Verily Table – Hosting Ready

With its dollops of ricotta and sprinkle of red pepper flakes, this pasta dish is beautiful—and it’s simple and quick to prepare. Note that it calls for only 8 oz of pasta, not a full box. It does need a lot of salt, as noted; however, I recommend salting at each step, rather than once at the end.
– Laura Loker

With smoked salmon and everything-bagel spice, this potato salad is hearty and interesting enough to feature prominently in a special-occasion brunch. Best of all, you can prep it a day ahead of time, just adding the salmon and seasoning when you’re ready to serve. I used sour cream in place of the crème fraîche and red potatoes instead of Peewee potatoes, and it turned out great.
– Laura Loker

This recipe is a Cuban classic and a family favorite of mine. It has been passed on from mother to daughter for generations. The seasoning mixture known as “sofrito,” a combination of onion, green pepper, and spices, serves as the foundation for many Cuban dishes and provides a symphony of flavors without too much spice. This is a great meal to serve guests, since it offers something new but delicious.
– Sophia Martinson

The combination of everything in this recipe creates a beautiful plate, truly a dish that is restaurant worthy! The best part–it’s just not that hard. Make the chimichurri in advance to eliminate one step from your meal prep that night. I also highly recommend investing in a good meat thermometer (I love my ThermoPop): it’s the secret to not overcooking a pork tenderloin.
– Rachel Kemp

This is an active recipe, but it is pretty time-efficient: you can prep and cook the chicken and veggies while the squash cooks in the oven. A word of warning about microwaving the spaghetti squash before baking it: if you have a lower-watt microwave, it may need a little more than five minutes before you can cut it.
– Laura Loker

These are a bit messy to eat—I used a knife and fork—but so tasty! I used ground turkey instead of ground beef. I decided to skip the mayo and stir in ketchup and mustard instead, and I highly recommend going that route. Finally, though the sesame seeds are not essential, they really add a fun flair—my three-year-old remarked that the “tiny cheeseburgers” had “sprinkles!”
– Kellie Moore

With only 6 ingredients, this recipe is really quite simple, and it’s so creamy and indulgent—it’s hard to go wrong when there’s heavy cream and mozzarella cheese involved! Rather than using 2 1/2 cups of chicken broth, I just used two bouillon cubes and 2 1/2 cups of water (slightly more water than the cubes called for, but the flavor was still great). If you’re not using low-sodium broth/bouillon cubes, I suggest skipping the salt. It says it makes 6 servings, but if you’re not serving anything with it, I’d say it’s more like 4.
– Kellie Moore

At our house, we call this recipe “taco cake”: it’s taco ingredients cooked in a Bundt cake pan! It’s not hard to put together, but there are a few important notes. First, the tortilla strips: when placing them, be sure to save enough for the layers and the top (which becomes the bottom when you take the taco ring out of the pan). You’ll cut the tortillas into four strips, and for me, it it worked well to use the strips cut from the center of the tortillas as the foundation of the taco ring and save the edge strips for the rest.

As for the seasoning, I did a double-take when I saw the recipe called for 2 Tbsp of cayenne pepper (yikes!), so I skipped her seasoning blend and just used a packet of taco seasoning (the packet said to add water when stirring the seasoning in with the meat, but I skipped that to prevent sogginess). I also skipped the jalepeños—the beauty of this filling is that you can really do what you want with it! There’s no cook time written, but the video says to cook it for 45 minutes; I did 35 and it worked well. Next time, I would skip the chips.
– Kellie Moore

I’ve always been hesitant to make broccoli cheddar soup—I worried that it wouldn’t measure up to the restaurant version. Let me assure you, this recipe does not disappoint! I used 2 percent milk instead of whole milk, and it was still delicious. I suggest serving it with a good crusty bread—or better yet, in a bread bowl!
– Kellie Moore