Like my mom, I’m drawn to any kitchen recipe cards.

I make frequent references in my writing to our farm recipe files and pantry filled with recipe cards and clippings of great menus, some more than a century old!

Last week, a surprise cookbook launch event in Chicago had me cross paths with actress Tiffani Thiessen, a TV name I grew up with watching her on NBC’s “Saved by the Bell” in the 1980s, a series which originally debuted on The Disney Channel as “Good Morning, Miss Bliss” intended to be a sitcom focused on an Indianapolis elementary school teacher played by Hayley Mills.

I managed to stuff more than a few recipe cards in my pocket from the event, which even had an on-site food demo of a couple of recipes courtesy of help from the kitchen wiz team at Kraft Natural Cheese assisting with the custom recipes and ingredients.

Thiessen, who marked her milestone 50th birthday earlier this year, is a wife and mother of two, now adding published author to her resume. She has released her second cookbook, a beautiful hardcover filled with color photography titled “Here We Go Again: Recipes and Inspiration to Level Up Your Leftovers” (2023 Hachette Book Group $32).

The two spotlight recipes shared on keepsake recipe cards now added to my file are for Tiffani’s quick and easy butternut squash quesadillas and a yummy “Cheesy Pull-Apart Bread Roll” recipe from Kraft Natural Cheese, with more recipes and menu ideas found at www.kraftnaturalcheese.com.

During my 30-plus years of food writing, the Kraft staff have always been handy and helpful with sharing the new products and recipes they develop in their test kitchen. Back in 1993, when the Kraft Creative Test Kitchens were headquartered in Glenview, I spent a day touring their kitchen lab landscape to discover how recipes for holidays and major brand events, like the Super Bowl, were born and brought to the masses.

Three decades later, there is one particular bit of advice I continue to apply and abide by for developing my own recipes, and when I chatted with cookbook colleague Tiffani, she agreed to the same formula.

“Recipes should always ideally never be more than seven ingredients.”

Add to that further sage advice I learned years ago from Kraft that cooks also prefer ingredients to include items already “on hand,” such as staples at home in the refrigerator or cupboard.

Lastly, a surprising fun fact I learned back in 1993 from that Kraft Kitchen visit that still holds true today: Most cooks will decide their nighttime after-work menu for what to whip up in the 30 minutes after leaving work and while deliberating about what ingredients are already available in the kitchen.

Readers and audiences might recall me mentioning all the above many times during my own stage cooking shows and recipe demonstrations.

Tiffani’s recipe for her butternut squash quesadillas adds up to about 10 ingredients, not including the optional garnishes.

“We’ve always been a cheese family, which is why it’s such a go-to in our home because, like the theme of this cookbook, it can be added as the key ingredient to help give new flavor and life to leftovers when creating a new recipe, which is always an adventure,” Tiffani said.

Columnist Philip Potempa has published four cookbooks and is the director of marketing at Theatre at the Center. He can be reached at pmpotempa @comhs.org or mail your questions: From the Farm, PO Box 68, San Pierre, Ind. 46374.

Kraft Natural Cheesy Pull-Apart Bread Rolls

Makes 8 servings

1 can refrigerated biscuits (8 biscuits), quartered

3 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 cup Kraft grated Parmesan Cheese

1-1/2 cups Kraft Chunk Cheddar Cheese (shredded), divided use

2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley

1 tablespoon garlic powder

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cover bottom of 9-inch-by-5-inch loaf pan with parchment; spray pan and paper with cooking spray.

3. Toss biscuit pieces with butter in large bowl. Add grated cheese, then 1 cup shredded cheese, parsley and garlic powder, mixing lightly after each addition. Place in prepared pan.

4. Bake 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown, adding remaining shredded cheese for last 10 min.

5. Run knife or spatula around sides of pan to loosen bread and let cool 5 min.

6. Remove bread from pan to heatproof platter or cutting board and serve warm.