Hi Reader, Monday has never inspired much ambition in me.By late afternoon, I’m usually staring into the refrigerator as if the answer to dinner might reveal itself between the mustard and a jar of olives. It never does. What I am really doing is stalling.But curry can rescue a Monday.It starts innocently enough. An onion hits the pan. Then garlic, ginger, and spices. Within minutes, the kitchen smells warm and complicated, as if someone far more organized has been cooking all afternoon....
3 days ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, There’s a moment every fall when The One and I stop pretending dinner can still be tomatoes, something grilled, and a devil-may-care splash of olive oil.The house gets chilly. The windows are shut earlier. And suddenly I want a pot on the stove. A big pot. Something burbling away for hours, fogging the windows and making the kitchen smell as if I’ve been terribly industrious when, in fact, I’ve mostly been wandering past the stove and lifting the lid.That’s the beauty of chili and...
5 days ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, The spice cabinet changed seasons, and nobody told me.All summer long, I reach automatically for basil, dill, parsley, and mint. Then, almost overnight, my hand drifts somewhere else. Cinnamon. Ginger. Nutmeg. Cloves. Cardamom.They sit untouched from June to August. Then, one afternoon in September, they're all I want.I love that first afternoon when the oven has been on long enough for the whole house to smell like butter and warm spices. It's the only smell I know that gets...
8 days ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, The best thing about a Monday is that the weekend is already coming back around.Here is the only rule that matters when it does.Whoever wakes up first is forbidden from asking, "So...what's the plan today?"It's a terrible question before coffee.Some mornings should stay entirely unplanned. There is a second pot of coffee. You end up in the kitchen, not because you're hungry yet, but because cooking breakfast is one of the nicest ways to ease into a day.Brunch is unproductive on...
10 days ago • 3 min read
Hi Reader, I have a particular weakness for pork because it is never expected to be fancy. Beef comes with expectations. Lamb needs watching. Pork just needs time and salt.One of my favorite sounds in the kitchen is the first crackle of a pork shoulder hitting a hot Dutch oven. It's the opening act to a meal that won't be rushed. By the time it comes out, the meat collapses under a fork, and everyone who came in "just to say hello" is still standing suspiciously close to the pot.Nobody is...
12 days ago • 3 min read
Hi Reader, I have enormous respect for people who can casually whip up a layer cake on a Tuesday night.I am not one of those people.For me, a layer cake is an event. It begins with clearing the kitchen counters as though I'm preparing for surgery. Every ingredient gets lined up with military precision. Butter softens. Eggs come to room temperature. Cake pans are buttered with a level of devotion normally reserved for newborns.Then comes the part that humbles everyone.Will the layers release...
15 days ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, I'll admit it: Mushrooms and I got off to a rocky start.As a kid, they came from little cans, already sliced into pale, rubbery coins that squeaked when you bit into them. The person responsible for that introduction should've been sentenced to peeling shallots for eternity.Then, years later, I tasted a pan of properly browned mushrooms.Not steamed. Not crowded into a skillet until they went gray and wet. Properly browned.The edges were crisp and the centers were almost meaty....
17 days ago • 3 min read
Hi Reader, Every season has its glamour vegetable.Summer gets tomatoes. Spring gets asparagus. Fall gets a basket of dirt-covered root vegetables and pumpkins, and it is still the season people talk about.They're not flashy. Nobody's writing love songs about rutabagas. A sweet potato comes out of the ground looking like it came out of the ground, and a pumpkin is downright homely until a knife goes into it.But give them forty-five minutes and real heat, and the sugar at the edges turns to...
19 days ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, I don't trust a house without a cookie jar.Not because I expect it to be full every minute of every day. I'm an optimist, not delusional. Is it that an empty cookie jar reads as a message? The baking has stopped. Life's been a little too busy. That coffee breaks have become...efficient.September is when I remedy that.There's something deeply comforting about knowing there are cookies tucked away in the kitchen. They're not for the company. The company gets a cake. Cookies are for...
22 days ago • 3 min read
