People love crescent rings. The taco crescent ring is one of the most popular recipes of all time on Pillsbury.com.

Crescent rings, stuffed crescent dough arranged in a circle, can be served:

 
Whatever flavor you seek—from beef to chicken to Tex-Mex to cheesecake—you can find a recipe for a crescent ring.

Crescent rolls—pre-sliced puff pastry dough in a tube—were introduced by The Pillsbury Company in the 1960s.

Pillsbury Crescents became an instant hit for dinner rolls, and introduced America to Poppin’ Fresh, the Pillsbury Doughboy.

In the years that followed, Pillsbury recipe developers and home cooks turned the dough into much more than rolls, including—but hardly limited to:

 
Check out these creative recipes from Taste Of Home.

They created shapes galore, such as bunnies, Christmas trees and turkeys to pinwheels, roses, swirls and wheat stalks.

Now, it’s your turn.

If you’re new to crescent rings, start with one of the recipes below.

Then, you can create your own recipes. We even came across a carb-lover’s delight: a macaroni and cheese crescent ring.
 
 
BREAKFAST, LUNCH & DINNER RING RECIPES

Crescent rings can be fun for upcoming Mother’s Day and Father’s Day festivities, general entertaining, or when you’re feeling crafty*.

 
Ready for dessert?
 
 
SWEET BREAKFAST & DESSERT CRESCENT RINGS

Although the pastry type is different, sweet rings are similar to danish rings. You can serve them at breakfast, with a cup of coffee, or for dessert.

Cream cheese is the unifying ingredient for filling, so if you like cheesecake (or a big schmear), you’ll be happy with these:

________________

*By which we mean, a food-craft project.

[1] Buffalo Chicken Crescent Ring (photo courtesy Pillsbury).

[2] Sausage & Egg Breakfast Ring (photo courtesy Pillsbury).

[3] Nutella Crescent Ring (photo courtesy Pillsbury).

[4] Raspberry Cream Cheese Crescent Ring (photo courtesy Like Mother Like Daughter).

[1] The Hanako San Bloody Mary at Bamboo Sushi in Portland, Oregon.

[2] Ready for its close-up.

There are many variations on the Bloody Mary, one of America’s favorite cocktails.

This one is from Bamboo Sushi in Portland, Oregon.

It’s called Hanako-San, The Bamboo Bloody. While we don’t have the exact recipe, the ingredients are:

 
You may not be up for making a copycat, but the garnish is easy enough to pull together (especially if you’re a mixologist at a sushi bar):

 
 
Are you ready to have fun with it?
 
 
ABOUT HANAKO-SAN

Hanako-san is a Japanese female name. In an urban legend, she’s the spirit of a young girl who haunts school bathrooms. Here’s the legend.

A tip from Paul Duncan, executive chef at Ray’s Boathouse in Seattle:

When preparing salmon and other fish, keep it simple to let the great flavor of fresh fish shine.

He, of course, uses fresh, local Copper River sockeye salmon (photo #2). But even if you buy yours at the supermarket, you can use the same technique.

Chef Duncan prepares fish like salmon skin-on, which makes for crispy skin, adding a crunchy texture atop the supple flesh.

It adds plenty of omega 3-6-9 essential fatty acids, too.

Salmon has the best skin to sear to a nice crisp. Never thought of eating fish skin before? Head to the nearest sushi bar for a salmon skin roll. It’s a delight.

Good fish to sear skin-on: branzino, flounder, mackerel, sea bass and snapper in addition to salmon.

Fish skin to avoid: monkfish, skate, swordfish and tuna skin are too tough or otherwise inappropriate to be grilled skin-on.
 
 
TO CREATE THE FISH IN THE PHOTO

“The only preparation required before grilling the salmon is to rub it with olive oil and season with kosher salt,” says Chef Duncan.

He finishes the fish with freshly ground pink and black pepper. “It’s all you need to make this fish into an incredible meal,” he states.

Duncan serves the fish with a seasonal salad of asparagus, green peas, radishes for bite and color, and herbs like dill and chive (photo #1).

You can garnish the plate with dots, swirls or swaths of your favorite sauce (here, aïoli [a.k.a. garlic mayonnaise—here’s the recipe]).
 
Ready To Cook?

[1] Skin-on Copper River salmon, alongside an asparagus, radish and pea salad, makes for a perfect summer menu item at Ray’s Boathouse in Seattle.

[2] Raw Copper River salmon fillets (photo courtesy Copper River Salmon).

 
 
HERE ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF SALMON

[1] Rustic Double Pumpkin Loaf is white whole wheat dough mixed with pumpkin purée and topped with pumpkin seeds.

[2] Ready for snacking and dessert: cocoa-flavored whole wheat dough with chocolate chunks and dried cherries (photos courtesy Chabaso Bakery).

Is Mom a bread lover? How about sending her some specialty artisan breads for Mother’s Day?

We are passionate about bread, so we couldn’t have been happier than to receive a gift from Chabaso, an artisan bread bakery in New Haven, Connecticut.

It began as Atticus Bookstore, and subsequently opened a café serving comfort foods and freshly-baked baguettes.

Founder Charles Negaro was influenced by the fine breads he came across in Europe: boules, ciabattas, rolls, sticks and other styles. The business evolved into Chabaso Bakery.

In addition to the classics, the bakery has created some wonderfully creative (and irresistible!) loaves, including:

 
The breads are made with a long-fermentation, high-hydration, technique: no shortcuts.

We’ve enjoyed them toasted, as snacks, even as desserts.

Make a sandwich with one of the slightly sweet loaves, with mascarpone for dessert, or with goat cheese or cream cheese for lunch. Heavenly!

The breads are sold at retail throughout the East and fine markets nationwide, as far as the Rocky Mountains.

You can buy them online at Chabaso.com. Each loaf arrives wrapped with a ribbon in a large box.

There are several gift box assortments. The Mother’s Day box includes Candied Orange Loaf, Chocolate Cherry Boule, Powerberry Loaf and Turmeric Sunflower Loaf.

For each Mother’s Day bundle purchased before 5/17/19, Chabaso will donate one bread bundle to a women-and-families shelter in Connecticut.

*We liked every bread, but Candied Orange Loaf was our favorite: a revelation. Runner-up: Chocolate Cherry Boule. Both are part of the Mother’s Day gift box.

Think pink for Mother’s Day, with this pink Margarita from Ocean Spray (photo #1).

Technically, it’s a Margarita-Cosmopolitan fusion: It combines the tequila, triple sec, lime juice and salt rim of a Margarita with the cranberry juice of a Cosmo.

The drink is pink because it uses Ocean Spray’s pink cranberry juice (photo #2). Here’s the recipe:
 
 
RECIPE: PINK MARGARITA

Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

1. RIM a rocks glass with salt and fill with ice.

2. ADD all liquid ingredients to a shaker, shake hard and strain into rocks glass. Garnish with three fresh or frozen cranberries.

NOTE: Raw cranberries are inedibly sour. We suggest using raspberries instead, and sparing people the possible experience of biting into a cranberry. Pomegranate arils are another option, but they don’t float.
 
 
HOW TO PREPARE A SALT RIM

1. ADD some water to a saucer. In another saucer, add some salt.

2. DIP the rim of the glass in the water to coat, then twist in the salt dish to create the rim.

[1] A pink Margarita adds pink cranberry juice.

[2] Ocean Spray’s Pink Cranberry Juice Cocktail (both photos courtesy Ocean Spray).