What to Cook

Golden Turkey Stock

Putting the stock on is the start of something, the beginning of a ritual. It’s a bit of extra work, but the sort of enjoyable, passive work that makes your house smell wonderful and all your food taste better.

Green Bean Casserole

Green bean casserole is inherently good, and it can be whatever you want it to be. This is what I want it to be: a skillet of sauteed green beans, caramelized onions and beautifully browned mushrooms barely coated in a creamy gravy topped with French’s Onions from the container.

Gorgeous Chili

Chili means many different things depending on where you are. Heavy on the tomato, well spiced but will not light-your-mouth on fire, uses hunks of meat (chuck, sirloin, brisket, etc.) to slow braise and beans cooked from dried.

Cornbread

If you believe cornbread, like any other quick-bread-type delicacy, should have just enough sugar to balance out the salt, baked in whatever the hell you have on hand, then I think you’re going to absolutely love it.

Extra Coconut Cake

Coconut cakes are, by definition, extra. They should be tall and fuzzy like an obnoxious angora sweater. Part of the charm of the coconut cake is in the layering—I’m a big fan of slicing each layer of cake horizontally to expose the inside, which then gets covered in frosting.

Spicy Seafood Pasta with Fennel

At its core, this is a light breezy pasta made with caramelized fennel and juicy, fresh tomatoes—already wonderful—but yes, there is also seafood.

Clam Chowder with Corn and Bacon

This clam chowder is more of the brothy, soupy, light and ethereal variety, ideal for the end of summer and beginning of fall, but would happily take you into the winter months, too.

Grilled Chicken with Spicy Lime, Herbs, and Lettuces

Directly inspired from the many variations of nuoc cham I had while in Vietnam a few years back, any combination of fish sauce and lime juice has become my absolute favorite way to dress grilled meats.

Tomato Tart with Garlic and Capers

I knew I wanted this to be a quick, throw-together affair. That meant no “salt the tomatoes to draw out the moisture,” no crust that needed to be chilled or rolled out, nothing to delay me from having crisp, cheesy crust with a simple layer of softened, jammy, garlicky tomatoes as soon as possible.

Spicy Shrimp in Harissa Butter

These shrimp are deceptively flavorful and complex: spicy (thanks to harissa paste), lemony (thanks to whole, sliced lemon caramelized in the pan), and buttery (thanks to butter).

Roasted Eggplant Pasta with Parmesan Breadcrumbs

This is not necessarily a quick recipe, because almost nothing involving eggplant is “quick,” but that’s okay. Some things, like a bowl full of pasta that tastes like Eggplant Parmesan, are worth it..

Spanish Tortilla with Aioli and Friends

A humble little snack, made with a quartet of ingredients you likely have on hand. If you’re in Spain, they’re ubiquitous, and if you’re not but find yourself wishing you were, well, you can make one at home.

Anchovy Apple Apricot Artichoke Arugula Asparagus

Bacon Banana Beans & Legumes Beef Blue Cheese Blueberry Bread Brisket Broccoli Broccoli Rabe Buttermilk

Cabbage Capers Carrot Cauliflower Celery Chicken Chickpeas Chiles Chocolate Cinnamon Citrus Clams Coconut Corn Cornmeal Cranberries Cucumber

Dates Dill

Egg Eggplant Escarole

Farro Fennel Feta

Grapefruit Green Beans

Harissa Hazelnut Hominy Horseradish

Kale

Labne Lamb Leek Lemon Lentils Lettuce Lime

Maple Syrup Matzo Mushrooms Mustard

Olive Onion Orange

Panko Parmesan Parsley Peach Peas Pecan Pecorino Pepperoncini Pickles Pistachio Plum Pork Potato Puff Pastry

Radicchio Radish Red Onion Ricotta Rutabaga

Sage Salmon Sardines Sausage Scallions Sesame Shallot Shrimp Squash Steak Strawberry

Tahini Tarragon Tofu Tomatillo Tomato Tortilla Trout Tuna Turkey

Walnuts

Zucchini