This fresh-tasting chicken salad is a favorite of Columbia Mayor Brian Treece and Mary Phillips, both at home on hot summer nights or at church or boy scout potlucks.

Helen Washburn, past President of Cottey College, brings her mother’s treasured eggplant recipe. She sometimes made it with zucchini!

Anne Deaton brings us a great bread choice for all fish, meats, and chili - a quick and easy-to-make family favorite!

This recipe starts with a sourdough starter and teaches you how to make sourdough bread. Enjoy the process!

Flo, mother of Kay Libbus, always served her famous Barbeque beans as one of the side dishes. She made this in a casserole but Kay has adapted it for the slow cooker. A yummy side dish!

Shepherd’s Pie was the centerpiece of a family dinner in Ely for Phoebe Welsh. She brings it to us today!

I first tasted a version of the bean salad below at my mother-in-law’s table.

From Milan, Italy to Portland, Oregon, this tiramisù recipe is a sweet treat brought to us from Cinzia Holman.

Aside from the importance of accurate measurements when baking, Mom’s advice for a moist, flaky crust was simple: “Leave it alone.”

In the heat of summer, I love to buy squash blossoms at the farmers market and fry them as a delicious side dish or appetizer. Super simple, quite a treat.

This dish is a family favorite and is a vegetarian dish!

Everyone ate my mother’s crust, down to the last crumb. During a phone call from across the country decades ago, I spontaneously asked her for the recipe, and scribbled it on a blank envelope lying nearby. When she died suddenly a few years later, I knew I would never get around to transcribing that simple, stained note that told so much about this tradition. My astute husband stole it from my recipe book one Christmas and gave it back to me in a simple frame, to better preserve something that clearly meant so much.

 The quiche filling recipe is originally from Epicurious’s Madame Quiche’s Quiche au Fromage, modified a bit here and there from experience.

The product of an excellent cook and baker as a mother, Greg Cecil brings us a chicken dish with parsnips and carrots that is equal parts delicious and easy to clean up! The parsnips and carrots provide some contrasting flavors.

Donna and Arved Larsen are the parents of Dr. Soren Larsen, Chair of the MU Department of Geography. This delicious Larsen family recipe for Grammie’s Orange Biscuits has traveled from Illinois to Columbia and will now become part of The Common Ingredient’s shared comfort food lore.

As a professional Chef mid-summer brings Daniel Pliska joy and a season of tomatoes. Juicy, flavorful, and full ripeness kissed by the sun! Try this rich cream of tomato fennel soup for you and yours.

Warm, rich, delicious and easy to make! This pecan encrusted ahi tuna is a treat with homemade cold yogurt sauce. Brought to us from the kitchen of food journalist and writer Nina Mukerjee Furstenau, this is sure to delight.

Delicious, nutritious, quick, and easy! This dish is a treat brought to us from LOVE INC’s own, Bobbie Kincade.

Brought to us by Joyce Pittman, this dessert is a Southern Living recipe that is perfect for national holidays, or for any time you want a colorful treat. It can be made the day before and kept in the refrigerator overnight.

Ricotta is loved by Italians because it is so versatile! You can spread it, fry it in fritters, and bake it in dishes like lasagna or in delicacies like cake! This is a delicious after-dinner treat from the home of Dr. Anne Deaton.