I’m writing this from Wisconsin’s Northwoods, where I’m spending a few days with my closest childhood friends. We’ve been exhaling from all our life things and breathing in the fresh lake air. There’s been good food (like these summer cottage recipes), sub-par fishing, great storytelling and a truly impressive amount of cry-laughing. It’s exactly what we all needed! (Of course, I brought my Polaroid.) And honestly, what better way to spend Labor Day?
Labor Day honors the workers who fought for many of the things we often take for granted today, from safer workplaces to weekends spent with family and friends. It feels perfect, then, that I’m spending this holiday doing exactly that—spending time with people I love.
And while I’m enjoying this little pause, I’m already thinking about the week ahead. The post-holiday week calls for easy dinners, recipes that use fewer dishes and some that don’t require a second trip to the grocery store. If you’re anything like me, you probably already spent a good chunk of your grocery budget on the long weekend. Poor man's steak tomorrow it is! And in my case, our dishwasher just broke, so I’m suddenly very interested in meals that leave behind as little evidence as possible, like one-pan Tuscan ravioli. (No joke: It’s currently housing our saucepan and skillet lids.)
"The post-holiday week calls for easy dinners, recipes that use fewer dishes and some that don’t require a second trip to the grocery store."
The recipes in our Fresh from the Test Kitchen section below fit the bill this week—and give me a reason to introduce you to Ellie, one of our talented Culinary Producers. Ellie food styles, photographs and creates recipe videos, and she has a great eye for making food look as delicious as it tastes. You’ll see her work below, plus an amazing hack she filmed for Taste of Home’s Instagram.
Ellie in her element!
And finally, if you’re enjoying this newsletter, would you consider forwarding it to a friend? The best recipes are the ones we share, and I'd love to welcome a few more people into the Taste of Home community.
Use your stand mixer to shred chicken. Sounds odd, but it works!
Your stand mixer isn’t just for cookies. Use it to shred cooked chicken breasts in seconds for any number of shredded chicken recipes. It’s one of those "why didn’t I think of that?" kitchen tricks. Trust Ellie on this one.
We've partnered with Plugrà Premium European Style Butter to find this year's top pie recipes, and we think one may just be in your recipe box. We're hungry for apple-quince with a lattice top, spiced Mexican chocolate silk, your grandma's brown butter chess pie, or something we can't even imagine—yet. Share your best pie recipe between August 6 and September 14, 2026, for the chance to win $800, $500 or $200 from Taste of Home and Plugrà .
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