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…
Waiters in blue jackets wended through a crowded dining room balancing trays of martinis. A woman ran her fingers along a wall covered with markings of the heights of children. Longtime regulars handed servers farewell tips through firm handshakes. It was the last night for Pietro’s, an old guard Italian steakhouse, at its decades-long address…
I may get my good-taste card revoked for this (and maybe never be asked to fill in for Nikita Richardson here again), but I’ll choose a cookie — any type, really — over a flaky, complex pastry every time. In a city of increasingly intricate laminated creations, there’s something refreshing about a straight-up cookie: an…
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…
Q: I get ingrown hairs every time I shave. Can I get rid of them? It’s a common issue: Your freshly shaved, waxed or plucked skin appears smooth and hairless — until pimple-like bumps crop up days later. Ingrown hairs can occur anywhere on the skin, but they typically emerge in places you remove hair,…
On a drizzly Saturday afternoon, hundreds of mahjong enthusiasts gathered in Downtown Brooklyn to play the 19th-century Chinese game of strategy and luck. As attendees entered the Korean food hall Hana House, they spread out over some two dozen tables. Upbeat electronic music from a live D.J. played throughout the space. The afternoon marked the…
Within months of the Pearl Harbor bombing on Dec. 7, 1941, the United States, in cooperation with the Canadian authorities, set out to build a highway from British Columbia to Alaska, then a territory and viewed as vulnerable to attack by Japan. The original 1,685-mile road took more than 10,000 soldiers less than nine months…
“You’d be shocked by how many books have women chained in basements,” Reese Witherspoon said. “I know it happens in the world. I don’t want to read a book about it.” Nor does she want to read an academic treatise, or a 700-page novel about a tree. Sitting in her office in Nashville, occasionally dipping…
