Dennis Weaver

It is easy to make light summertime pizzas using fresh vegetables. In this article we tell you how to make a crispy crusted pizza with the right toppings and a good baking strategy.

You can make quick and easy sandwhich cookies with graham crackers. While chocolate fudge might be the most popular, others include cream cheese frosting, cream cheese with fruit such as strawberries or pineapple, and marshmallow cream. This article gives you ideas and a recipe to make your own graham crackers--homemade is better--and a recipe to make your own marshmallow cream.

Homemade granola is very good. It's much better than the store-bought varieties. Fresh from the oven, warm, and made with your favorite ingredients, it makes a great snack or breakfast cereal. But it's hard to get it to clump up as it should. Granola should have clumps that are chewy and tasty, not just a mixture of rolled cereals. We'll tell you the secret and give you a recipe for great granola that clumps.

Cinnamon chips are the most versatile baking chips?even more so than chocolate chips. If your recipe calls for cinnamon or would be good with cinnamon, consider adding cinnamon chips. So you can use them in everything from cookies, to breads, to pancakes. This article explains how to add cinnamon chips to many of your favorite recipes. It includes two sample recipes that have been developed and tested in a professional test kitchen.

The first time I made this pie, it took me 14 minutes. Now, I already had all the ingredients staged—sitting on the counter. If you familiarize yourself with the recipe before, don't dawdle, and have everything sitting on the counter ready to measure, you really can make a 15 minute apple pie. That includes making the pie crust (from a mix) and peeling, coring, and slicing the apples (with an apple peeler).

You can make great bread, muffins, and cookies with either fresh or canned pumpkin. There are two ways to use fresh pumpkin: grated or pureed. If grated pumpkin, you will have flecks of deep orange and the bits of pumpkin create a chewier texture. Or you can use pumpkin purée. This article tells you how to make pumpkin puree from fresh pumpkins and use it in baking. It includes a recipe for pumpkin bread.

Everyone loves cheesecakes but it's nice to have no-bake alternatives in your recipe box. They are easier, lighter, and smother than baked cheesecakes. Since they are less rich and cool, they are delightful in the summer or any time a lighter dessert is desired. This article describes the method for making no-bake cheesecakes so that the reader can create his or her own favorite desserts.

On a busy day, it's nice to have quick meal recipes in your arsenal—that are good. These are both good and super quick; most you can make in minutes. This article shares six quick recipes for melted sandwiches. Each is made with toasted English muffins, spread with a filling, and topped with cheese. The sandwiches are cooked for about five minutes under the broiler until the cheese melts.

Cheesecakes are simple and should be problem free but occasionally, they arise. We've been baking cheesecakes—and teaching classes—for many years. We've heard questions about lumps and cracks, and crusts. In this article, we answer those questions and give the reader solutions.

A baked Alaska is a magnificent affair, a perfect holiday or summertime dessert. Imagine a cake piled high with ice cream and then covered with meringue. This article tells you how to do it with a proven recipe and tips for success. You can vary your dessert with different choices of ice cream, cake, or by adding different flavors and colors to the meringue. Every cook should have this easy recipe.