The Alt Table
Everyday home cooking from my table to yours.
Featured Table of the Month:
Every month, The Alt Table pulls up a chair at someone else’s table. I sit down with a new featured person, listen to the stories behind the food they love, and create recipes inspired by those memories. Here’s who’s at the table this month.
October 2026: Quinn’s Table
From a spotless kitchen in Chalfont, Pennsylvania, to a backyard chili party in Osceola, Wisconsin, this month’s recipes celebrate family favorites, happy accidents, and the joy of feeding the people you love.
Recipes from Quinn’s Table
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Cream Cheese Marbled Gooey Butter Cake Bars
This dessert bar is a direct inspiration from my Great Aunt Kathy’s butter cake, which I only recently learned is actually a classic St. Louis butter cake. Growing up, it was simply our family recipe. I loved helping my mom make it: pressing the yellow‑cake‑mix crust into the pan and spreading the rich cream‑cheese topping…
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Hearty Tomato Beef & Sausage Chili
Every fall, my husband and I host our annual chili lawn party. A tradition built on one simple promise: everyone gets a truly delicious bowl of chili. That means every year I have to deliver, and every year I try to make it better than the last. Chili is one of those dishes that rewards…
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Caramelized Onion & Sausage Mac and Cheese Bake
This baked mac and cheese is my take on the dish my mom made for every birthday, holiday, and family gathering. It was the kind of creamy, cheesy pasta that everyone went back for, and it’s still one of those recipes that instantly brings me home. Her version was rich and nostalgic, with full‑fat mayo,…
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Lemon-Garlic Shrimp Scampi
There are certain recipes that become part of your relationship’s lore — the meals that show up in stories years later, usually accompanied by laughter, a little embarrassment, or both. For my husband and me, one of those dishes is shrimp scampi. When we first started dating, I wanted to cook him something impressive but…
Freshly Served!
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Chuck Roast Lasagna with Pulled Beef
Why You’ll Love This Lasagna Ground beef lasagna is great, but pulled chuck roast takes it somewhere else. The beef is tender and rich, and it stays in real shreds between the layers instead of disappearing into the sauce. Add a quick tomato sauce built on anchovy and thyme, a creamy ricotta filling, and a…
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Orange Braised Chuck Roast: Tender Shredded Beef Recipe
Chuck roast is one of the most forgiving cuts for a cozy, low-effort dinner, and this version makes the most of it. A salt-and-pepper dry brine seasons the beef deeply, and a hard sear builds a rich crust. Then the orange braised chuck roast cooks low and slow in a Dutch oven with fresh orange…
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Vietnamese Coconut Iced Coffee (Easy 5-Minute Recipe)
Vietnamese Coconut Iced Coffee: My Favorite Souvenir from Vietnam In August, we traveled to Vietnam with friends. The flights were reasonable and the lodging was affordable, which, in hindsight, should have tipped me off. The timing was probably a mistake. We arrived to insane heat and even more insane humidity, bouncing between steamy rainstorms and…
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Brown Butter Sage Tortellini with Chicken (30-Minute Dinner)
I made this brown butter sage tortellini because I needed something quick to eat. I had two leftover chicken thighs in the freezer, and my sage was ready to be harvested from the garden, so dinner more or less decided itself. With fall settling in, I was craving anything warm and comforting, and that instantly…
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Olive Focaccia Loaf with Rosemary and Kalamata Olives
This olive focaccia loaf is baked in a bread pan, so you get a taller, softer slice than the usual sheet-pan version. The dough is very wet and sticky, closer to a thick batter than a traditional dough, and that’s what gives the crust its open, airy crumb. A stand mixer does most of the…
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Easy Pumpkin Pie Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting
Pumpkin pie is wonderful, but it isn’t exactly portable. These pumpkin pie bars give you the same warm, spiced flavor in a pan you can cut into squares and hand around the table, no pie server required. The base is a buttery crumb crust that doubles as the body of the bar. Over it goes…
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Whole BBQ Wings: Crispy Oven-Baked with Homemade Sauce
These whole BBQ wings get their crispy, golden skin from a simple baking powder rub and a hot oven, no frying required. They’re tossed in a homemade BBQ sauce that’s sweet, smoky, and tangy, built on ketchup, molasses, brown sugar, and a handful of pantry spices. Serve them whole with your favorite dips for game…
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Crunchy Chickpea Salad with Creamy Greek Yogurt Herb Dressing
This crunchy chickpea salad is crisp, bright, and loaded with fresh herbs. Shredded cabbage, cucumber, and Granny Smith apple are tossed in a zesty Greek yogurt dressing made with lime, jalapeño, cilantro, dill, and parsley, then topped with salty feta and oven-roasted chickpeas for crunch. It’s easy to prep in pieces, and the dressing, chickpeas,…
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Brie Chicken Pot Pie with Mushrooms, Leeks & Honey Thyme Crust
My favorite charcuterie bite is simple: a slice of brie on a cracker with a generous drizzle of honey. It’s creamy, salty, sweet, and gone in one bite. So I started wondering what would happen if I brought that combination to the ultimate comfort dish. This brie chicken pot pie is the answer. It’s rich…
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Philly-Style Tomato Pie
For me, this recipe is pure nostalgia. Almost every large gathering at home came with a tomato pie, and the best ones came from our runs to Altomontes Italian Market. You would be handed over a massive cardboard box and have to maneuver it into the car. I never could wait for the guests. We’d…
