Dinner always seems a little beside the point this time of year, which I fondly regard as cookie season. Why think about chicken when you could be daydreaming about hibiscus-ginger cookies, minty lime bars or chocolate babka rugelach?
The brilliant recipe editors and bakers of New York Times Cooking have come up with 24 cookies for you — an advent calendar of sorts, to take us right up to Christmas. (Amazingly, a reader has already baked all of these cookies and posted them on Instagram: the cookbook author and blogger Amy Ho, who said she’d made them in 15 hours!)
And yet, we have to eat dinner, and really, it should be good. We’ve got five excellent candidates for your table below, recipes that are full of flavor and brim with cooking smarts. Reach out to me anytime with questions or requests at dearemily@nytimes.com.
1. Pasta With Andouille Sausage, Beans and Greens
Vallery Lomas brings distinctive Cajun flavor to this easy pasta recipe by adding Andouille sausage to the pan. Collard greens and white beans add delicious heft, and a squeeze of lemon is a great finishing touch.
2. Skillet Chicken With Silky Peppers and Green Olives
Bell peppers and tomatoes turn soft and sweet in this Melissa Clark recipe, which calls for chicken thighs but could easily be made with fish or tofu. You’ll want the brightness of fresh tomato here, not canned; if you can only find wan tomatoes at the store, use cherry tomatoes instead.
3. Rice Cakes With Peanut Sauce and Hoisin
Cheung fun provided inspiration for this vegan recipe by Hetty McKinnon: Instead of using rice noodle rolls, she chooses delectably chewy rice cakes, pairing them with hoisin and peanut sauce. This is the fast stir-fry you need, and a superb dinner.
4. Lentils Diavolo
“Diavolo” means “devil” in Italian, an allusion to the heat in these lentils simmered in tomato-based chile oil, a recipe by Ali Slagle that calls back to the spicy sauce of the same name. Eat the lentils on toast, farro or pasta, or on their own with lemon juice and chopped parsley.
