For the creamiest chicken salad, start with a warm, freshly poached whole chicken, shredded into the finest shards, then add a simple but flavorful, herb-flecked dressing.

This homemade version of Keebler’s Fudge Stripe Cookies is so much better than the original I remembered from childhood, with a tender butter cookie base dipped in and topped with a blend of premium milk and semisweet chocolates.

Chocolate Cream Tart starts with homemade Double Chocolate Pudding – dark and silky and supremely creamy – cradled in a chocolate cookie crust and crowned with fluffy whipped cream and chocolate shavings.

Homemade restaurant-style salsa is way better than the stuff in the jar – fresh and vibrant, exploding with the flavors of tomatoes, jalapenos, green chiles and lime.

Decadent White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies are soft and moist, and jammed with shards of white chocolate and big chunks of buttery macadamia nuts,

Homemade double chocolate pudding is rich and dark, cool and creamy, luxuriously chocolatey and bittersweet.

Antipasto – an abundant and colorful spread of cured meats, cheeses and vegetables in a garlicky vinaigrette – is a traditional Italian appetizer that also makes a fun and casual main dish.

A quick, two-ingredient caramel sauce, plus toasted pecans and a drizzle of dark chocolate transform store-bought crackers into over-the-top graham cracker cookies in this old, family recipe.

Chocolate French Toast starts with homemade chocolate bread, griddled until it’s crispy on the outside and pudding-soft on the inside, then drizzled with dark chocolate sauce and dolloped with mascarpone cream.

Black Bean Soup is thick and chunky, warmly spicy, and rib-sticking. Topped with cool and creamy sour cream and avocado it’s an entire meal in one bowl.