Good morning. You can make blackened chicken breasts (above) in your kitchen if you like, but really only if you have a good exhaust fan above your stove. If you don’t, you’ll be opening windows soon enough, and balancing on top of a chair to reach the shrieking smoke alarm. I prefer the outdoor method,…
In Melissa Clark’s “Dinner in One” cookbook — which is her collection of one-pot recipes, you’re welcome — Melissa shares that her family refers to pearl couscous as pasta bubbles. Pasta bubbles! Is there any better term for capturing the delightful chew and pleasingly spherical shape of this tiny pasta? (The “pasta bubbles” recipe, by…
Terry Robards, a former wine critic for The New York Times whose writing in the 1970s and ’80s helped Americans move beyond jug Chablis and cheap Chianti to explore regions and styles as far away — and, at the time, as exotic — as Burgundy and Tuscany and as close as upstate New York, died…
Why do men get so many more sizing options than women, especially when it comes to pants? They get a large variety of lengths, but women just get petite, regular and long, even though there are as many different sizes of women as men. Please explain. — Amy, Hunterdon County, N.J. The question of men’s…
Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together. New York City is flavored by all kinds of cultures — and their cuisines. That can make going out to eat thrilling but deciding where to go fairly complicated. Say you’re in the mood for…
One overcast Sunday morning, Benjamin Talley Smith, an apple-cheeked 45-year-old with a thing for a Canadian tuxedo, was at the Rose Bowl flea market in Los Angeles shopping for jeans. He was wearing jeans — a beat-up pair of Levi’s and an equally worn Levi’s jeans jacket — and rooting through piles of jeans. He…
More fun, less drudgery. That’s my goal for the summer — and specifically for my summer cooking. In my dreams, I’m whisking together a vinaigrette in a seaside cottage with a big breezy kitchen and a farm stand down the road (think Diane Keaton’s place in “Something’s Gotta Give”). While that’s not the reality for…
If you’re a frequent reader of this newsletter (hi, Mom), you’re familiar with the name Hetty Lui McKinnon. I talk about Hetty’s recipes a lot — they’re delicious, of course, but also consistently satisfying, delivering a lot of wow and oomph (technical terms). Hetty, along with Alice Callahan, a Times reporter who covers health and…
Longtime vegetarians already know: To be a vegetarian is to eat really well. But if you’re looking to make the switch to vegetarianism or just a more plant-forward diet, you may have questions, even concerns. What should I cook? How do I think about meals? How will I know if I’m getting enough protein? A…
When I started writing this newsletter six years ago, I pitched it as “recipes for busy people who still want something good to eat.” I wanted to solve the dinner problem, that daily 5 p.m. quandary of what to cook when you’re hungry and tired out from the day. Every week since, I’ve picked five…
