• Garam Masala Miso Chicken Thighs with Fennel

    Garam Masala Miso Chicken Thighs with Fennel

    Back in 2004, when I first became interested in cooking but didn’t have the money to buy all of the cookbooks I wanted, I would take index cards to Borders (remember Borders?) and copy down recipes by hand that I could make later. I remember frantically scribbling down The Barefoot Contessa’s Herbal Iced Tea recipe…

  • Quince Preserves

    Quince Preserves

    My first awareness of quince came from the movie White Men Can’t Jump when Rosie Perez, whose character dreamed of going on Jeopardy, memorized “Foods That Start with the Letter Q.” (Besides “quince” there was “quail,” “quiche,” and “quahog.” Not sure of the fifth!) But I didn’t eat a quince — or cook a quince…

  • Pasta Night

    Pasta Night

    I first met Renato Poliafito on April 22nd, 2009. I know that because I wrote a post about it when my friend Josh and I trekked out to Red Hook to visit the beloved bakery, Baked, that he ran with his pal Matt Lewis. We immediately hit it off: not just because we both love…

  • How to Make the Perfect Apple Pie (Step-by-Step with Photos)

    How to Make the Perfect Apple Pie (Step-by-Step with Photos)

    First things first: there’s no such thing as the perfect apple pie. The perfect apple pie is whichever apple pie you love the most. That said: there are good apple pies and there are bad apple pies. Bad apple pies have a stiff, flavorless crustl a gooey, gloppy, synthetic filling. and they taste like something…

  • Sausages Braised in Cider with Apples and Onions

    Sausages Braised in Cider with Apples and Onions

    I can’t channel spirits, but I can channel recipes. Yesterday I was making an apple pie for our friends Jenny and Jared who were coming for dinner and I couldn’t quite figure out what to make for an entree. I knew I wanted it to be autumnal. I knew I wanted to use the apples…

  • Apple Bundt Cake

    Apple Bundt Cake

    A new Dorie Greenspan cookbook is always a cause for celebration. Her latest, Dorie’s Anytime Cakes, is just the kind of book her loyal fans want from her: a cookbook full of expert advice that’s also cozy and comforting . Reading her headnotes is like having your favorite teacher show up at your house with…

  • Pasta e Fagioli

    Pasta e Fagioli

    The cookbook that I wrote almost fifteen years ago (!), Secrets of the Best Chefs, has a lentil soup in it so good, Smitten Kitchen wrote about it. That soup, which was taught to me by the late Gina DePalma, will live on in perpetuity as one of the great combinations of sausage, lentils, and…

  • Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud

    Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud

    It started with a tremor.For the past year, I’ve had a tremor that Craig would notice whenever I held up my fork or the remote control or my phone to play Connections. We chalked it up to twitchiness or nerves but then the tremor persisted and became really noticeable. A friend saw my hand shaking…

  • Vegan Dan Dan Noodles

    Vegan Dan Dan Noodles

    My favorite recipes are the ones where the least amount of effort yields hugest returns. That’s why I love Hetty McKinnon’s work so much: she knows how to make the most out of just a few simple ingredients. And her latest cookbook, Linger, is packed with just the kind of recipes I want to make…

  • French Louie

    French Louie

    It’s funny how your neighborhood becomes the lens through which you see the New York restaurant scene. When it’s twelve degrees outside and wind is slapping your face like Joan Crawford in “Mommy Dearest,” are you really going to trek to the Upper East Side from Brooklyn to check out a new two-star bistro? Or…