Good morning. September played out strangely where I hang out: unreasonably Augustlike at first, and then hard into autumnal damp and gloom. I know we’re nowhere near last licks on grilling season, but there’s something a little valedictory about lighting the fires these days. I feel as if I’m cooking on borrowed time. So it’s…
If the DVD version of “The Dance,” a live album recorded by Fleetwood Mac in 1997, was playing in the living room of my childhood home, I knew I’d be in for one hell of a meal. On a Friday or a Saturday, my parents would often kick off the evening with a glass of…
As Yewande Komolafe writes in her recipe, thieboudienne (above), often referred to as the national dish of Senegal, is particularly lovely to assemble with friends — a perfect meal for a crisp, autumn Sunday supper. Have one friend find the fish and put another on vegetable duty; you’ll provide the pantry staples (broken rice, tomato…
It has never been easy for Mary Cole to support herself and the 19-year-old grandson who lives with her in Bristol, Va., on her monthly $914 Supplemental Security Income check. But it’s getting harder. “I’ve been struggling a lot,” Ms. Cole said. Because benefits counselors at her local agency on aging have helped her apply…
After making and tasting dozens over the course of my baking career, I had pretty much accepted that cinnamon rolls, like scones and madeleines, are good only when eaten fresh from the oven. A roll that is tender, moist and delicious when warm turns brittle, dry and lifeless just hours later at room temperature. But…
Good morning. It was one of those meals that sticks in your mind for days afterward: steamed lobsters with drawn butter and a plate of baby potatoes. I won’t wax on about the lobsters. They were perfect and should have been. That’s what you’re paying for, when you buy lobster. But, man, those potatoes. Wrinkled…
Most mornings, around 6:30, Tharshan Selvarajah arrives at the Élysée Palace, seat of the French presidency, and unloads around 30 baguettes into the security scanner. The bread that is synonymous with France is sacred, but not to the point that it can pass unverified into President Emmanuel Macron’s mouth. Nor is the baguette, in its…
In 1992, my colleague Eric Asimov invented a new column for the Times that sought out “restaurants where people can eat lavishly for $25 and under.” By the time it was retired, about a decade ago, dining out in New York had become expensive, even at the cheap end, and the column’s writers were regularly…
Most of the time, I take a very casual approach to having guests for dinner. I don’t mind doing a little cooking while people hang out in the kitchen; in fact, I enjoy it. But sometimes, it’s more relaxing to have the entire menu ready, especially if some of it can be cooked a day…
A few months ago, on the hunt for topics for this fine newsletter, I polled the masses (read: asked people on Instagram) for the ingredients they struggled to use up. The deafening chorus of “tomato paste” replies could not be ignored. A pantry staple, tomato paste is a thick, concentrated purée of slow-cooked tomatoes that…