Eating

'Tis the season for handheld snacks. Sometime between now and the end of New Year's Day, you're gonna eat some chips. So let's think about making Better Cheaper Chips. Chips that taste better. Chips that are actually healthy foods, not junk.

A cheese that puts the party in dinner party. A tradition that combines sitting around a fire with sharing and passing around good food. What more could you want?

Quick and simple to make. Less than 15 cents per piece. Every bite's a little party in your mouth. Light, fun, interesting, beautiful. Almost fat-free. Want to come back as roasted vegetable sushi in your next life?

This turns out so spectacularly well you'll be amazed you made it yourself. It tastes and smells so ... complex. But its preparation isn't even slightly complicated - and it takes less than one hour, start to first mouthful. The first in a series of seriously festive holiday meals.

When time is short and your holiday to-do list is long, make dessert. Prep the shortcake biscuit dough in five minutes flat. Seven to ten minutes in a 450-degree oven and you've got a killer dessert for $1. Like this Pear & Maple Syrup Shortcake.

It's "just" a warm salad, but it comes with two important lessons. First, how to eat seasonally when it seems like a lot of delicious things aren't in season. Second, how to get enough Vitamin K to maintain your bone health.

You could call this Shepherd's Pie. You could call it hachis Parmentier. Or you could call it leftovers. A Meat & Potato Pie that's the best leftover dish of the season. For half the price of a Big Mac with fries.