at this year's Thanksgiving? Serve mushroom gravy from Food Orleans in addition to the traditional turkey fixings, so they're not left out of the best part of the day.

Mushroom gravy is one of my favorite things to make, because even though it's gravy, it's so full of mushrooms that it almost counts as another vegetable. I make this sauce often, when we're eating mashed potatoes, steaks, or pork chops, or sometimes even for burgers or baked potatoes. It's highly adaptable and suitable for all of your gravying needs — as long as you like mushrooms.

Keep reading for the umami-packed gravy recipe.

With all of their intricate crimps and folds, dumplings like potstickers can seem intimidating to the home cook. Luckily, Food Orleans demonstrates that while these pretty little packages may be time-consuming, they can be made at home with relative ease. Try her Cajun spin on the Asian nibble, or follow her step-by-step photos using your filling of choice.

Paul and I love to eat treats! Anything small, bite-sized, warm, and savory pretty much does the trick. And the best thing about these potstickers is that they're easy to cook—really, really easy. You have to be in a bit of a crafting mood to fill them and pleat their little edges, but the cooking itself is easy-peasy.

Normally, potstickers are filled with raw pork or shrimp and cabbage, and the filling gets cooked as the dumplings steam. . . but I always have trouble getting the filling to cook through before the wonton wrappers become sad little soggy flaps. Using a cooked filling, such as boudin (sausage made from minced pork and rice), solves the cooking problem PLUS makes great use of local ingredients, or even leftovers. If you don't have boudin or greens, or don't like one or both of those things, use other cooked meats, seafood, or vegetables. Just make sure everything is chopped really fine before stuffing the potstickers.

Keep reading for step-by-step photos and the recipe.

Nostalgia is a funny thing; foods that we'd typically turn up our nose at can seem weirdly appealing, thanks to happy memories. Rather than dine on a subpar meal in the name of authenticity, Food Orleans did it one better and revamped a childhood lunch-line favorite: hearty beef goulash.

Goulash is a dish that Paul and I have radically different memories of. I grew up eating the 1970's school-lunch version known as "Goulash Supreme," which consisted of soggy macaroni, bland ground beef, and stewed tomatoes. I should point out here that when I was a kid, I actually liked it. And that it's pretty much the only thing called "goulash" I remember eating, ever, anywhere. And that I'm ready for a better goulash to take its place in my life.

Keep reading for her improved-upon recipe.

When life gives you parsley, make like Fresh Tart and whip up a batch of quinoa tabbouleh.

While the rest of my garden is toast, the parsley lives on, just begging me to make tabbouleh salad. Except tabbouleh is made with bulgur, which is wheat, which I can't eat. Damn it!
Enter quinoa, the grain that is conveniently a gluten-free seed, hey. I'm not as obsessed with quinoa as some, but in a salad like this, its nutty crunchiness is perfectly tabboulehesque...in fact, you would likely not realize you weren't eating traditional tabbouleh salad if someone (like me) didn't point it out.

And except for all the substitutions I made, because that is one of the best things about tabbouleh — it welcomes just about any vegetable or nut you have knocking around in your kitchen. Zucchini not cucumbers? Fine! Roasted red peppers instead of tomatoes? Lovely! Pistachios in place of pine nuts? Great!

No matter the salad ingredients, I always add lemon zest, toasted cumin and coriander seeds, and toasted sesame oil to the dressing to really pop the flavor. The recipe below is vegan, but feel free to cook the quinoa in chicken stock, or toss in crumbled feta cheese and/or pieces of tender chicken for further popping.

Keep reading for her recipe.

We've all been there: stuck with a pot of leftover beans, and out of ideas. Luckily, Food Orleans has come to the rescue with a hearty breakfast that upcycles the languishing legume.

The beantime is, I've decided, that stretch of days after making a giant pot of red beans during which this debate is always on your mind: Do I freeze them? Keep eating bowls of beans and rice? Or think of some interesting things to do with them?  Usually, in our house, we freeze a portion and keep eating red beans at every meal, in some form.  Burritos made from red beans, rice, and cheese, or a quesadilla with red beans, cilantro, and pepper jack are two common things we use them for, but huevos rancheros is undoubtedly my favorite. Plus you can eat it any old time of day!  It's a super-easy dish to make, and I've got a couple lil' twists to share.

First, turn your red beans into "refried" beans: place them in a wide-mouthed pot or skillet, and let them simmer away, uncovered, for about 10 minutes. They'll thicken up considerably; you can also mash them a bit in the pan for more of a refried-bean texture.  If you don't have leftover beans, just heat up a can of refried beans or regular beans (season them well) that you mash into a paste.

Keep reading for her recipe.

Fresh Tart reminds us that the best things in life are often fried, like these enticing arancini.

Like some sort of mad fryentist, give me a pan of hot oil and I will riff on and on an on... See — Fried Cheese Curds — for what was really Part II of my latest fry tear (and a delicious one at that).

Part I began last Friday night, when my cousin Kelly and her husband Jomo came for dinner, and I spied leftover risotto in the cooler. The vision of arancini leapt into my head and while I really didn't have time to make them, I did anyhow, and gosh were we glad that I did. Risotto is lovely fried (le duh), especially with a little square of mozzarella cheese pressed into the middle (le duh), and just beautiful to snack on with a glass of prosecco.

In fact, I would happily have just that for dinner, with sliced tomatoes and a light salad to finish.

Keep reading for her recipe.

The best recipes, Food Orleans reminds us, are those that teach us lessons along the way, like Ina Garten's version of chicken and biscuits.

This recipe, a favorite of ours for years now, comes from the relentlessly delicious kitchen of The Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten. I've spent many happy hours of my life curled up with her cookbooks and a cup of coffee, dreaming that I too had a cooking assistant named Barbara by my side, and that I too had a gigantic barn-sized kitchen with two dishwashers and plenty of gorgeous natural light. If I had those things, couldn't I too whip up some fantastically comforting food for my husband and millions of viewers? I think I could.

As it turns out, Ina's recipes are entirely doable in the smallest of kitchens with the dreariest of lighting. Even though this particular recipe for chicken stew with biscuits dirties a lot of dishes, I started making it in my tiny grad-school kitchen that had approximately 12 square inches of counter space. I didn't use a mixer to make the biscuits, because I didn't have one yet. I was covered in flour by the end of it, but that only added to the comforting, homey effect, I'm sure: tender chicken napped in gravy, vegetables that add the perfect texture and sweetness, and biscuits that are crisp on the top and wet on the bottom, a little dumpling-y, in fact.  

Keep reading for Food Orleans's chicken and biscuits lessons.

When the weather gets hot, Food Orleans goes no-cook with simple recipes like a peachy take on the caprese salad.
Did someone say heat wave? Can I get a witness sweatband?

Look, it's too hot to cook, but the good thing is, there's plenty of ripe fruit and veggies to gorge on. Take a simple caprese salad, for instance: tomatoes, basil, mozz, vinegar, and oil. I love it, you love it, we've all eaten plenty of them. But don't think a caprese has to stop there: use fruit, like peaches, nectarines, and avocados. Use other vegetables, like roasted eggplant, squash, and cukes. The caprese salad is one of the best Italian inventions ever, and I'm not going to let the traditional recipe stop me from going ca-ra-zay with it.

This recipe is so simple, I'm gonna lay it out for you in pics. These amounts will serve 2 non-gluttonous adults a light salad or appetizer, or 1 very sweaty girl a light lunch:

Get a nice, ripe peach and a plum. Any kind of plum will do; I got a black one. Cut 4 or 5 slices of each fruit—you'll still have 3/4 of the fruit left. Get a little basil and tear off a few big leaves and a few tiny ones.

Get 4 slices of fresh mozzarella—this is about half of an 8-ounce ball. Cut the slices in half to make half-circles.

Arrange the peach, plum, and mozzarella slices in some sort of overlapping, alternating fashion. Or just plop them all on a plate. Tuck some basil leaves in and around, and scatter smaller leaves over the top.

Read on to learn about the dressing — and to get the full recipe! — for this Summer salad.

Itching to channel your outdoorsy side sans the mosquitoes? This season, rely on smoky baked beans to bolster your camping daydreams. Here, Cooking in Pajamas shows you how.

Are baked beans a warm comforting dish for a blustery day, or are they the perfect side dish to serve at your Summer BBQ?
In my humble opinion, they're both. Nothing says Summer to me like a cookout with burgers and hot dogs, corn on the cob, and a side of baked beans. But then again, there is nothing quite as nourishing as a bowl of warm, comforting baked beans on a cold rainy day.

Nothing makes your house smell as good as a pot of homemade beans baking in the oven. Yes, this recipe cuts a few corners by using canned beans, but the final product will taste nothing like anything out of a can.

Keep reading for her baked beans recipe

We're madly jealous of Food Orleans's recent meal at the chef's table in the storied Commander's Palace in New Orleans; a visit to this lavish restaurant has been on our travel bucket list for years!

This is Commander's Palace. If it looks like a fairytale building, that's because it is. It's a place where stories are told, surprises happen at any minute, and everyone works together to entertain you and take care of everything you could possibly want. Prepare to be a princess, in other words.

Any time you eat at Commander's, it's special; from brunch on any Sunday to lunch on Thursday to dinner on Saturday night. But the best times to eat there are on holidays, like Thanksgiving, or special occasions: the birthdays, graduations, and anniversaries that are the most important days in the story of your life. I had a big ol' birthday this month; I turned 40. All I wanted was to eat at the Chef's Table at Commander's, and Paul, my wonderful love, he made it happen.

The Chef's Table is the ultimate experience of what Commander's Palace really does, which is nothing short of magic. The table is in the kitchen, right behind the grill line; you're not sheltered away in a corner — you're right in the middle of it. And the Commander's kitchen is quiet, controlled, and all business. As the sous chef, Jason Wells, who prepared most of our dishes that night explained to us (above), you can easily have a conversation in the Commander's kitchen, because there's no yelling. It's not like any other restaurant kitchen I've ever seen or heard of, save The French Laundry or Daniel or other places in the top tier of restaurants in the world. And the theatre of the kitchen is part of the experience of sitting at the Chef's Table.

Read more about her epic meal.