Your picks for the best recipes, interviews and books of 2014

1. Classic Pizza Margherita
LYNNE ROSSETTO KASPER - "Thin, crisp crusts like this one are the hallmarks of much of Italy's pizza."
2. This year, roast the turkey while you sleep
ANDREW SCHLOSS - "Like all slow-roasting, the method is a snap and life-altering."
3. Homemade Creme Fraiche
LYNNE ROSSETTO KASPER - "With more body and complex flavors than fresh sweet cream, creme fraiche is a thick, rich, custard of a cream."
4. Homemade Nutella
CHRISTIE MATHESON - "Temptation lurks in your very own pantry, every second of the day, with this made-from-scratch rendition."
5. The secret to real pho is the stock
LYNNE ROSSETTO KASPER - "If you look at the one food that kitchen folks eat more than anything else, it is noodle soup."
6. Filipino-Style Chicken Adobo
LYNNE ROSSETTO KASPER and SALLY SWIFT - "That aroma of a browning, marinade-saturated chicken can drive you crazy."
7. Curing Your Own Bacon
KAREN SOLOMON - "Nothing could be simpler than makin' bacon, the king of all fried meats."
8. Salt block cooking 101: Don't clean it in a dishwasher
LYNNE ROSSETTO KASPER - "It's essentially the crystallized soul of a 600-million-year-old ocean."
9. 10 ways to flavor whipped cream
ALICE MEDRICH - "As much as I adore plain whipped cream, I also love that it can be flavored."
10. Thaw your steaks quickly and safely in 100-degree water
LYNNE ROSSETTO KASPER - "Most of the time, what people told you to do was thaw things in the refrigerator, which in a way is the worst of all possible worlds for the cook."

1. David Sedaris on his father: 'He would eat in his underpants'
LYNNE ROSSETTO KASPER - "He would eat in his underpants, and then he would leave the second he was finished."
2. The correct way to slice an onion: 5 cooking rules explained
SALLY SWIFT - "You wouldn’t think the potato would require such TLC, but it does."
3. 3 tools you don't need in your kitchen
CAL PETERNELL - "I don't even know why it's called a cutting board."
4. Pho Ga (Chicken Noodle Soup)
CHARLES PHAN - "Bowls of pho are the hamburgers of Vietnam: incredibly popular, eaten every day by a majority of the population, young and old."
5. How a teacher's anonymous blog exposed school lunches
LYNNE ROSSETTO KASPER - "I paid $3 for a bagel dog, a few tater tots and a fruit cup. I just couldn't believe what I saw on my tray."
6. Photographer takes voyeuristic peek inside refrigerators
LYNNE ROSSETTO KASPER - "With each photograph, there is a little bit of information about the owner -- just enough to be a starting place for the imagination."
7. You cook with capers, but do you know what they really are?
SALLY SWIFT - "If you tasted an olive without any curing, it's horrible; it's bitter. It's the same for the caper."
8. Five-Minute Artisan Bread
JEFF HERTZBERG and ZOE FRANCOIS
9. Mexican Hot Chocolate Shortbread
CHERYL DAY and GRIFFITH DAY - "These cookies taste like a mug of rich hot chocolate."
10. Supernatural Brownies
NICK MALGIERI - "Though the name sounds an exaggeration, you’ll agree that these brownies are absolutely out of this world."

1. Building a Soup
LYNNE ROSSETTO KASPER and SALLY SWIFT - "You can dictate the character of your soup by how you decide to start cooking it."
2. Nine meat-free ideas for using your slow cooker
SALLY SWIFT - "It's like your sous chef or your prep cook."
3. Oatmeal for breakfast will make you happier, and 3 other tips
DAN BUETTNER - "Start your day with oatmeal and walnuts and you'll be 20-30 percent happier all day long."
4. The 12 bottles you need to stock your home bar
JENNIFER RUSSELL - "Genever is our ringer, the one that surprises everybody."
5. Bourbon, Chocolate, and Walnut Pecan Pie
DAVID ROSENGARTEN
6. Who owns quinoa?
LYNNE ROSSETTO KASPER - "For him and other Aymara people, this volcano was a god. It was this god who gave them quinoa."
7. You are probably doing it wrong: How to eat pasta like an Italian
DAVID LEITE - "Tortellini only goes in broth. Although the whole world is going to hell in a handbasket -- even in Bologna you will find tortellini served with sauce."
8. The Cro-Mags' John Joseph: 'To me, cooking is meditation, man'
NOELLE CARTER - "I was just searching for a way out of the madness."
9. Perfect Iced Coffee
COUNTER CULTURE COFFEE COMPANY - "Our preferred 'Japanese' iced coffee method is a surefire formula for iced coffee success."
10. Mexican Hot Chocolate Shortbread
CHERYL DAY and GRIFFITH DAY - "These cookies taste like a mug of rich hot chocolate."

1. Agee's Pecan Pie
CHRISTOPHER HIRSHEIMER and MELISSA HAMILTON - "When you eat Agee’s pie, send your thanks heavenward."
2. Buttermints
LIZ GUTMAN and JEN KING - "Buttermints are great as homemade party favors, since you can get multiple colors out of a single batch and mix and match as you please."
3. Pho Ga (Chicken Noodle Soup)
CHARLES PHAN - "Bowls of pho are the hamburgers of Vietnam: incredibly popular, eaten every day by a majority of the population, young and old."
4. Frozen Lemon Meringue
VIVIENNE POLAK - "This delicious frozen lemon meringue is my all-time go-to gluten-free recipe."
5. Charcoal chimneys will change your life, Adam Rapoport says
JENNIFER RUSSELL - "Sometimes you win, and sometimes the grill beats you. You don’t always get the steak a perfect medium-rare, but when you do, you’re thrilled."
6. Leek and Potato Soup
"The master recipe and variations (Primal Soups) are the basic soups, the least complicated and often the most loved."
7. Honest-to-Goodness Margaritas for a Crowd
RICK BAYLESS - "This margarita is the real thing: purity and refreshing freshness that's strained into martini glasses after a vigorous rumble with ice cubes in a cocktail shaker."
8. French Lentil Salad with Goat Cheese and Walnuts
DAVID LEBOVITZ - "This is my number-one, go-to salad, and I make it frequently because it's fast, easy, and keeps well for days."
9. Splendid Genever Cup
LESLEY and DAVID SOLMONSON
10. Basic Dipping Sauce: Nuoc Cham
ANDREA NGUYEN

1. Homemade Liqueurs and Infused Spirits
ANDREW SCHLOSS - [interview] "It’s like no work, and you have this amazing-tasting and amazing-looking thing."
2. The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day
JEFF HERTZBERG and ZOE FRANCOIS - [interview] "The key to time-saving in ours ... is that you mix it once, store it with the right hydration and you can bake it over 2 weeks."
3. Italian Holidays: Eating In with Lynne Rossetto Kasper, Issue 3
LYNNE ROSSETTO KASPER - Recipes from the book: Frozen Italian Trifle, Sicilian Cauliflower and Endive Spears with Fig-Onion Jam
4. Salt Block Cooking
MARK BITTERMAN - [interview] "It's essentially the crystallized soul of a 600-million-year-old ocean."
5. Twelve Recipes
CAL PETERNELL - [interview] "It's sort of a funny thing for me to say as a restaurant chef, but my advice to my sons and to everyone is to cook at home at least most of the time."
6. Cooking Slow
ANDREW SCHLOSS - [interview] "I always wanted to have something cooking while I was sleeping."
7. The Banh Mi Handbook
ANDREA NGUYEN - [interview] "It's a funny word because it means bread. It also means sandwich."

8. The 12 Bottle Bar
DAVID and LESLEY SOLMONSON - [interview] "Genever is our ringer, the one that surprises everybody."
9. Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home
JENI BRITTON BAUER - [interview] "Water is your enemy in ice cream."
10. One Good Dish
DAVID TANIS - [interview] "Things begin to unravel when people don’t cook at home."