Simple Roasted Radishes

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 40 – 45 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour | Serves: 4 – 6

This underrated vegetable needs more attention. I believe most people use them raw, sliced on salads, and that “biting/spicy” flavor is all they know. But, if you roast them in the oven as you would any other veggie (just with oil, salt, and pepper), you’ll be amazed at the transformation… they’ll morph into a mellow, flavorful side dish.

This recipe sat in my drafts for about 8 months until I received a couple of pounds of fresh-from-the-garden radishes! What a gorgeous vegetable, and a motivation to bring this recipe back to life.

Radishes can be purchased already washed and trimmed in plastic bags in your produce section. I still scrub them even though the bag boasts “washed and ready.” They usually need a good rinsing and some extra trimming.

You might find radishes in bunches, with the green tops available as well. Look for them at farmers’ markets in March through November. These must be scrubbed and trimmed. Be sure, either way you buy them, that you cut out any splits. Dirt and germs can get down into those crevices. The leaves are edible, too. You can sauté them in a little bit of olive oil with salt and pepper until wilted. Or, if you own bunnies, they love the tops!

Radishes are packed with goodness. There is a long list of vitamins and nutrients packed into these beauties. And the health benefits are pretty impressive, too. Check out this informative article by herbazest.com. 

As you can see in the photos, the bright red color fades as they are roasted. They lose some of their bright color, and the thin skin wrinkles in the heat. But that’s only aesthetics. Radishes are rich in antioxidants, potassium, and vitamin C.

The radishes can be washed and trimmed up to 2 days in advance, which can help with time management when you’re making multiple dishes for a meal.

Next time you need a side dish and the usual potatoes or broccoli just aren’t exciting enough, roast radishes for a change-up that might become a weekly recipe!

Enjoy!

Texas Caviar

Prep Time: 30 minutes | Cook Time: None | Stand Time: 30 minutes – 1 hour |Total Time: 1 hour –  1 hour, 30 minutes | Serves: 20 – 25

Yumm. Just yumm. This is an addictive dip. The textures, the flavors of tang and fresh herbs are downright delicious. You may not want to share once you taste it!

You may find Texas Caviar under a different name, aka Cowboy Salsa or Cowboy Caviar.

This is a party food; it makes quite a bit. You can halve the recipe. Reserve the remaining beans and corn for another recipe, such as a soup or chili. Use 1 bell pepper instead of two colors.

Protein and veggies in one! Lots of goodness and fiber. Serve with chips. Oh, heck, just use a spoon. It’s that good. And it’s gluten-free, egg-free, nut-free, and dairy-free!

The bell peppers can be any color. I have different colors listed, but that’s more for aesthetics. However, most colors other than green have a bit more sweetness. I know the common green variety is generally less expensive, so purchase as you desire.

My recipe calls for cilantro and Italian parsley. There is so much flavor in Italian parsley, and it goes very well here. If you prefer, you may use only one herb, but… it really is good with both! But be sure to use fresh herbs. Dried will not taste as fresh, nor will the texture be as good. The same goes for the green onions; don’t use freeze-dried.

Speaking of using fresh ingredients, use a real garlic clove, not jarred garlic or garlic powder. The taste of a real garlic clove freshly grated into the dressing is divine.

Using Roma, cherry, or grape tomatoes are the better choice. Some tomatoes contain a lot of liquid that can dilute your homemade dressing.

The homemade dressing tastes so much better than store-bought. If you use a store-bought bottle of Italian salad dressing, your Texas Caviar will taste like your pasta salad. Let’s bring freshness to this appetizer. And be sure to give the dressing standing time, allowing the flavors to marry and get happy. It makes a difference.

Still on the fence? Just make it. You’ll be glad you did.

Enjoy!

Vegetable Stir Fry

Prep Time: 45 minutes | Cook Time: 15 – 20 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour | Serves: 6 – 8

I was preparing to feed about 30 people when I got the late notice that someone else was bringing veggies. I found myself with about 13 pounds of vegetables already cut up and ready to roast. Holy crow. So what now? I was trying to dream up all kinds of recipes, almost ready to create a zucchini smoothie. What am I going to do with all this food?

Kabobs recipe is in the making (I’m waiting on my hand-made skewers, forged by a blacksmith I found on Etsy), but for now, let’s do a stir fry! This dish is usually made out of necessity, when the veggies in my fridge are getting past their prime. Sound familiar?

FRESH is the word. Do not use frozen (or canned!) vegetables. Ew. They have a taste of their own and it is not good. I grew up with frozen vegetables and I very clearly remember the smell and taste. Just don’t. I know I sound pushy, but trust me here. Your trip to the produce department and/or farmers’ market will be rewarded.

I know after prepping your veggies, it will look like you have way more than you actually need. If you cook with veggies often, you know those babies shrink in the cooking process. You are welcome to reduce the amount of veggies for fewer servings, but you’ll need to reduce the amount of sauce, also.

Funny, most of your time will be wrapped up in the prepping. The cooking process will be about 15 to 20 minutes if you’re cooking rice, too. If you’re making only the vegetable stir fry, cook time will be about 8 to 10 minutes.

Be sure all your veggies are dry. Wet veggies will steam, producing more liquid and ultimately dilute your sauce.

This is a vegetable stir fry, but it is not vegetarian. There is oyster sauce in the sauce.

Since we have quite a variety of vegetables to add, it does matter when each is added. Hardest to softest. Longest cook time to shortest cook time. Makes sense, right?

Feel free to halve the recipe if this is a bit much for your crowd.

Enjoy!

Homemade Breakfast Sausage

Prep Time: 1 h | Cook Time: 5 – 7 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour, 25 minutes | Makes: 3 1/2 pounds (approx. 9 servings)

We have a local butcher shop and they are amazing! However, I wanted to give my hand a try at homemade breakfast sausage, to give myself a bit of a challenge to learn something new. I did not want to just buy pre-ground pork and cheat a little. I wanted the challenge. Of course, I had to find a grinder attachment for my mixer.

Researching and watching videos were crammed into my already-full queue of recipe testing, etc. YouTube videos by Joshua Weissman on homemade sausage was my numero uno source of info. Some books came in handy, too.

I played around with spices and seasonings and settled on the quintessential breakfast sausage staples… those that you are currently thinking of as you know that smell from the kitchen as sausage is sizzling on the burner. Are you hungry yet?

Freshness matters when it comes to spices and seasonings, which by the way, here’s a fun article by Tasting Table that differentiates between the two. If your pantry spices and seasonings are out of date, newly opened jars will take this recipe to all new heights. Trust me, it does matter how long opened jars have been sitting around.

Fat matters. Be sure to use at least 25% of fat in your sausage. You need plenty of fat or your sausage will be too dry. I usually include most of the thick layer of fat that is on the pork butt/shoulder when I grind the meat. Fat back is an excellent source of additional fat, but it is very difficult to find my area. Pork belly is another good option for the addition of pork fat. Most online sources suggest 25% up to 50% of fat to meat ratio. My recipe below calls for 3 ½ pounds of pork butt. That’s 56 ounces of meat with almost 17 ounces (30%) being fat. It does not have to be exact, as you can see. But, if you use the sausage to make my Homemade Sausage Gravy and Biscuits (recipe coming soon!), you’ll need plenty of fat to render for the gravy, or you’ll need to add butter, but that recipe addresses this issue.

The recipe can be halved if less is desired.

See Instagram video here.

Enjoy!

Chicken Parmesan

Prep Time: 35 minutes | Cook Time: 25 – 35 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes | Serves: 4 – 8

Recipe and photos updated 5.18.26

I have truly fallen in love with Chicken Parmesan. The first time I had ever heard of Chicken Parmesan was when my husband and I were dating as seniors in high school (30 years ago!). His mom made this wonderfully delicious meal of crispy breaded chicken covered in tomato sauce with melted cheese over spaghetti noodles. It was divine. She can be given full credit for opening me up to quite a few different foods!

Having Chicken Parmesan in restaurants, I had to try my hand at it and give it a little flair. I think this recipe is quite amazing, but that makes me biased, right? I added some not-so-traditional spices to the breading mix and made my own marinara, which I think puts this recipe above the rest. Again, biased, right?

Some people add oil to boiling water for pasta, or toss their cooked pasta in some oil to simply keep the pasta from sticking together. I rarely do that because I think the oil keeps the pasta from absorbing the wonderful sauce. Instead, stir the pasta often to keep it from sticking together.

The cheese! Slices of fresh mozzarella are also delicious on Chicken Parmesan, as well as provolone. Or use the common low-moisture mozzarella cheese. Just be sure to shred from a block. Pre-shredded cheese is not good. Period.

I learned about the dry-wet-dry method from Giada de Laurentii’s show back in the early 2000’s on Food TV (now called Food Network). It’s truly worth the few extra steps and dirty bowls to wash later, just to enjoy the crispy, flavorful breading on the chicken. Pie plates/pans work great for the dry-wet-dry method. If you ever buy premade graham cracker crusts, keep the aluminum pie plate for uses like this! Or use your glass pie plates; they work great, too.

The instructions below state to finish cooking the chicken in the oven. However, you can cook the chicken completely on the stovetop (a digital probe thermometer reading 165 degrees F.) Top with the marinara and cheese, then place the chicken on top of the warm, cooked pasta and serve.

In order to cook your chicken evenly, without overcooking, either slice thick chicken breasts into halves longways or pound with the flat side of a meat tenderizer. If you’re going to slice the chicken breasts, account for the number of pieces you end up with (2 chicken breasts could be 4 cutlets/servings, etc.).

If you have individual oven-safe bowls/plates, you may cook individual servings instead of placing all the chicken pieces together in a baking dish.

Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Risotto with Rosemary and Gorgonzola

Prep Time: 1 hour | Cook Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes | Total Time: 2 hours, 45minutes | Serves: 6 – 8

This recipe is for the blue cheese lovers! I have listed Gorgonzola, a milder blue, but you may reach for the Roquefort instead. Blue cheeses are quite strong in large amounts, so don’t go gung-ho either. I threw in a third of a pound the first time I made this recipe. That was regretful. From there on, it’s been only about half an ounce for the blue I added. Taste the cheese prior to adding it to the dish, please.

This recipe was actually born from a shopping trip to HomeGoods. The lovely serving bowl was the inspiration for the following recipe. (I don’t do this very often, thankfully.)

Try your best to use unsalted or low-sodium stock/broth. The Gorgonzola cheese has an element of sodium, so you don’t want to overpower the risotto to the point of no return. Taste the Gorgonzola before you begin the recipe so that you’ll have an idea how to season from the get-go.

I suggest roasting the sweet potatoes in the oven for the best texture. You could do this in the air fryer if you want, or even in the slow cooker. Please, do not cook them in the microwave. I place a sheet of foil on a small baking sheet and bake them. The sweet potatoes can “weep” where they were pricked so the foil makes an easy cleanup!

My husband and I popped into a “plant sale” at the University of Tennessee Arboretum in Oak Ridge, TN recently and I found a fairly large plant of rosemary that is often used as “bushes/greenery,” but also certainly used for culinary uses. This recipe was in the back of my mind and as I chose this pretty and fragrant plant. I also realize I probably should have bought two. It may be half gone in a few months.

The combination of sweet potato, Gorgonzola and fresh rosemary is just scrumptious. Please, do not omit a flavor or substitute.

Enjoy!

Strawberry White Chocolate Lemon Tres Leches Cake

Prep Time: 35 minutes | Cook Time: 20 – 22 minutes | Chill Time: 6 – 8 hours |Total Time: 9 hours | Serves: 12

This recipe idea actually came from an AI photo. Someone posted a strawberry tres leches cake and their photo did not match the recipe. The photo’s concept was actually a nice idea, but you could tell it was AI. I started drafting how to turn this photo into something awesome. This person’s recipe (their whole site was AI, fake) was the most simplistic strawberry tres leche cake recipe, but the photo was something I could turn into a reality, a WOW dessert on the plate.

Don’t make substitutions for the cake flour (even a homemade mix) or the milks. You‘ll be messing with the structure and moisture if you do make changes.

A stand mixer is best for this recipe, to be able to whip air into the eggs for the lift in the cake. Mixing the wet ingredients for almost 10 minutes in a stand mixer allows you to keep your hands free to do other aspects of the recipe.

Using a container of sweetened, sliced strawberries is convenient. I add a small amount of fresh lemon juice to bring a bit of a pop, too. Be sure to comb over the berries for any stems/leaves that may have ended up in the container due to the manufacturing process and discard them. (Some brands are worse than others for containing leaves.)

You get quite a bit of liquid from the frozen strawberries which is going to be absorbed into the cake along with the tres leches. Since you’re not cooking the berries (unless you choose to do so), you don’t have to worry about oxidation.

If you make this pretty and delicious cake, I’d love to hear from you! Email, comment, or tag me on social media (Instagram, Facebook, X, and/or Pinterest) @pantrytotableblog.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake

Prep Time: 2 hours | Cook Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes – 2 hours, 40 minutes | Chill Time: 8 – 12 hours | Total Time: 13 – 17 hours | Serves: 10 – 12

Happy National Cherry Cheesecake Day! The pairing of a creamy cheesecake topped with a fruity topping is heavenly. But, let’s up the ante here. Add a layer of chocolate cheesecake and add a touch of cherry balsamic vinegar… I’m speechless.

Don’t let this cheesecake look or sound complicated. Some extra steps, yes, but they’re not difficult. This dessert is truly worth the time and effort.

Speaking of time, you will need to plan 2 days for a true cheesecake. Prepping, cooking, chilling, etc. take time. The cheesecake must be allowed to chill thoroughly. Overnight (or 8 – 12 hours) is sufficient.

If you don’t want to do the extra steps for a layered cheesecake, you do have the option of doubling the chopped chocolate to 16 ounces and combining it with the entire cheesecake batter, having a completely dark chocolate cheesecake studded inside with cherries. I like the layered look, but it’s something that can be adapted.

Do not mix the batter at a higher speed than medium-low. You do not want to whip air into the cheesecake batter.

When it comes to the crust, I use a box of Chocolate Teddy Grahams, minus a few that I snack on before processing. It is enough to cover the bottom and about 1 ½”to 2” up the sides of a 9” 2-piece/springform pan. Chocolate graham crackers are a great substitute.

Be careful when pouring water into the water bath. If your cheesecake pan is already in the water bath pan, pour the hot water very carefully. You do not want any water droplets getting onto the cheesecake.

I chose frozen cherries for the liquid they release when thawed. And, texturally, I like the somewhat soft cherries in the cheesecake and topping.

Enjoy!

Cowboy Beans

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 35 minutes | Total Time: 45 minutes | Serves: 8 – 10

I came across an old recipe that had my scribbles of changes and notes that I had made and about a quarter of the paper torn off… probably to make more notes about something else. I laughed at myself, how 20 years later, some things stay the same…my note-taking and good food!

I jot down a lot of notes and on just about anything. There are recipe notes on napkins, on the backs of blank checks in my wallet, and some written on the back of sermon notes from my pastor’s message (I guess I just told on myself there, ha). There are some things that you hear or see that give you great ideas and you just don’t want to lose them.

My husband is always telling me to keep everything on my phone, and always have a backup of a backup. I should really follow his instructions…. I might not always be able to find that napkin.

Back to the “old recipe”… The title was for Cowboy Beans and I remember marking off ingredients and substituting others. But, the biggest change was the addition of ribeye steak, shredded and flavored throughout the thick stick-to-your-ribs beans.

These Cowboy Beans are a great addition to a backyard barbecue (or stovetop barbecue if you have an inch of ice and 6 inches of snow outside.) That was our weather this February and my Michigan-born husband grilled anyway, and it was worth it. Then my high school culinary son and I cooked steaks on the stovetop with the basting method using butter, oil, thyme, and garlic. Wow. Just Wow.

This dish may be a carb nightmare, but if you’re not watching your carb intake, these are just down-right enjoyable!

Feel free to change up your meat. As I mentioned before, I have used shredded ribeye steak (my fav) or slow-cooked beef short ribs. Here I used ground beef and Italian sausage since it would still be delicious and hearty, and it’s probably the most convenient. You could serve this meatless, but not at my house.

Enjoy!

Tomato Deviled Eggs

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 13 – 14 minutes | Chill Time: 15 minutes |Total Time: 50 minutes | Serves: 12

This is not an April Fool’s joke. Do not adjust your screen.

Tomato paste gives color, flavor, and slight flair to the traditional deviled eggs. But, there is so much more that elevates these to Wow.

Deviled eggs are a traditional Easter side dish or appetizer here in the United States. It seems to reflect spring, something we are happy to embrace after the cold, snowy days behind us and sunny skies, blooming flowers, and potlucks to look forward to.

Steaming the eggs instead of boiling them seems to bring more success of easy-peeling. If you have a method of making “easy-peel” hard-boiled eggs that works for you, by all means, continue to use it. The first time I saw the steaming method, it was on a video by America’s Test Kitchen. Now the recipe is everywhere online.

I have avocado mayonnaise listed in the ingredients. You are welcome to use regular mayo. My family has steered away from seed oils as much as possible, but you can certainly use regular mayo in this recipe. I recommend Duke’s Real Mayonnaise (with the yellow label).

Smoked paprika is not just smoked paprika. First of all, the fresher the product, the better the flavor and aroma. Second, brands matter. Small businesses that specialize in spices are marks above the “national brands.” You know, the ones with the red caps? I have been ordering spices from 3 spice-specialty stores that are just incredible. If you’re interested, message me, and I can pass those companies along to you.

I chose Hungarian Smoked Paprika due to its rich color and intensity of flavor. You can certainly use a more common smoked paprika. They can often be found at Home Goods stores.

The recipe comes together easily, especially if you’ve made deviled eggs before. There are steps, but nothing difficult. The recipe can be easily doubled.

Love deviled likes like I do?? Check out my other recipes with lots of flair! Thai Deviled Eggs, Greek Deviled Eggs, and Curried Deviled Eggs.

Enjoy!