Hi Reader, I have a theory: autumn isn’t really a season—it’s a mood swing in a cable-knit sweater. One day you’re smugly sipping your pumpkin spice latte, the next you’re staring down the barrel of daylight savings with the kind of dread usually reserved for dental work. When I was a kid, my mother believed the cure for any malaise—be it heartbreak, the flu, or my theatrics over multiplication tables—was a pot of something simmering on the stove. Your 5-step Autumn Survival Kit
WHAT'S INSIDE...
Caldo Verde⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.85 from 118 votes
Portuguese kale soup, caldo verde, is something you’ll experience literally everywhere in Portugal, from Lisbon’s trendiest restaurants to farmhouses scattered at the edge of villages. Understandably so. Its simple yet sustaining character is appreciated everywhere.☞ Try this recipeCoq au Vin⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.75 from 66 votes
This coq au vin recipe strays a little from the original but I don't think that's to its detriment. This updated version of the simple French chicken stew uses a robust brown chicken stock, mushrooms, onions, bacon, and red wine.☞ Try this recipeHomemade Chicken Pot Pie
This homemade chicken pot pie features tender rosemary baked chicken, onions, peas, and carrots, cooked in cream sauce and encapsulated in buttery pie crust. And since they're made individually, you don't have to share. With anyone.☞ Try this recipeIna Garten's Company Pot Roast⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.73 from 58 votes
This Barefoot Contessa company pot roast takes an inexpensive beef chuck roast, a bottle of red wine, a little brandy, carrots, onions, celery, leeks, and tomatoes and transforms them into a meal worthy of a dinner party. And leftovers to last the week.☞ Try this recipeIna Garten's Easy Tomato Soup⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.72 from 32 votes
This tomato soup is spiced with saffron, which has enough flavor to stand up to the Gruyère in the croutons. And the whole thing is awfully easy to put together, beating out anything from a can, anyday.☞ Try this recipeFrench Onion-Skillet Chicken
Take the elements of French onion soup--beef broth, a hunk of bread, tons of caramelized onions, and a raft of cheese--and mash it up with perfectly seared chicken thighs, and you have French onion-skillet chicken. Sounds weird, I know, but I swear it works.☞ Try this recipeItalian Sausage Soup (With Gnocchi & Spinach)⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.8 from 15 votes
This Italian sausage soup is a cozy one-pot meal that's laden with sweet sausage, tender gnocchi, spinach, and topped with crispy pancetta. It's perfect winter comfort food.☞ Try this recipeCreamy French Chicken Stew⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.74 from 30 votes
This version of blanquette is slightly simplified in that it doesn’t involve making a roux but it’s no less flavourful. Serve this with plain boiled rice and garnish with fresh thyme leaves and parsley for a simple, comforting meal that comes together quickly, even on a weeknight.☞ Try this recipeEasy Pot Roast, Potatoes & Vegetables
This easy pot roast with potatoes and vegetables is quick to assemble and then made in the slow cooker or crock pot or simply slid into the oven. A simple classic with beef, carrots, potatoes, and red wine. Perhaps our best—and most comforting—Sunday supper.☞ Try this recipeShepherd’s Pie With Onions & Cheddar
This shepherd's pie is made with ground lamb, caramelized onions, mashed potatoes, all topped with grated Cheddar cheese. If you prefer beef instead of lamb, simply call it cottage pie.☞ Try this recipe |
Why, hello! Leite's Culinaria is the James Beard Award-winning site that helps home cooks and bakers put dinner on the table and laugh in the kitchen. Hungry for more? Join more than 30,000 food lovers and subscribe.
Hi Reader, I’ve always thought chicken gets a bad rap. People talk about it the way they talk about wallpaper—necessary, but boring. Ever since The One came on the scene, though, chicken has never been bland. There's his quick weekday roast he makes when he has three minutes and an attitude, the jug-cooked chicken from my cookbook that he swears could cure heartbreak, and a simple and simply superb Sunday supper: his brined roasted chicken that sits on a raft of carrots, onions, and potatoes...
Hi Reader, When I was a kid, beans were not optional. Ho-no! They appeared with the regularity of my godfather's Saturday-night stock car race. White beans with pork, black-eyed peas with tuna, lentils simmered until they slumped into submission. My mother insisted they were “good for you,” which, in childhood, was code for “culinary punishment.” This is what AI thinks I looked like as a child, sifting through a pan of chickpeas. But somewhere along the way, I stopped sulking and started...
Hi Reader, Every year when the first chill sneaks into the air, I’m hit with the same scent—apples and cinnamon—and suddenly I’m thirty-something again, standing in my postage-stamp-size kitchen trying to impress a man I’d met only weeks before. (Spoiler: I succeeded. He’s still here, three decades later, eating the evidence.) The One in my impossibly small kitchen in Brooklyn, tucked under a staircase. That first autumn, way back in 1993, was our season of Love Food. We knew nothing about...