We’re firm believers that when it comes to Halloween, there’s no reason the kids should have all the fun. (They’re likely to take all the chocolate for themselves and stick you with stale Smarties and rock-hard Tootsie Rolls.) In our collection of Halloween cookie and candy recipes, you’ll find dangerously simple chocolate peanut butter cups, delightfully retro popcorn balls and, of course, Nigella Lawson’s monster cookies (above). Those cookies, by the way, as well as these kitchen sink cookies and these Rice Krispies treats with chocolate and pretzels, are a great way to use up fun-size Snickers and Milky Ways.
Featured Recipe
Monster Cookies
Sugar fix fixed, let’s turn to dinner. While it’s fun to play with marinades and sauces, sometimes you just need something simple. Lidey Heuck’s 20-minute baked salmon recipe lets the fish shine with a straightforward spice mix of garlic (or garlic powder), brown sugar, paprika, salt and pepper. Serve it with easy couscous and sautéed kale to stay on the “simple but stellar” theme.
Lidey’s new recipe for Italian wedding soup is also simple to make, if a bit time-consuming. But it’s time well and soothingly spent, rolling the herby meatballs, nudging them around the pot and ultimately simmering them with your aromatics, greens and tiny pasta. (Those aforementioned kids might come in handy for the meatball-making and soup-stirring.)
But if time is of the essence, here’s ginger-scallion chicken, a 15-minute recipe by Lan Hing Riggin adapted by Melissa Clark. It’s assertive (all that ginger), pungent (plenty of scallions) and easy (it uses boneless thighs, perhaps the most forgiving cut of chicken).
To tie everything together, how about an old-fashioned? It’s simple, quick and quite autumnal; that orange peel is a lovely slip of fall foliage. We have even more cocktail recipes — both classics and new favorites — in our Halloween drinks collection, all of which are nontricky treats.
