So you’ve decided to become a weekday vegetarian: Congratulations! But the rest of your family is just…not onboard yet. How do you stay the course without becoming a short-order cook on overdrive? The answer: Meet Them Where They Are. Dialing back on meat is a process, and if the goal here is reducing as opposed to eliminating, then wear that hat when you… Read more »
Fun fact: This recipe appears in two of my books. A version of it first appeared in How to Celebrate Everything, but I make it so frequently, it felt wrong not to include it again in my last book, devoted to my easiest, go-to-iest weeknight vegetarian dinners. It’s the kind of homey comfort-food meal I make when I’m cooking for… Read more »
Good morning! Yesterday was another gray one here in New York, but I managed to squeeze in a long walk-and-talk “with” my friend in Providence. (I walked to a mailbox in town to send her some glove-packed yeast, since she claims there isn’t any left in the state of Rhode Island.) I tested yet another cabbage recipe for the book;… Read more »
When we have families over for dinner, we like to have the usual spread of above-average cheeses — La Tur, Humboldt Fog, Trader Joe’s twisted bi-color cheddar sticks. But the starter that inevitably manages to stop guests mid-bite is a relatively recent discovery: Todd’s Minty Pea Dip. It’s technically a Jamie Oliver recipe, but the first place we ever had… Read more »
There’s a new cookbook out today called Hot Sheet, by Olga Massov and Sanaë Lemoine, which is an ode in recipe form to all the ways the humble sheet pan makes a home cook’s life easier, from starters and snacks, through dinnertime and dessert. Good lord, everything looks so delicious and — here’s what shocked me for a sheet pan cookbook… Read more »
Last year, I wrote about a half dozen fall vegetable love stories: Cabbage Loves Apples, Beets Love Dill, Chinese Greens Love Ginger, and I’d like to add a new one to the list: Squash Loves Tahini. Specifically delicata squash; I’ve been making this salad above for lunch almost every day: Greens, roasted delicata, tahini dressing, and store bought dukkah, the Middle… Read more »
Hot take alert: I don’t know if I’ve ever had a pasta salad and thought, Wow, this is a great pasta salad. Have you? They always seem to be just too pasta-heavy and…room temperature-y. Well, after trying this one from Odette Williams’s wonderful Simple Pasta last week, I am on my way to changing my mind. Why? Well, for starters, the noodle she… Read more »
Want your family to head in a more plant-based direction, but not sure where to even begin? I hear you! In fact I was you…only a few years ago. Here are a few strategies that helped me scale way back on my family’s meat intake from Monday through Friday, excerpted from my book, The Weekday Vegetarians. 1. Cook What You… Read more »
We were craving something light and flavorful on Friday night and somehow landed on Niçoise Salad. Only problem: We had no potatoes; Phoebe didn’t want eggs; I didn’t want olives; Abby begged for crispy chickpeas instead of tuna; I said YOU CAN’T HAVE NIÇOISE WITHOUT TUNA; Andy said YOU CAN’T HAVE NIÇOISE WITHOUT OLIVES. We did it anyway! The whole… Read more »
This photo probably looks familiar to longtime readers. What can I say: We are creatures of habit down in South Carolina. If I look back at my dinner diaries, without fail, there’s a Pan-fried flounder with some form of slaw in the line-up. (But that certainly does not mean you have to be south of the Mason-Dixon Line to enjoy… Read more »
Does the world need another fried rice recipe? I didn’t think so until I made Kenji López-Alt’s Basic Vegetable Fried Rice from his new, somewhat astonishing book The Wok. The dish, which I consider to be an absolute cornerstone of a Weekday Vegetarian’s repertoire, has always been something I’ve kind of made up on the fly. Ginger here, soy sauce there, eggs… Read more »
When we were first trying to get our kids on board with the whole Weekday Vegetarian thing, we were never quite sure if we should tweak old recipes that they had an attachment to, or just ignore them completely. Sometimes we got lucky and just swapped beans for meat in a favorite dinner and no one was any worse for… Read more »
Good morning and welcome to this week’s edition of Pantry, Project, Purpose. (I know, it’s been a little while.) I’m thrilled to report that, thanks to you amazing readers, I keep having to increase the fundraising goal for our World Central Kitchen holiday drive. I’m astounded by the generosity of this community — thank you to everyone who has contributed…. Read more »
Hello friends! Hope you are well — before I begin, can I just say how thankful I am that you are here reading? Do I tell you that enough? I am so grateful for this space, I think more grateful than I have been in the ten years I’ve been writing. Thank you! Thank you especially to those of you… Read more »
Good morning! I hope everybody had a nice weekend. It was another hot one here in New York and if we squinted really hard, it almost felt like a normal July, even as we followed the grim news from Florida and California and the Midwest. (Stay safe, everyone.) Our local pool is open, I played tennis with Abby, and we… Read more »
Good morning! I interrupt the Project Pantry Purpose series to bring you a bunch of things that don’t necessarily fall neatly into the usual categories, except for this galette, which I wrote about yesterday over at Cup of Jo. DALS loyalists already know it’s my favorite can’t-mess-it-up-no-matter-how-you-try dessert. Here are five more completely random items (including one plea for help)… Read more »
Good morning! I hadn’t meant to take a whole week off but I hope everyone had a nice Fourth of July, however (or if) you celebrated. In summation: We did a round-trip drive to northern Virginia to check in on Andy’s parents, had some friends over on Saturday night for socially-distant Negronis, watched Hamilton like the rest of the world,… Read more »
Good morning. Thank you to everyone who sent along well wishes to Bean. I read every note to her and they were much appreciated. Other than spoiling her with attention, yesterday I planted the remainder of my tomato garden, and noticed some suspicious looking divots that were not there yesterday. (I cannot win.) While Andy mended the subsequently discovered holes… Read more »
Welcome! I’m Jenny, author of Dinner: A Love Story and The Weekday Vegetarians More
