Good morning. Cooking is sometimes about fantasy and today’s is that you’re going to bake black and white cookies (above) this evening, on a Monday night in the middle of July, when most people would sooner read old TV Guides at the laundromat than turn on the oven.
It’s Melissa Clark who’s going to get you to do so. Watch this amazing video that documents her search for the perfect recipe. It’s so charming and smart that I think it may prompt you to make the daydream real. Bring the cookies to work in the morning and revel in praise. They’re really, really good.
No? No way? Not until the weekend, or autumn, whichever comes sooner? I get it. I’d prefer, if I could, to cook exclusively outside for the next couple of months, over the grill and propane hob and firepit. A new recipe for that: huli huli chicken, a Hawaiian favorite that our Margaux Laskey adapted from the work of the cookbook writer Alana Kysar. It’s outrageous with the flavor. Serve with rice and roasted sweet potatoes.
I’m absolutely going to make these cold soba noodles with dipping sauce soon. I had a version the other day at Ootoya in Times Square and it’s been haunting me. Also these grilled sea scallops with corn and pepper salsa. The ones I get are from the Shinnecock fleet, out on the eastern end of Long Island, and they’re fat and flavorful, sustainable, awesome.
I’m also going to cook a bunch of hot dogs. I think hot dogs for dinner are just great. I might top them with chowchow or queso and Fritos, with spicy coleslaw, with grainy mustard. I like them with ketchup. (Here’s how to make your own.)
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Now, let’s remember always that what we’re about here is more than simply cooking and then cleaning up afterward. It’s about making life better.
So yes, this week you’re going to want to get a copy of Colson Whitehead’s “The Nickel Boys” and one of Elliot Ackerman’s “Places and Names” because they’re new and important and you’ll talk about them for years. (You want to go old and funny and wise, try Jane Smiley’s 1995 novel, “Moo.”)
And absolutely you should read Fernanda Eberstadt on the Russian artist Pyotr Pavlensky, in The New York Times Magazine.
Then, to play us off, why don’t you spend a little time with Djelimady Tounkara, the Malian guitarist, here with “Sansenesougoro.” That’s a good jam.
Finally, may I ask you a favor? The United States has been engaged in active warfighting for the past 18 years. Have you or do you know anyone who’s spent a Thanksgiving under deployment during that time? We’re looking to tell their stories this fall, and share their snapshots and memories and, maybe, their recipes, too. If you’re interested, here is a link to a form that you or others can fill out, outlining your experiences of Thanksgiving at war. Please share that widely? And thanks so much. I’ll be back on Wednesday.
