There are lots of small, quotidian things that make me feel like a pulled-together person. Finishing a book. Making dentist appointments. Parallel parking. But nothing makes me feel more like a successful human than marinating a chicken in the morning for that night’s dinner. The foresight, the efficiency! I can have it all! So here’s…
Good morning. When there are snapper bluefish running in the bays nearby, I like to catch a couple and break them down into chunks and fillets — the chunks for a freestyle ceviche with mango, jalapeño, red onion and tons of lime, and the fillets for slathering with mayonnaise and mustard and roasting into excellence,…
Good morning. I’ve been cooking outside as much as I can these last few weeks, turning meats and vegetables over fire. Sometimes the fuel is wood, other times charcoal, many times propane. Grilled food is the song of my summer. I’m not alone in feeling that way. It seems my whole neighborhood is smoke-scented these…
I’ve gotten a bunch of emails from readers lately asking why New York Times Cooking chicken recipes don’t often call for boneless, skinless breasts. “Why is it always chicken thighs? I don’t know anyone, except my sister, who prefers dark meat,” someone wrote, in a truly excellent email with a subject line that simply said…
Good morning. It’s been slow out here in the shallow water, looking for fish on pancakes of sand, by muddy banks, in rock piles where the tide sluices in and out, at spots with names known only to those who fish them: Cheney’s; Manny’s Place; Ethan Allen; Left Side; Derr’s Flat. We stand on the…
I will always, in any season, make a chicken-and-rice dish. It’s my favorite protein combined with my favorite carb, and I love it in any iteration: Hainanese chicken rice, arroz chaufa, arroz con pollo, iwuk edesi, chicken perloo, chicken cook-up rice, chicken doria, oyakodon. I don’t care if it’s hot outside; all are worth mopping…
Hello! Here’s something new: I took over the Well newsletter this week, creating a weekend-prep game plan to make weeknight cooking faster and easier. Think: Wash and cut up your sturdy veggies on Sunday so you’re all set for orzo salad on Monday and naan-o paneer-o sabzi on Tuesday. Sign up here to get my…
Good morning. Julie Powell famously learned to cook by making her way through all of Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” an endeavor she chronicled in a blog that became a book and then a movie. I tried a similar march with Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby’s “Let the Flames Begin” when I…
You can make a niçoise salad year-round, and I do: I always have canned tuna in the pantry and olives and anchovies in the fridge, and the grocer closest to me stocks cherry tomatoes and green beans even in the depths of January. It’s not eating with the seasons, but it is eating with my…
I have a special dinner for those rare evenings I cook for just myself. When my (cabbage-shy) daughter and (dairy-avoiding) husband aren’t home, I’ll treat myself to a pan of cheesy, spicy cabbage. I sauté shaggy slices of the crucifer in olive oil with garlic or onion, and then finish the dish with chile, either…
