If you have ever written anything — a school essay, a letter, a sermon, a speech, a column, a book — you know the first 10 words are the hardest. When that is done, the rest is a “piece of cake,” most of the time.
Before the pandemic, you could wander into Du-par’s, on the corner of Fairfax and Third in Los Angeles, ask for a seat in a slick, red, tufted vinyl booth, and be sipping a mug of hot coffee in less than a minute.
A garlicky pistachio puree turns white beans into an irresistible topping for toast, salads and more
If you asked me to list my desert-island foods, one of them would be nut butter. Preferably, and I realize this would probably be stretching the rules, I’d want a variety of nuts, plus a high-speed blender or food processor (and electricity, naturally) to help turn them into the freshest spr…
The problem with many quick-as-a-flash recipes is that they fall flat. You end up trading flavor, freshness and/or variety in texture and temperature for that efficiency.
Stop right this minute and think of three people who always bring joy to you when you see them. I once got a card which said, “You can’t help but get a little sunshine on yourself when you are spreading it on others.”
As cooks grow more conscious of the environmental impacts of their own kitchens — home or professional — some eco-unfriendly habits remain hard to break. Cheap and convenient, plastic wrap unfortunately does its job well. You’ll find it littered throughout recipes to wrap foods for later, co…
Sometimes, it seems impossible to find the time to cook the very things that your body and spirit need. You are rushing from task to task, juggling work and family and maybe school, and the stress starts to compound until you find yourself worried about being worried, tired of being tired, a…
One of the most joyful meals I had in recent months was outdoors under heat lamps at the Lebanese restaurant Au Za’atar in New York City’s East Village. Even masked and bundled in my puffy coat on that chilly night I was reminded of all the reasons I love, and have sorely missed, dining out.
At long last a group of us was able to gather for a luncheon meeting. We were socially distanced and properly masked. The best part besides seeing everyone was getting to taste foods that someone else had made.
If you are a youngster under 50 years of age, you might have a hard time relating. Thank you for reading my rambling and recipes. Now, if you are one of us who has some worn tread on our tires (figuratively speaking), you have already read the obituaries, maybe the comics, probably some spor…
Years ago, a friend and I got into a monthslong back-and-forth about carbonara. The pasta dish of cheese and pork, creamy with eggs and silky with starchy pasta water, is one of Rome’s most revered exports. There are maybe hundreds of ways to make it, and lots of little rules, and my friend …
At the pandemic’s onset, many of us rushed to the grocery store to stock our pantries with rice, beans, canned goods and all manner of other shelf-stable foods, not knowing when we might next be able to shop. While the experience was new for some, others had faced this predicament long befor…
Peas very well might be my favorite vegetable — they at least make the top five — and with the arrival of spring, fresh peas are available in abundance. While I almost always have a bag of frozen peas on standby to add to soups, toss with pasta or simply serve as a side topped with a pat of …
Well, it didn’t happen this week. I like to have a topic in mind by the first or the middle of the week, so I can ponder all week about what I will write and hopefully you will read the following week. I simply cannot bring myself in from the beautiful sunny weather where I am planting, repo…
I love bacon. While I agree that it shouldn’t go on everything, I welcome the moments when I get to enjoy it in all of its crisp, smoky glory, such as in my colleague G. Daniela Galarza’s winter BLT from her Eat Voraciously newsletter or on a breakfast plate alongside hash browns and a pair …
I’m always taken aback when people talk about soup season as finite because it can be enjoyed year-round.
My memories of Puerto Rico, a place I visited often as a young child, come back to me in flashes: The grassy, breezy farm my great-grandmother lived on, chickens clucking all around. Bumpy rides down La Ruta del Lechón, a stretch of highway known for its roast pork spits, wisps of smoke risi…
I don’t follow a strictly “Mediterranean Diet,” but if I ever decide to, it would not be much of a sacrifice. I love all of the flavors and foods associated with that style of eating. And it is no problem for me to make the meat play a supporting role on my plate.
Like many beloved dishes, chicken and vegetables in a creamy gravy served with biscuits probably originated to reinvent and stretch leftovers, a way to meet the needs of the day. But far from feeling second string, the combo is so tasty and satisfying it has become a comfort-food staple in i…
I have a confession to make: I’m not the biggest fan of the fried egg.
Now, sit down. The statistic that I am about to give you will throw you into an absolute swoon. Never mind that it comes from that infallible source called Google, is 12 years old and has many variables.
“Thirty days hath September, April, June and November.
I am in the business of testing and sharing recipes, but there are times when breakfast, lunch or dinner at my house is the result of a quick scan of the refrigerator and pantry shelves.
I don’t think I had ever tasted fennel until I worked in a restaurant. Growing up, most of the vegetables we ate came from a can, and when we did have fresh produce, fennel certainly wasn’t on the list. But during my time as a line cook, I was introduced to it and fell in love.
Although skyr is sold as Icelandic yogurt alongside the global representation of yogurt varieties in the dairy case, Icelanders consider it a cheese. When you taste it, you can understand why.
Happy cooking! This is how I start every dedication or greeting on every cookbook I have sold. You know what? I really believe that cooking with enjoyment, love and joy makes for a better outcome.
Something special happens when you fry tortillas, one at a time, in a pot filled with oil. As Gabrielle Hamilton wrote in one of the most memorable similes of her 2011 memoir, “Blood, Bones & Butter,” the tortilla will “float and sizzle on the surface for a moment like a lily pad on a po…
Matzoh brei enthusiasts tend to fall into two camps: Those who insist that the golden scramble be topped with nothing more than a sprinkle of salt, and those who feel equally passionate about a dusting of cinnamon sugar. Despite the sweet vs. savory divide, both groups agree that a no-frills…
Playing that quick-response word game, if I said “foods that go together,” your answer would probably be peanut butter and jelly or milk and cookies, not horseradish and seafood.
Erin go Bragh (Ireland forever) and Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you. Because in the past — probably many times — I have given you info about St. Patrick and his day of honor, I will skip that. It’s a meaningful story, look it up.
This recipe promotes saucy creamed spinach from the popular side dish at occasional steakhouse dinners to the center of the plate, turning it into a healthful and quick one-pan meal.
Ten years ago this spring, I had my first raw kale salad, or at least the first one that made me sit up and take notice.
I can’t think of any good reasons I hadn’t been making lasagna with regularity, until recently, that is. Ingredients I like? Check. Make-ahead potential? Check. Feed a crowd? Check. Lots of leftovers for harried weeknights? Check again.
It’s coming! I don’t just mean “spring forward” that comes with daylight saving time this weekend. Spring, I mean the real thing, is just around the corner with the vernal equinox on March 20.
Eddie Garza says his tortilla soup is an easier version of the one his grandmother made when he was growing up in South Texas, with one significant swap: He uses mushrooms instead of chicken.
Marooned at home all winter and with no spring-break travel in the cards this year, I figured at least I can get a taste of the warm Caribbean waters by way of my kitchen. This seafood stew is my way of transporting myself there. It has a broth-like base packed with island flavor — bright wi…
Oatmeal raisin cookies are a classic in the pantheon of desserts, so I was stunned to discover that The Washington Post didn’t have a recipe in our database for this delicious but divisive dessert.
We have just begun the Lenten season. Not having been reared in a Liturgical church, I was unfamiliar with Lent, the meaning of it and the practices involved.
If you are a duck lover — and I am — duck confit is a dish you probably love to eat but have never made.
It’s hard to imagine life without the plump perfection of tomatoes. “A world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins,” Laurie Colwin wrote in her 1988 memoir “Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen.”
Move over “put an egg on it” — and make way for “top it with a salad.”
Have you “eaten down” this week? I don’t remember hearing this expression until my friend in Ireland, Kathy Keane, said they were “eating everything down” before they made a trip to the supermarket.
Sometimes when someone tells you they hate a particular food that you love, do you ever think, “I bet I could change your mind”? Often, of course, their resistance goes way back to childhood, seeming immovable and maybe even illogical. But sometimes you can make sense of the issue with some …
Shaking the notion of kid food from the Etch-a-Sketch of our minds not only clears the slate for children to explore a world of different flavors, it also removes any judgment adults might feel for digging into foods such as chicken nuggets, pizza or mac and cheese. Those dishes can hit the …
Over the past year, many of us have (re)discovered the wonders of cabbage. Thanks in large part to its long shelf life during a time when many Americans are grocery shopping less frequently, cabbage has found its way into refrigerators across the country. As such, I wanted to develop a new p…
“Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.” Mark Twain gets credit for this quotation, perhaps mistakenly, because it seems that his friend and collaborator, journalist Charles Dudley Warner, is the one who first wrote this in an editorial for the Hartford, Co…
Let’s be honest. From time to time, many of us throw weeknight dinners together with what we have on hand. It happens to me and I write a weekly column about getting dinner on the table in minutes, so supper recipes are almost always on my mind. Toward the end of the week when the refrigerat…
We’ve all been there. There being left with a thin, watery sauce when instead we’re in want of one that is thick, luscious and full of body-ody-ody. While a roux is a common thickener that we should all master for dishes such as gravy and gumbo, it is of no use once we’ve already reached the…
You can count me in for pretty much any dish with “loaded” and “potato” in its name. Either of those words alone point in the direction of filling, comfort-food satisfaction, but together they are practically a guarantee.
