Dear Tripped Up, In September 2019 B.C. — “before coronavirus” — my family and I booked a round-trip flight from Tampa, Fla., to London with British Airways, scheduled to depart in March. Then the coronavirus hit and our flight was canceled by the airline. We contacted British Airways to request a refund, but they have…
Whether it’s called a loaf cake, tea cake, poundcake or one of those slyly named “breads” of the banana-pumpkin-zucchini variety, if I can bake it in a 9-by-5-inch pan, it will find a place in my lockdown kitchen. There’s something about loaf cake’s sturdy, bricklike shape that makes it feel like a bulwark against the…
Drugs that are widely prescribed to treat high blood pressure do not make patients more susceptible to coronavirus infection, or to severe illness if they do become infected, researchers reported on Friday. Their findings are good news for millions of people who take blood pressure drugs that belong to two classes: ACE inhibitors, which include…
Welcome back to Five Weeknight Dishes. This week, I’ve been thinking about The Times’s original weeknight columnist, the French chef Pierre Franey, who wrote “60-Minute Gourmet.” (He pretty much invented boneless chicken breasts, and before chicken nuggets were a thing, he had us making goujonettes for dinner parties.) When he started in 1975, the ingredients…
Bridge will reward you early on — but the first few hours are utterly disorienting. Using a combination of apps, books and computer players who won’t berate you for mistakes is the easiest way to power through that vicious learning curve into the fun part. There are three hilariously complex things to learn about bridge:…
Simple to assemble, savory pancakes are a universal comfort food. Their versatility is indicated by the many variations served around the world: Turkish zucchini pancakes, Korean vegetable pajeon and Japanese okonomiyaki. Fluffy and light or crisp and pan-fried, savory pancakes are a natural vehicle for using up leftovers or pantry ingredients. This pancake mix uses…
Imagine that you are a member of the expert class — the kind of person invited to pontificate on television news programs. Under normal circumstances, your expertise might be signaled to the public by a gaudy photograph of skyscrapers superimposed behind your head. But now the formalities of the broadcast studio are a distant memory,…
Dads can be tough to shop for, so we often end up circling back to the same basic, boring Father’s Day gifts. This year, beam internally as you watch him unwrap something he genuinely won’t be expecting instead. Surprise him by creatively tailoring your gift to his interests: a pasta maker so he can make…
Is it me, or have rhubarb desserts gotten pinker and more vivid in the last few years? A decade or so ago, they weren’t always the most attractive confections, at least not the ones I baked. The majority of stalks I found were green, not red. And even those blushed with pink turned sort of…
Amid the coronavirus pandemic and nationwide shelter-at-home orders, many will be celebrating Mother’s Day apart from their loved ones. Louis Vuitton is stepping up to bolster virtual celebrations with the launch of customizable Mother’s Day e-cards, complete with limited-edition patches. No purchase is required to send the digital cards. Mother’s Day is just around the…