Kitchen Parade’s Best-Ever “Most Useful” Recipes

Just One Favorite Recipe Per Year Since 2002
Just Updated for 2024

Here I take a long look back, selecting a single best / most-useful recipe from each year of Kitchen Parade's long history since way back in 2002. Together? I guess you could call this the "mother" of all best-recipe lists :-). But in my household, these few recipes are the most "useful" recipes, all committed to 3x5 cards for quick and frequent access.

Real Food, Fresh & Seasonal. Year-Round Kitchen Staples. My Best Recipes, Just One per Year.

~ PIN This ~

~ Skip Straight to the Recipes by Year ~
~ Skip Straight to the Recipes by Course ~
~ Skip Straight to Recipe Descriptions ~
~ Skip Straight to Each Year's Dozen Best Recipes ~

But First, A Thank You.

This is the time of year when many of us reach out to say thanks to those who bring meaning to our lives. So please, accept my thanks.

I'm grateful for your time, your consideration, your comments, your emails, your likes, your shares, your PINs – and most of all that you invite me into your kitchen, trusting me to inspire the meals you prepare for those you most love, the shared curiosity for seasonal ingredients and healthy techniques, the ideas and pleasures that make the kitchen table the gathering place in so many homes.

Today Kitchen Parade is more than 600 columns, a body of work that gives me immense pride. But it would be mere pixels waxing and waning on the internet without all of you.

I thank you, I thank you.

Because Time Gives Perspective, Yes?

Ever since my soon-to-be 95-year old father came to live with my husand and me here in St. Louis, I cook more than ever but share new recipes – I'm painfully aware – less than ever.

So as this year draws to a close, I look with wonder into the inspiring year-end "Best Recipes of the Year" collections from bloggers whose work I admire. But for me in that year? and again in the next? There are just too few new recipes to cull out a meaningful shortlist of favorites.

A friend's question sparked an idea. "What is the one thing you cook most often?"

A quick scan of Recipes by Year – that list's all up-to-date, thank you very much! – revealed that in each year's recipes, just one stood out from all the others as one I return to over and over again and is therefore "most useful". It was instructive, really!

(And for the record, I cook from all the recipes on Kitchen Parade and A Veggie Venture Every.Single.Day. It's just that some recipes I make really-really often, especially because like all seasonal cooks, just a few recipes get made year-round.)

You'll see. These are the simplest of recipes, not likely ones you'll haul out for company and not even so many that can be called "supper". But they are recipes that move to the table quickly and inexpensively and with little fuss. No special ingredients. No bulky equipment. Just real food made from clean ingredients with tastes that I, anyway, never tire of. Just simple food prepared well, standing the test of time.

In an age of fascination with super-fast Instapots and super-convenient Blue Apron (I'm a fan of just one, any guesses which?), these are the recipes that make both seem, well, unnecessary. I hope you find your own inspiration here, too.

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For Convenience, Quick Lists

QUICK LIST BY YEAR
2002 Chocolate Chili
2003 Laura's Healthy Carrot Soup
2004 Alice Waters' Coleslaw
2005 Light 'n' Easy Chocolate Pudding
2006 White Chicken Chili
2007 Flaky Tender Pie Crust
2008 Baked Bacon
2009 Winter Stew
2010 Red Quinoa Salad Your Way
2011 Homemade Granola with Almonds & Apricots
2012 Oven-Baked Whole-Grain Pilaf with Quinoa, Barley, Kamut & Other Grains
2013 No-Big-Deal Homemade Chicken Stock
2014 Creamy Oatmeal
2015 Easy Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas
2016 Orange & Cumin Vinaigrette
2017 Our Daily Bread: My Easy Everyday Bread Recipe
2018 My Chicken Noodle Soup
2019 My Everyday Creamy Herb Salad Dressing
2020 How to Cook White Rice
2021 Roasted Mediterranean Vegetables
2022 How to Steam Eggs
2023 No-Big-Deal Vegetable Stock for the Slow Cooker

2024 Which recipe will rise to such a high standard for 2024? I'm really not sure! Take a look, which would be your choice from among Kitchen Parade's new recipes in 2024?

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QUICK LIST BY COURSE
CONCEPT RECIPES
2009 Winter Stew
2010 Red Quinoa Salad Your Way
2012 Oven-Baked Whole-Grain Pilaf with Quinoa, Barley, Kamut & Other Grains
2017 Our Daily Bread: My Easy Everyday Bread Recipe
2019 My Everyday Creamy Herb Salad Dressing

BREAKFAST
2008 Baked Bacon
2014 Creamy Oatmeal
2017 Our Daily Bread: My Easy Everyday Bread Recipe
2022 How to Steam Eggs

SUPPERS
2009 Winter Stew
2010 Red Quinoa Salad Your Way
2015 Easy Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas

SOUPS & CHILIS
2003 Laura's Healthy Carrot Soup
2002 Chocolate Chili
2006 White Chicken Chili
2018 My Chicken Noodle Soup

SALADS
2004 Alice Waters' Coleslaw
2016 Orange & Cumin Vinaigrette
2019 My Everyday Creamy Herb Salad Dressing

SIDES
2012 Oven-Baked Whole-Grain Pilaf with Quinoa, Barley, Kamut & Other Grains
2020 How to Cook White Rice
2021 Roasted Mediterranean Vegetables

SWEETS
2005 Light 'n' Easy Chocolate Pudding
2007 Flaky Tender Pie Crust

EXTRAS
2011 Homemade Granola with Almonds & Apricots
2013 No-Big-Deal Homemade Chicken Stock
2023 No-Big-Deal Vegetable Stock for the Slow Cooker

Bookmark! PIN! Share!

How do you save and share favorite recipes? recipes that fit your personal cooking style? a particular recipe your mom or daughter or best friend would just love? If this recipe collection inspires you, please do save and share! I'd be honored ...

• THE COLLECTION Best-Ever “Most Useful” Recipes 2002 – Present Just one recipe per year. (PIN This)
• AND ANOTHER All Recipes, Sorted by Year

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Kitchen Parade's Most Useful Recipes 2002 – Present
Just One Recipe from Each Year

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2002 – 2004
Chocolate Chili, Carrot Soup & Coleslaw

[left/top] Chocolate Chili is my oldest and still most favorite recipe for homemade chili, it starts with ground beef (or venison or turkey or ...) and the usual suspects of onion and tomato. What makes Chocolate Chili special are the spices and yes, cocoa powder. A few years back, I really amped up the spices and whoa, is that ever good! No beans! Quick TIP: Serve Chocolate Chili (or your own favorite chili) with mashed potatoes or Mashed Potatoes and Carrots, this is an old farmwife trick to feed lots of hard-working farm hands!

[center] Laura's Healthy Carrot Soup is perfect for a light lunch or supper, it tastes ultra-rich and creamy but the "cream" comes not from cream but slow-cooked onion and potato plus a little skim or low-fat milk. Total comfort food! Beautiful color, yes?!

[right/bottom] Alice Waters' Coleslaw is such a fan favorite, so bright and fresh! Last fall, I made a quadruple batch for a family-wedding pig roast, gone that went! It's vegan, no mayonnaise, just lots of lime and cilantro and a touch of jalapeño. Try it with fish tacos too!

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2005 – 2007
Chocolate Pudding, White Chicken Chili & The Flakiest, Most Tender Pie Crust You Can Imagine

[left/top] Light 'n' Easy Chocolate Pudding, just five ingredients! That makes it perfect for when "supper's a little skimpy" (my mom kept a stable of simple dessert recipes like this, I do too!) or you know, a late-night chocolate attack.

[center] White Chicken Chili, so many times this one warms up a chilly evening. These days, I usually cut up a rotisserie chicken for the meat, extra easy, that is!

[right/bottom] Flaky Tender Pie Crust is a wonder! So many cooks have found useful information in the many tips and ideas in this step-by-step photo tutorial, How to Make Flaky Tender Pie Crust. This crust is made with half butter (for flavor) and half Crisco or lard (for tenderness). If you've lost your pie crust mojo, this just might help! (It did, for me, back in 2007 when our friend Anne Cori, aka the "Pie Whisperer", gave me a pie crust boot camp!

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2008 – 2010
Bacon, People! Plus Two Concept Recipes, Winter Stew & Red Quinoa Supper Salad

[left/top] Baked Bacon, how to cook perfect bacon in the oven, it's how Jerry cooks bacon every chance he gets! I appreciate that most of the bacon grease renders off, that makes for really nice crispy bacon. The bacon fat doesn't go to waste though, we collect it in a mason jar and use it for cooking.

[center] Winter Stew, this is such a useful recipe during the winter, especially because it needs only an hour in the oven, not an all-day cook. Winter Stew is what I call a "concept recipe" – start with a protein (beef, venison, pork, etc.) and then add on-hand vegetables and a small touch of fruit. Whatever the combo, it just seems to work. Last fall I tried some meaty pork ribs with tomatillos, oh that was good! Cook with confidence, no recipe required!

[right/bottom] Red Quinoa Salad Your Way is a wonderful choice for Meatless Monday, it always surprises the meat eaters at my table how satisfying a supper salad can be. Once again, this is a "concept recipe" – but with lots of tips on what to be sure to include to make the main-dish salad extra delicious.

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2011 – 2013
Homemade Granola, a Healthy-Grain Pilaf and a "No Big Deal"

[left/top] Homemade Granola with Almonds & Apricots is one recipe that a few years back, I'd never have guessed would make this list. But truly? I make this recipe over and over, it sits out on the counter in a pretty blue vintage mason jar. We don't eat granola as a breakfast cereal but it adds a nice bit of crunch and chew to our morning oatmeal, to a fruit salad or a Greek yogurt parfait, etc. This very week, I'm experimenting with a possible new ingredient that comes highly recommended!

[center] Oven-Baked Whole-Grain Pilaf with Quinoa, Barley, Kamut & Other Grains is itself an update from a long-time favorite recipe from A Veggie Venture, Cook’s Illustrated Foolproof Oven-Baked Brown Rice. But instead of or in addition to brown rice, I use a mixture of grains plus some spices. So good, this stuff and doesn't it just look like it tastes good?! Always a plus!

[right/bottom] No-Big-Deal Homemade Chicken Stock, there's just no counting how often I make stock, it's such an ingrained habit. Right now the basement freezer is overflowing with frozen chicken (and beef) stock, here's How to Freeze Stock in Canning Jars.

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2014 – 2016
An Exceptional Oatmeal, Supper on the Fly and a Vibrant Salad Dressing

[left/top] Creamy Oatmeal, oh my, this oatmeal, a blend of steel-cut and old-fashioned oats! If it were just me at the table, it's all there'd be for breakfast, one morning topped with fruit, another day with fried eggs, another day with leftover sautéed or roasted vegetables. It makes a big batch and keeps and reheats well so it's great for morning breakfast prep. A note, the post needs updating, today I use a lot more liquid, that means less stirring, easier cleanup and even fewer calories.

[center] Easy Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas are a go-to supper for me, in fact, I stock small cans of green chiles and bottles of salsa verde, just to make it on a whim whenever I stop by Sam's Club for prescriptions and a rotisserie chicken. The table lights up when I make these enchiladas!

[right/bottom] Orange & Cumin Vinaigrette is so handy, a super-simple salad dressing that's just brightens up greens and vegetables. If you make a salad every night, add this to your list of homemade salad dressings. Because really? This simple salad dressing is a stand-in for the many dressings I make one after the other, My Favorite Dressing, Apple Cider Vinaigrette, Buttermilk Garlic Ranch Salad Dressing, German Salad Dressing and Homemade Thousand Island Dressing.

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2017 – 2019
Recipes to Make Again and Again and Again

[left/top] Our Daily Bread: My Easy Everyday Bread Recipe is the single recipe that inspired this post because no doubt, this is the number one single recipe I've made in the past two years. For more than a year, I just made it again and again, we never tire of it, perhaps because I time the baking for warm just-from-the-oven slices when soup is on the supper menu? (The rest is used for morning toast, except we don't own a toaster anymore, we just brush on a little olive oil and make Fried Bread.) But in the last couple of months, I've adapted the recipe – just a few changes, all the same simplicity – into three entirely different breads plus hamburger/sandwich buns which I hope to share in 2018. Truly, I've fallen in love with recipes like this, they are central to how I cook now. I think of it as "fewer recipes, more variations".

[center] My Chicken Noodle Soup brings quiet, contented slurps to our table, no matter the zillion times how often I make it. It turns out, I'm super picky about chicken noodle soup and so over the years, I developed a technique that makes for a super-noodle-y soup with just a handful of noodles.

[right/bottom] My Everyday Creamy Herb Salad Dressing, it's another Master Recipe, thus rarely the same twice. Just as rare? My fridge without at least one squeeze bottle of this ranch-like dressing.

Most Useful Recipe 2020

My focus on my "most useful" recipes doesn't always point to the most exciting dishes. Useful is different, isn't it?

Take white rice. I can't tell you how often I put on a pot of rice 30 minutes before dinner.

Better yet? While I haven't yet updated the recipe yet, did you know that rice freezes beautifully? So now I make a 1.5x recipe, we eat some for dinner and the rest goes into small containers for the freezer. The next time I need cooked rice? Straight from the freezer to the microwave for two minutes! Hot rice as good as fresh-cooked!

But wait. Maybe "useful" is "exciting"!

• THE RECIPE How to Cook White Rice Basics done well, for dinner, for the freezer. (PIN This)
• ANOTHER TAKE Oven-Baked Brown Rice So good, make it every week. (PIN This)

Most Useful Recipe 2021

Reality was, I only published two new recipes in 2021. Life-wise, it was a hard year. I even wondered, from just two, would there even be one that's totally useful?

Lucky break, there was, there is!

Roasted vegetables are such a staple but this one stands apart because it mixes vegetables in an enticing way, it can be served hot or at room temperature, because of the brilliance of a last drizzle of balsamic vinegar ... I think you'll love this.

• THE RECIPE Roasted Mediterranean Vegetables A casual feast, even mid-winter. (PIN This)
• ANOTHER TAKE Tourlou Tourlou (Greek Baked Vegetables) A rainbow of vegetables slow-cooked in the oven.

Most Useful Recipe 2022

Thank you, thank you, readers. You stuck with me during lean new-recipe years. Are 17 new recipes in 2022 signs of a comeback? We'll see! If stacks of RTP (ready-to-publish) and WIP (work-in-process) recipes are a clue, maybe?!

Here's what I do know. My recipes are simpler but more distinct now and yet remain true to my vision of Kitchen Parade now twenty (twenty!) full years ago:"Fresh, seasonal recipes for everyday healthy living and occasional indulgences".

Yep. Still fits.

• THE SIMPLE TECHNIQUE How to Steam Eggs Simple technique for soft-cooked and hard-cooked both at once. (PIN This)
• ANOTHER SIMPLE TECHNIQUE How to Poach a Perfect Egg Step-by-step using Cook's Illustrated technique. (PIN This)

Most Useful Recipe 2023

For all the years I've been a serious cook, for all the recipes I've collected as "keepers," call me surprised that the Recipe Box (and my 3x5 card recipe box) still has holes.

So call me thrilled to fill a big hole, a homemade version of the vegetable stock I use several times a week. Better still? It's nearly all hands-off cooking, thanks to a slow cooker. Better still?? The ingredient list is super simple, vegetables you very well may keep on hand all the time. Better still??? So good!

My new-recipe count was up again in 2023 to 24, meeting my personal goal of two per month.

• THE RECIPE No-Big-Deal Vegetable Stock for the Slow Cooker Just 4 common vegetables, just 3 hours. (PIN This)
• ANOTHER TAKE No-Big-Deal Homemade Chicken Stock How to turn making chicken stock from a production into No-Big-Deal.

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More "Best of the Year" Favorite Recipes from Kitchen Parade

~ Kitchen Parade's Most Useful Recipes 2002 – Present (you're here) (PIN This)~

~ Best Recipes of 2015 (PIN This) ~
~ Best Recipes of 2014 ~
~ Best Recipes of 2013 ~
~ Best Recipes of 2012 ~
~ Best Recipes of 2011 ~
~ Best Recipes of 2010 ~
~ Best Recipes of 2009 ~
~ Best Recipes of 2008 ~
~ Best Recipes of 2007 ~
~ Best Recipes of 2006 ~
~ Best Recipes of 2005 (PIN This) ~
~ Best Recipes of 2004 (PIN This) ~
~ Best Recipes of 2003 (PIN This) ~
~ Best Recipes of 2002 ~

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Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail, you'll find my current address in the FAQs. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, for more scratch cooking recipes using whole, healthful ingredients, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. If you make this recipe, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below.

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