Easy
East India Negroni
This riff on the Negroni cocktail is made with rum and a rich blend of oloroso and Pedro Ximénez sherries.
Bitter French
This cocktail is a sort of marriage between a French 75 (a classic drink that combines gin, citrus, and Champagne) and a Negroni.
Steamed Winter Veggie Bowls
Everything in this dinner (including the eggs!) cooks together in one steamer insert.
Shaved Mushroom, Celery, and Sesame Salad
In this salad, the color palette—pale whites and browns—may leave something to be desired, but the gorgeous medley of textures and very complementary flavors makes up for it. This is an attractive one to serve for a dinner party.
Broiled Goat Cheese Toasts With Marinated Greens
This simple appetizer is a hit every time due in large part to the vast appeal of warm cheesy things.
Silken Tofu With Soy-Sauced Tomatoes
This is a quick summer dish that capitalizes on juicy tomatoes and requires the stove to be turned on for just a few minutes.
Casino Cocktail
This gin cocktail is essentially an Aviation with orange bitters instead of Crème de violette.
Homemade Old Bay Seasoning
Old Bay Seasoning is the brand name of a blend of herbs and spices produced in Maryland by McCormick & Co. You can make a homemade version of Old Bay by following this recipe.
Chinese Broccoli With Soy Paste
The flavor of the soy paste really shines here, so use the best-quality one you can find. We like Yu Ding Xing’s glutinous rice soy paste.
Soy-Braised Chicken Wings
Dark soy sauce along with regular soy sauce is what gives these wings their rich color. We like to use all flats—arguably the best part of the wing!—but a mix with drumettes or whole wings works too.
Crispy Taiwanese Pork Cutlets
Flattening pork chops with the dull edge of a cleaver or heavy knife gives the surface an almost fluffy texture and helps the potato starch coating adhere.
Turf Mix
This crispy-crunchy-salty mix gets its green hue from a blend of ground seaweed snacks, dried dill, and lime zest. The seasoning of garlic powder, cayenne, salt, and sugar rounds it all out.
Parson’s Negroni Slushy
A frozen Negroni, no slushy machine required.
Mala Fried Peanuts
Shelled raw peanuts are easy to find at Asian markets, health food stores, and other specialty food stores.
Five-Spice Powder
This version is made with up to eight spices. It’s worth using them all for the fullest flavor.
Kiribath (Coconut Milk Rice)
It’s a humble combination of two everyday ingredients, but Kiribath has enormous significance in Sri Lanka—it’s cooked by the Sinhalese to mark the new year in April, and on other special occasions that celebrate new beginnings.
Pol Sambol (Coconut Relish)
Pol Sambol (like all sambols) is a versatile, vivid relish, given an intense hit of flavour from Maldive fish: smoked, sun-dried tuna, flaked and used sparingly
Steel-Cut Oats With Squash and Tahini
I try to make a big batch of steel-cut oats early in the week, ready to reheat for breakfast in the days that follow. This is a favorite autumnal way of topping it, which helps to keep an old standby interesting through all the weeks of the year. Rather than stirring the squash into the full pot of oatmeal, you can add it to individual bowls, treating it as a topping.
Roasted, Mashed Butternut Squash
By coarsely mashing, seasoning, and storing the squash to use later in the week, you've got an ingredient that'll yield more types of dishes than would be easily available to you if you were to have cubed and roasted leftover squash. It's a spread, a sandwich filling, sweet component of a frittata, the starting point of an easy appetizer.
Chicken and Black Bean Nachos
Nachos can stand an ingredient riff, but to make sure that the cheese is melted throughout and that each bite has the requisite combination of tastes and textures, follow this plan.