Photo: Joy the Baker

Did you ever want to eat something delicious so badly that you felt the urge to forego a knife and fork, and just tear off pieces of the cake/pie/roast chicken with your bare hands and devour them immediately? Cavewomen of the world, we have the bread for you. Whether you call it monkey bread or simply pull-apart bread, this treat is made to be pulled apart with your hands. Check out these three recipes, then leave the knife in the drawer and roll up your sleeves.

Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread from Joy the Baker
Pile sheets of this yeasty, soft, cinnamon sugar bread into a loaf pan. Thirty minutes later, you're in comfort-food heaven.

Garlic Parmesan Pull-Apart Bread from The Pastry Affair
Instead of sheets, this bread consists of little dough balls rolled in a garlic herb butter and sprinkled with freshly grated Parmesan cheese. It's perfect served with a side of marinara or tomato sauce.

Photo: Thinkstock

For most chefs, an ordinary day at the office requires tasting and perfecting dish after dish and consuming hundreds of calories in the process. But it turns out, many top chefs have discovered some surprisingly tasty ways to keep the pounds at bay. Here are a few tantalizing suggestions put forth in Smart Chefs Stay Slim, a new book detailing the eating strategies of today’s culinary superstars:
 
Realize nothing is good to the last bite. “The most compelling part of a dish is the first three or four bites,” explains Thomas Keller of the three-Michelin-starred restaurants French Laundry and Per Se. “That’s when you get the maximum pleasure.” The takeaway: Move on to another course after a few forkfuls—or step away from the table altogether.
 
Delight in dessert. Le Bernardin’s Eric Ripert and Oprah’s former personal chef Art Smith (who lost 85 pounds three years ago) are two big-time chefs who allow themselves to indulge in a little bit of chocolate every day. As for other treats, Smith advises, “You have to say to them: ‘Yeah, you’re a friend of mine, but you can’t visit very often.’”
 
Stop being scared of salt.  For those of us not watching our sodium intake, the spice can make a typical dieter’s meal—baked chicken, anyone?—taste better. “It’s got to be in the cooking [not added later],” says celeb chef Marc Murphy. “Salt brings the flavor out...Don’t. Be. Afraid.”

Photo: Mom's Killer Cakes & Cookies

While April showers (thunderstorms, heavy downpours and hail, actually) cross the country this week, we're taking comfort in these delicious foods, from the spring-iest macarons to one of Georgia's national treasures.

Cherry Blossom Cake Pops
If don't live in an area where these blooming pink floral beauties are on display, you can live vicariously...through Cherry Blossom Cake Pops, a Sakura Cherry Blossom Roll Cake or Cherry Blossom Macarons.

Morel Mushrooms
In most of the country, these mushrooms, which have an earthy, nutty, steak-like flavor, grow from early to mid-April through mid-June. (If you're The Great Lakes region, lucky you: this area tends to see the first morels of the season.) Check out this helpful more sightings map to see if anyone's spotted them near where you live.

Photo: Hannah Whitaker

Three TV food stars reveal their favorite way to transform any cheesecake recipe from simple to spectacular.
            
 "Substitute soft goat cheese for half the cream cheese in your recipe to add a fresh tanginess."       
—Anne Burrell, host of Secrets of a Restaurant Chef            
           
"I mix a teaspoon of rose water and half a teaspoon of ground cardamom into the batter, then garnish with a generous sprinkle of chopped pistachios. It tastes so delicate and lovely!"             —Aarti Sequeira, host of Aarti Party            
           
"I love substituting a gingersnap crust for the usual graham cracker. Just pulse gingersnap cookies into crumbs in a food processor. Mix with melted butter, then press the mixture down in the bottom of your cheesecake pan and bake for ten minutes."      
—Gina Neely, cohost of Down Home with the Neelys

Keep Reading     
Strawberry-buttermilk baked doughnuts recipe
The new delicious: creamy, crunchy, crumbly treats to try

Photo: Ditte Isager

Lamb and ham are traditional centerpieces of the holiday meal, but they don't need to be stressful, spend-all-day-in-the-kitchen affairs. These four recipes (two for each meat) are low-stress but special enough for the big day.

The Flowery, Springy Lamb Dish
Dan Barber, of the Westchester County, N.Y., farm and restaurant Blue Hill at Stone Barns, braises lamb shank and serves it with haricots verts mixed with hazelnuts, balsamic vinegar, and whole grain mustard. Marigold petals are a fun last-minute addition.
Get the recipe: Braised Lamb Shanks

A Spiced and Slowly Roasted Lamb
Slow-roasting leg of lamb scented with salt, pepper, cumin, coriander and mint, and stuffed with onion and garlic turns the meat meltingly tender. A plum-ginger chutney is the perfect accompaniment.
Get the recipe: Grilled Leg of Lamb with Pearl Onion and Plum Chutney

Ham That's Simple, Sweet and Salted Just Right
Ina Garten starts with a 14- to 16-pound ham, and bastes it with a glaze made from garlic, mango chutney, Dijon mustard, light brown sugar, and orange juice and zest. She bakes it for an hour and serves the succulent finished dish hot or at room temperature.
Get the recipe: Baked Country Ham

Photo: Thinkstock

We know a blunt knife is more dangerous than a sharp one, but how do you really know when your trusty 8-inch tool needs a tune-up? Here are three simple tests:

1. The onion dice. You shouldn't be crying your eyes out when chopping . If you are, your knife needs honing, since a less sharp blade crushes an onion instead of cutting it, which releases more gas into the air and makes you weep more.

2. The tomato slice. The knife should be able to cut a ripe tomato with almost no downward pressure. If the skin doesn't puncture, the blade is dull.

3. The paper cut. A razor-sharp knife will slash a piece of paper with a clean cut. If the paper winds up torn, with ragged edges, the blade isn't up to snuff.

Keep reading for suggestions on how to use a knife sharpening steel.

Photo: Hawthorne & Wren

Easter is the second most important candy-eating occasion of the year for Americans, who consumed 7 billion pounds of candy in 2011, according to the National Confectioner's Association. But these baked goodies make a strong case for breaking with tradition...at least until all the standard stuff goes on sale April 9.

Instead of marshmallow chicks, try...
Hawthorne & Wren's Donut Muffins. These cinnamon-sugar bombs have the same light, sweet coating as a marshmallow chick or bunny (they also freeze just as well), but are free of the finger-dying neon color. The company sends 20 in a basket lined with a green linen napkin, and is offering free shipping on all Easter orders.

Instead of jelly beans, try...
Magnolia Bakery's Easter Cookie Basket. This beautiful basket delivers the same color punch as bowl full of jelly beans, consisting of miniature meringues in pastel green, pink, blue, lavender, yellow and cream, plus a dozen lemon shortbread cookies, half dipped in chocolate, the other half rimmed in purple sugar.

Instead of a chocolate bunny, try...
Rocq's Sweetheart Macaron Collection. A plastic-wrapped chocolate bunny is nice, but just doesn't have the same "oh la la" factor as a pearly white box filled with 24 Parisian cookies. The package includes four varieties: dark chocolate, raspberry, peach mango and red velvet, and shipping is free.

Photo: Thinkstock

Lunch box standby, casserole filler, and salad heavyweight, tuna gets a lot of love from American eaters--we consume 31 percent of the world's canned tuna products, about 3 pounds per person per year. If you've always bought the same supermarket brand, though, there are a number of strong arguments for branching out. Aside from the fact that four-star, non-commercial tuna is sustainable, here are more points to consider.

1. It's lower in mercury. Non-commercial (and often family-run) fisheries get smaller fish, which contain less mercury--sometimes less than half the mercury you'll find in conventional brands' tuna. Henry & Lisa's, which sells its solid white albacore tuna in some 3,500 grocery and natural food stores around the country, also uses BPA-free cans.

2. It's higher in omega 3s. Wild Planet's tuna--which comes in albacore and skipjack varieties, also in BPA-free cans--has 3,460 mg of the heart-healthy fatty acids (which is 6 times more than some conventional brands). American Tuna's has 8,000 to 10,000.

Photo: Thinkstock

Resourceful cooks know that if you have eggs, cheese and some sort of grain, you can probably assemble a decent dish out of leftovers from last night's dinner. Frittatas, stir-fries and soups are all in the repertoires of anyone whose mantra is "there's no reason to toss this perfectly good food." Except sometimes, there is a reason: you're sick of frittatas, stir-fries and soups.

The solution is as easy as a hand-held treat that also happens to be one of the most foolproof baked goods you can make. I'm talking about muffins, which allow for infinite variations. While they're best known in their sweet form--blueberry, lemon poppy seed, banana-cinnamon-nutmeg-applesauce-walnut--savory muffins are just as delicious. Here's how to turn three common leftovers into the perfect breakfast, snack or lunch or dinner side.

Roasted or mashed sweet potatoes: Use these beta-carotene-rich vegetables in place of pumpkin in this recipe (one-and-a-half to two medium sweet potatoes will give you a cup of sweet potato puree), and try adding chopped dates along with the pecans or walnuts.

Photo: Thinkstock

It might be a little early to pack up the casserole recipes, but the season of longer days and lighter food is finally upon us.  To celebrate, we've got a half dozen food-focused activities to try:

1. Add some color to your dinner tonight. Garnish the plates with herbs or edible flowers such a mint and nasturtium, or see this slideshow of 45 satisfying salads, which provides tons of inspiration.

2. Plant herbs on the windowsill. Urban farmer Gayla Trailer explains which ones offer the biggest rewards in the shortest amount of time.

3. Spring clean your kitchen. Or just your fridge. Or simply...the counter. These 9 window, countertop and floor cleaners smell so good, you'll actually look forward to the dirty work. Plus, having a spotless workspace will  make assembling meals much more pleasant.