Recipes

Dorcas Reilly (1926–2018), creator of the green bean casserole

Dorcas Reilly first created the iconic green bean casserole in 1955 while working as a staff member in the kitchen at the Campbell Soup Company. Cream of Mushroom soup was a popular base for casseroles around the country, but Reilly was the first to add frozen green beans. Campbell Soup estimates that around 40 percent of their sales of cream of mushroom soup goes towards making green bean casserole.

Mom's Old Handwritten Recipes

Long before the internet became a storage center for any recipe you could ever wish to cook, moms had a different system for finding the recipes they’d use to feed their families. They wrote them down on recipe cards and stored them by the hundreds in recipe boxes and binders.

The Taste of Beautiful Memories

Making favorite family recipes helps us hold onto the loved ones we miss most.

Pan de Muerto: The Bread Baked Just Once a Year

If you had a recipe for a deliciously fluffy, sugary and aromatic bread, would you make it just once a year? You would if it were pan de muerto.

Lefse

For Lisa's Norwegian family, Thanksgiving isn't complete without the soft flatbread lefse, a dish that always reminds the family of their mother-grandmother, Emma.

Kapusca (Sauerkraut)

The Polish dishes she prepares at Thanksgiving remind Estelle of her father, who loved them all.

Pasteles

Every Thanksgiving, Maddie's family looked forward to her mom’s pasteles.

Rice Pilaf

Lee finds a special way to connect with lost loved ones when making rice pilaf.

Soup With Little Meatballs

After Chuck's mom died unexpectedly at 63, he recreated her soup recipe in her memory.

Galaktoboureko (Phyllo Custard Squares)

Sue shared her family's recipe for Galaktoboureko, a deliciously rich and sweet dish that is one of those must-have Greek dishes at her family Thanksgiving.

Nana's Scones

My favorite story about Nana involves her legendary baking skill. Nana was already a mother when she emigrated from England to America in 1909, and with her came favorite recipes from her home in the industrial north.

My Italian Grandmother’s Lentil Soup

Author Jodi Moreno remembers a hearty, comforting lentil stew.

Bubba's Thumb Print Cookies

Dan Pashman, creator and host of the James Beard Award-nominated WNYC podcast The Sporkful , grew up baking Thumb Print Cookies with his mother in the family's New Jersey kitchen.

Hearty Short Rib Stew: A Food Network Star's Family Recipe

Duff Goldman, the pastry chef behind Food Network’s ‘Ace of Cakes,’ shares a recipe that figures deeply into his family history.

Mamo's Mushroom Barley Soup With Short Ribs

Duff Goldman shares his Grandma's recipe for Mushroom Barley Soup with Short Ribs.