What to Cook

We never get tired of salmon. It’s easy to handle, it’s got great flavor, silky richness, and it’s extremely versatile.  It takes well to almost every kind of cooking treatment—sautéing, roasting, poaching, and you can’t get tired of it because you can shower it with seasonings from any cuisine—Asian, Mediterranean, and any version of “New American” ingredients (I don’t even know what I mean by that, but I guess I’m thinking of salmon dishes that you would find in a cool neighborhood restaurant. Salmon is available everywhere. You can use farmed salmon or seek out wild Alaska salmon when it’s …

I have a little bit of a pet peeve when bloggers and writers and online sites offer up a recipe for something they know is a crowd-pleaser and then confidently—even presumptuously—say, “You’re welcome.” It’s just a little pushy, right? But, 5 recipes with bacon in them… NO.  I won’t do it. Anyway, with apologies to all the vegetarian readers out there… I promise something special for you soon. Bacon, Sage, and Provolone Chicken Rolls with Marsala Sauce The words “wrapped in bacon” never fail to please.  A rolled chicken breast may look le-di-da fancy—but really super easy to pull off …

At this time of year, our Instagram feeds, the office kitchens, kids’ classrooms, and perhaps our mouths are filled with cookies. It’s the Cookiest Time of the Year, for sure. And around this time, I start to succumb to cookie decorating angst, feeling sad or lacking because I don’t do the whole royal icing thing, the piping thing, the cookie-as-a-work-of-art thing. I’m not immune to #bakingshame. Then I remember this most important fact: The most delicious cookies aren’t always the most polished or ornate. And, conversely, the most elaborate-looking cookies don’t always taste the best! So I’ll continue to ooh …

I get a little OCD about making sure I am taking full advantage of leftovers, and Thanksgiving is like the Olympics of leftover repurposing. One can only eat so many turkey sandwiches, right? And then we need to move on, and figure out how to turn all that leftover turkey into delicious meals the family will be excited to see later in the week. Here are a bunch of options – and remember, anywhere you can use leftover shredded chicken, turkey is pretty much fair game! If you’re looking for a great turkey recipe, check out this Dry Brined Holiday …

A container of refrigerated dough—whether it be biscuit dough, a refrigerated pie crust, puff pastry (refrigerated or frozen and defrosted) is a fabulous recipe waiting to happen. Refrigerated doughs are some of my favorite convenience products out there. Yes, I make my own biscuits, sometimes. Yes, I make my own pie crust, occasionally. No, I never make my own puff pastry. I did it once and that is probably going to be enough for me. But whether you head in a sweet or a savory direction, it hard to think of a more interesting springboard packaged ingredient that can take …

This is pretty much how the discussion about which mashed potato dish(es) to serve at Thanksgiving goes in our family. We need to have everything that we’ve always had, just the way we’ve always had it, but we also need to not have the same old everything or it’s boring. Also, no one really likes marshmallows on their sweet potatoes, but that’s the way Aunt Sue (rest her soul) always made them, so it’s tradition. But marshmallows have gelatin in them, and then Grannie Annie, Lizzie, and Charlotte, who are vegetarians, can’t eat them, plus, they are the ones who really depend on the …