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Glazed Maple Scones with Oats
The word on the street is that, when it comes to fall flavors, pumpkin spice is out and maple is in. The masses have grown weary of pumpkin spice everything, a phenomenon that’s grown since Starbucks...
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Butternut Squash Soup with Bacon & Goat Cheese
I’m not gonna lie. Working with large winter squash can be a real pain. When I worked in the restaurant kitchen, I had a beautiful roasted beet appetizer that I always made on my station. Many times a...
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Pull Apart Dinner Rolls
When I was growing up, there was one item that always made an appearance at Wilson holiday gatherings: Carol’s Rolls. While the turkey and the stuffing, the gravy and the sweet potatoes may have been...
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Smoked Salmon Frittata with Potatoes & Goat Cheese
I developed this recipe for salmonlife.org. * * * Our family often receives packages of homemade smoked salmon as gifts from neighbors, friends, and coworkers. Every pouch of smoky...
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White Christmas Cocktail
Thanksgiving is over and I know you may have gobs of leftovers in your refrigerator. I’m not going to help you remedy that in the ways you might expect. This year, rather than writing the obligatory...
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Chocolate Crinkle Cookies with Peppermint
When I asked readers on social media to name the holiday cookie they absolutely have to have every year, I received dozens of responses. As I expected, there were the classic favorites: spiced...
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Swedish Meatballs
The flu is going around something fierce. Two members of our family were really sick last week, which amounted to school absences, missed play rehearsals, and skipped hockey practices. To my complete...
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Spicy Halibut & Cream Cheese Wontons
For this post, I’m partnering with Catch 49, an exciting new Alaska seafood company. What I love about Catch 49 is that I know all about where my seafood was caught, who caught it, and even the name of...
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Overnight Baked French Toast with Cinnamon Crumble
I received a text message from my wife asking if I would be willing to help her cook breakfast for her staff for their early morning staff meeting. “Of course,” I quickly replied. “What do you have in...
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Ginger Pork Lettuce Wraps
December can often be a decadent month, filled with candy, cookies, eggnog, and rich, filling plates of food. It tends to be a time of excess and splurging when it comes to our social calendar, our...
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Chocolate Pudding Cake
You know those recipes that you forget you like, those dishes that go unmade for months and even years without a thought as if hibernating somewhere in a cozy den of lost recipes? Suddenly you’ll visit...
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Baked Chicken Wings with Bourbon Birch Syrup Glaze
Just in time for Super Bowl, I bring you an irresistible plate of chicken wings. This dish is a sneak peek recipe from my forthcoming book, The Alaska from Scratch Cookbook, which will be hitting the...
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Blueberry Buttermilk Cornmeal Waffles
Weather: 49 degrees, the sun is about to rise What I’m listening to: Wrecking Ball, Scars on 45 It was my grandmother who taught me long ago that blueberries and cornmeal go together. One of the only...
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Creamy Mushroom Pasta with Lemon & Herbs
A few weeks back I had the privilege of being one of the keynote speakers for the Kenai Peninsula’s 5th annual Harvest Moon Local Food Festival, a week full of events highlighting and celebrating local...
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Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
It all started with an Instagram photo. It was a slow weekend morning. My wife glanced up from her phone and said, “Man, whatever they’re serving at South for brunch today looks incredible.” “The...
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Thai Curry Noodle Soup with Halibut
With all of the vibrant fall colors and chilly autumn rain we’ve been having, I was more than ready this week to cozy up to a steaming, spicy bowl of soup. When I posted a photo of this dish to...
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Hard Apple Cider Old Fashioned
It’s October and it’s Alaska PFD time, which are both are ample reasons to be clinking glasses to a fall forward cocktail. Lately, I’ve often been keeping it simple but seasonal by enjoying a nice...
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Creamy Spinach & Garlic Spaghetti Squash
As we rode our bicycles down the bike path on Kenai Spur Highway, with our yellow lab, Rosie, running beside us, my wife turned to me and said, “I really love fall. I don’t think I ever realized how...
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Meyer Lemon Rosemary Scones
The Alaska from Scratch Cookbook is now available in stores! Get your copy today! It’s not uncommon for Alaska to spoil my meal planning and recipe testing (just days before writing this I had been...
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Jalapeño Popper Mac and Cheese
See what The New York Times says about The Alaska from Scratch Cookbook! Our picky-eating ten year old daughter’s favorite food is mac and cheese. Except, there’s one critical caveat. It must come from...
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My Favorite Crispy Buttermilk Waffles
In lieu of a big layer cake for his 13th birthday this past year, our middle son requested buttermilk waffles from scratch. While at first I was a bit sad, I quickly dispensed with tradition and made...
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Tortellini with Tomato Cream Sauce & Italian Sausage
Over the years, I’ve gotten myself into a tortellini rut. I love tortellini – the beautiful little pockets of prepared pasta filled with cheese on which I sometimes splurge, found in the refrigerator...
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Lemon Meringue Pie with Shortbread Crust
Lemon meringue pie is a classic. When I say classic, I mean it’s a bit of an antique where recipes are concerned. Meringue is said to have originated in the 17th century and is still used widely today....
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Four Ingredient Green Smoothie
Consider this a friendly public service announcement. It’s smoothie season, everyone. As the weather warms up and the snow dwindles, making way for occasional April showers, smoothies go back on the...
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Chicken Tamale Pie
When I lived in California, trips to Baja Mexico weren’t uncommon occurrences. In middle school I enjoyed shockingly inexpensive, fresh plates of lobster in tiny coastal towns, a meal we could never...
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Creamy Homemade Vanilla Pudding
In my cookbook, there’s a photo of the four year old version of me covered in pudding. I talk about how my mom had an affinity for pudding from a box, and how it was one of the familiar flavors from my...
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Lemon Loaf Cake with Elderflower Glaze
It’s official: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have great taste. Not that this comes as a surprise to, well, anyone. When I caught wind of their unconventional wedding cake choice of lemon and...
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Braised Radishes with Bacon & Shallots
Radishes have been the darling of food photography of late, their fuchsia pink against bright white, their perfect pops of color adorning the plate. Your eye is drawn to radishes immediately in a...
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Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken Foil Packs
We really lucked out with the weather this past Memorial Day weekend. Sunshine and blue skies ushered in summer as if right on cue. Our family broke out the sunscreen and bug spray, hammocks,...
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Sablefish with Ginger Soy Glaze over Ramen Noodles
On Sunday, we spent the day in Homer for a book signing at The Homer Bookstore and a cooking class at The Classic Cook. While sitting at the book signing table, Claire Neaton, one of the Salmon Sisters...
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Almond Rhubarb Coffee Cake
It all began with a knock on the door. Our daughter answered and I heard a small voice say, “Can you give this to your mom?” It was a bag of freshly cut rhubarb from our landlord and his family. I set...
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Mexican Corn Pasta Salad
A recent stint of sunshine had me craving time outside in the hammock and summery pasta salads on long picnic tables surrounded by baked beans and hot dogs. For weeks I had been studying pasta salad...
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Coconut Iced Tea
Last month, when I wrote about almond rhubarb coffee cake, readers went crazy for it. I got so many wonderful emails, some even included photographs. Thank you, readers. I’m thrilled you’re enjoying...
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Breakfast Tacos with Salsa Verde & Avocado
When our daughter asks for an “eggy” for breakfast, she’s never just asking for an egg. She’s asking for a scrambled egg with cheese and salt (salt is key), wrapped in a warm (warm is also key) corn...
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Zucchini Brownies
I realize it’s been a while since we talked dessert. It’s also been even longer since I’ve given you a recipe involving chocolate. Both are surprising since there’s hardly ever a day that I don’t have...
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Nectarine Caprese Bruschetta with Prosciutto
Local schools are back in session. There are pops of yellow in the trees and fireweed have reached the top. With more darkness noticeable each day, we are eager to find ways to cling to the very last...
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Blueberry Bourbon BBQ Sauce on Baby Back Ribs
It’s August and Alaska blueberry season is upon us. Although I don’t dare share where anyone gets their blueberries or exactly when, because I’d be breaking one of our long-standing cultural codes. And...
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Beet Salad with Tahini Dressing
Growing up, I thought beets only came from a can and were only ever offered at the salad bars of the 1980’s and 90’s. My mother would gather up her iceberg salad with thousand island dressing, canned...
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Pasta e Fagioli Soup
The fall soup cravings have come on strong over the past week, thanks to that low lying early morning fog creeping in, marking the season. I was on the hunt for a new minestrone-style recipe, different...
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Baked Tandoori Chicken Drumsticks
I miss Indian food. I especially miss it in the fall, when the turmeric-colored leaves on the trees immediately make me crave warm spices, like garam masala and cardamom. The Kenai Peninsula is...
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Parmesan Roasted Carrots
Two bags of Alaska Grown carrots showed up at the restaurant for the chef to try, courtesy of a local farmer. They had just recently been pulled from the ground, but they were clean and symmetrical,...
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Slow Cooker Beef & Barley Stew
It’s crockpot season. Snow has arrived and Thanksgiving is just around the corner making it prime time to pull out the old slow cooker and get her ready for the long winter ahead. My crockpot hadn’t...
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Sweet Potato Pie with Marshmallow Meringue
To all the lovers of candied yams with marshmallow topping: I’m not going to hate on you. That dish has gotten a bad rap over the years. It’s a retro classic that has graced many a Thanksgiving table...
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Best Turkey Soup You’ll Ever Eat
Have you made ’the best chicken soup you’ll ever eat’ recipe that’s circling the internet? I’ve tried a lot of chicken soups in my time, always searching for some special, intangible quality I can’t...
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Boozy Eggnog
The holiday season can be emotionally taxing on many of us for a whole smorgasbord of reasons. Here in Alaska, the recent huge earthquake has left numerous people in our state feeling very rattled and...
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Peanut Butter Balls
My wife grew up making peanut butter balls every holiday season. She remembers mixing together the butter, peanut butter, and powdered sugar until it forms a dough that can be rolled into bite-sized...
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Crab Artichoke Dip
Crab is the number one request at our house around the holidays, a special occasion splurge I allow once a year. If you’re looking for a show-stopping appetizer to serve at an upcoming holiday...
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Tater Tot Casserole
Tater tot casserole is not a dish I grew up with. I didn’t even know it was a thing. I also didn’t know that in places like Minnesota, it’s called tater tot hot dish. Which came first: the casserole...
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Balsamic Mushroom & Goat Cheese Pizza with Spinach
I had a night off from the restaurant, so I asked my wife what she wanted to do for ‘date night.’ “I want to make pizza,” she replied ahead of a long pause. “Mushroom pizza. With goat cheese.” My...
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Ratatouille
“Mom, can you make me ratatouille? Just like this?” she says, shoving a phone in my face with a cartoon picture of plated food. “Um. Yeah. I can do that.” “Really?!” She’s beaming now. A welcome smile...
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