Rose sugar

Shortbread

Annie Starke is an actress, self-taught cook and mental health advocate. She grew up in Bedford, New York and lives in Bozeman, Montana with her husband. She’s always had a passion for entertaining and loves to cook amazing effortless meals indoors and over the fire at her family’s mountain ranch.

Annie Starke

My grandma used to make buttery shortbread cookies for special occasions. I’ve zhuzhed up her recipe with my own ingredient — rose sugar.

Rose Shortbread Cookies

Meet The Creator

Some of my favorite memories growing up include eating dumplings around the table with my mom's side of the family. I knew I couldn't make today's menu

Magnolia Table with Joanna Gaines: Season 5, Episode 4

The first episode of my cooking show is finally here and I can’t wait for you to see what we’ve been cooking up this year! Playing with recipes, baking,

Magnolia Table with Joanna Gaines: Episode 1

I've been a dad for the better part of two decades now, which is crazy to think about. Every single day, I get to watch my kids grow up and chase after their

My Greatest Adventure

There is an unexpected delight that comes with the blend of cherry and chocolate. My dad’s sister used to make these candies every year around the holidays, and his love for them became my own. I asked my aunt Mary if I could share her recipe in this book and she gladly obliged—and there’s no doubt I’ll be adding it to the lineup of treats I make every holiday season.

Joanna Gaines's Aunt Mary's Cherry Mashers

Aunt Mary's Cherry Mashers

This is my favorite banana bread. For this recipe, we make two loaves of banana bread with the same batter — one loaf with a decadent swirl of Nutella, and the other simple, plain, and delicious.

Banana Bread

I love to eat all kinds of food, but in all honesty if you told me I could have only one thing every day for the rest of my life, it would be mac and cheese. I realize this is exactly the choice that many eight-year-olds I know would make, and I’m okay with that. I first had this recipe, which has become my favorite, at my friend Becki’s house. Her family has become a part of our own, and she knows just how much I love mac and cheese. It has become a tradition of ours that every time we join her family for dinner at their house, she makes this side for us. It’s simple and creamy enough to please all the kids, while the blend of cheeses and optional crispy panko topping makes it feel interesting to adults. Since I started making this recipe for my own family, my favorite things to pair it with are Almond Chicken Tenderloins (page 211) or Meat Loaf (page 259).

Becki's Mac and Cheese

I started this year with one resolution: have more fun. I used to love roller skating when I was a kid, so I bought a pair for my girls and me. Now I bring my

Magnolia Table with Joanna Gaines: Season 6, Episode 4

During the holidays, I love to make these cookies to give to neighbors. They are buttery and rich with just the right amount of vanilla. Rolling the dough in sugar makes them sparkly and festive, and you can also vary the type of jam you use. Sometimes I will make a batch and fill a few with blueberry jam, a few with raspberry jam, and a few with apricot jam. The color variation is beautiful and the different fruit flavors make it hard to just have one cookie!

Butter Thumbprint Cookies with Jam Filling

Food for thought: Why not dress up a breakfast staple with a few special additions? In this recipe, you'll take scratch-made pancakes and top them with

Pecan Pancakes with Maple Butter Recipe

Do you like happiness? If you don’t, then this recipe isn’t for you. But if you do, then let’s make my macaroni and cheese together. This is the dish that put me on the map. It’s the one everyone talks about and the one that every person who comes over for dinner begs me to make. And the beauty is, it’s so simple. You’ll have friends begging you for this recipe.

Macaroni and Cheese

Roasted mushrooms are one of my favorite dishes to make when hosting friends for dinner because it's so easy to throw them on a sheet pan and let the oven do the work. You can really build on the richness of the mushrooms by pairing it with a simple vinaigrette. As with the Honey Mustard-Glazed Pork Tenderloin, this was inspired by a dish in The Fresh Honey Cookbook by one of my dear late friends, Laurey Masterton. Laurey was wildly passionate about a lot of things, and one of those was bees and honey. It was an honor to be able to recreate some of Laurey's dishes for a dinner on From the Source, incorporating a few of my own touches along the way.

Katie Button's Roasted Mushrooms with Honey Vinaigrette

Roasted Mushrooms with Honey Vinaigrette

One of the great things about living on a farm is that we always have a surplus of fresh eggs in the barn. Gathering these colorful beauties never gets old. Our family eats fresh eggs at almost every breakfast, so I’ve got to change things up for them every now and then. Quiche is simple to make and tastes so good—plus it uses up a lot of eggs—so I have a bunch of great recipes for it. I love its versatility and the fact that it surpasses the sum of its parts. Whether it’s served at an elegant brunch or at the breakfast table, a beautiful quiche makes the moment seem a bit more celebratory. Depending on how much time I have, I either make my own pie crust or use a store-bought one.

Photograph by Carson Downing. Produced by Scott J. Johnson. Styling by Billy Jack Brawner. Food Styling by Charles Worthington.

Mushroom, Spinach & Swiss Cheese Quiche

Having a cozy space devoted to opening up your favorite book makes reading that much better, especially for the kids. With summer vacation on the horizon and

Creating a Book Nook

This sweet, smoky, spicy salsa is a great accompaniment to a classic grilled tri-tip. It’s also great on its own with tortilla chips or as an addition to tacos, steaks, or eggs. (When I make it, I try to keep some around for breakfast the next morning, but it’s so good that we usually end up eating it all at dinner.) The key to the salsa’s complex flavor is to grill the vegetables so that their skin gets a nice charred, smoky flavor; then add some fresh sweet corn. If you want to make the salsa without firing up the grill, you can get a similar result by toasting your vegetables over a flame on the stove or blackening them a bit under the broiler.

Fire Roasted Salsa

I’ve been a mom for fifteen years now, which means I’ve read my fair share of children’s books. In the last couple of years spent reading to my youngest son,

The World Needs Who You Were Made To Be: A Look At the Inspiration Behind My New Children's Book

Tonight’s episode was a new adventure for us—a loft! This was our first loft to feature on the show, and it came with its own set of design challenges. My

Fixer Upper Season 5, Episode 16

Every home in Ireland has their own soda bread recipe, and this is mine. It's a quick, simple recipe that I absolutely love. I'm using dried cherries here, but you can add whatever you want to the dough, including other dried fruit or nuts. You can even make it savory with cheese or olives.

Irish Soda Bread

Chicken Marsala is one of my dad’s favorite dishes. I learned to make this recipe by cooking it for him over time. This recipe has a really delicious balance of Marsala, mushrooms, garlic, and lemon. It’s an easy stovetop meal that can be made quickly, but is satisfying and rich in flavor.

Chicken Marsala

I remember a pork chop recipe from my childhood that my mother cooked often. She simmered the chops in cream with sprigs of fresh rosemary, filling our kitchen with an incredible aroma. This recipe was inspired by those moments, adding in a couple tricks of my own. I start by brining the pork chops to keep them nice and juicy through the cooking process, then removing them from the simmering sauce when they are just done, to keep them from overcooking. The wet brine used here works well for any quick-cooking leaner meat. Essentially, the recipe creates a brine concentrate to quickly dissolve the salt and sugar so it can be cooled quickly by combining it with cold water and ice.

Katie Button's Pork Chops in Rosemary-Mustard Cream Sauce

Pork Chops in Rosemary-Mustard Cream Sauce

I had a version of this citrus guacamole at a restaurant that is no longer open, and it was so delicious that I created my own version. The pop of citrus in your mouth is unexpected and pairs beautifully with the rich butteriness of avocados. The flavors keep building as you eat it. You can use oranges, grapefruits, or whatever your favorite citrus fruit is! I’m sure you’ll love this recipe so much it will become your go-to guac recipe.