This recipe came to me from my good friend and excellent cook, Eric.  I think he got it from a Cooking Light Magazine Cookbook.  In any event, it has made its way into my repertoire, with a few tweaks and nudges, and has been starring on my table on Christmas Day for many years, now.  It never fails to WOW, it makes your house smell outrageous for hours, and is really impossible to mess up.  The oven does the work and you take the credit.

This recipe will dress a seven rib roast, which is about as long as my arm and weighs about 40 pounds.  But it works beautifully on any size or type of roast, including pork! I’ve made it many times for regular old dinner, when the weather won’t let you grill, and your tastebuds won’t let you leave your meat alone. Halve all quantities below for a normal-sized, but still large roast!  Enjoy!

The warm red bliss potatoes in this salad soak up the tangy dijon-chive dressing and make you forget all about that white globby stuff they called potato salad at the neighborhood picnics of your childhood.

You’re going to love this simple, nutrient-packed, addictive snack.  Roasting breaks down the fibrous leaves and makes them delicate and crisp, with a deep, nutty, almost smoky flavor.  We eat them as a snack or side dish (instead of salad), and my family also likes to pop them into whatever soup or sauce we are having!  They dissolve in your mouth and can be eaten by the handful, absolutely guilt-free.  My teenaged step-son will eat a whole pan before they can even cool down, and I can’t say I blame him.  Move over, potato chips, nachos and french fries: kale chips are here to stay.

You’re going to love it with eggs!

In the batch pictured here, I didn’t have corn on hand, so I left it out, but you’re not going to want to if you can help it.  The corn adds sweetness that balances the acid in the lime juice, tomatoes and vinegar.  But by all means, better to have salsa without corn than life without salsa!

If you’re having a bad day, make lasagna.  It will make any bad day good again.

Credit for this recipe goes to Ina Garten.  And lemons.  I’ve made a few changes to technique and added an egg, but the framework is hers.  Today, I’m going to substitute orange zest and juice for lemon and use almond flour in the crust.  I’ll let you know how it goes!  In the meantime, enjoy Ina’s classic Lemon Bars and enjoy telling all of your friends and family that you made them yourself!