A good molasses cookie should achieve a harmony between the sweetness of brown sugar, the bitterness of molasses, and the gentle heat of spices. This cookie does all that, but where it really delivers is the texture: perfectly soft and chewy. The dough can be portioned and frozen ahead of time, making these your all-purpose holiday cookie.
Pull out a big heavy stew pot and get some greens going on the back of your stove for wonderful mid-week eating à la Brittany Luse, cultural critic and host of It’s Been A Minute from NPR. Serve on top of Brittany’s Weekend Grits.
This is truly one of my favorite vinegars. You immediately think of the sea when you taste it, and it’s so easy to make. This recipe uses wakame and kombu, which can be wildcrafted from the coastlines of California or pur- chased at Asian food stores. If you’re a seaweed forager, feel free to experiment with your local seaweed.
The greatest failure when making potato salad is overcooking the spuds—creamy mashed pota-toes is a no-go for any potato salad recipe. You want a waxy variety like fingerlings, Yukon Golds, or red potatoes; these varieties will keep their shape and texture when cooked right. Bobby Seale, cofounder of the Black Panther Party, said it well in his 1988 cookbook Barbeque’n with Bobby, where he wrote under a recipe titled “Hunky Crunchy Potato Salad” that his mother’s potato salad was a “tasty quasi-mashed potato salad.” My pro tip is to season the potatoes while they are warm. Begin your training to be a queen.
The famous 'frisée aux lardons' – now that's a salad with style! Hot, cold, crunchy, crisp, silky, salty, bitter, sweet. It ticks all the taste bud boxes in one go. And, if you add any cooked potatoes that are left over, you'll have a complete meal. If you can't find frisée, use another type of salad but choose one with character i.e. bitter and crunchy, as it is crucial for getting the balance of the recipe right. I'd suggest dandelion leaves greens, cos romaine lettuce, or wild chicory endive.
Flex your cold pack preserving skills with a batch of Spicy Pickled Green Beans. They’re good alongside a sandwich and even better pressed into stirring service in a Bloody Mary.
You can’t deny yourself a good potato – fact! Especially if it is a potato salad that has the added goodness of nuts, lentils and greens. You simply can’t go wrong.
Recipe provided by Bricia Lopez of Guelaguetza Restaurant in Los Angeles. Hear Lopez talk more about the ingredients and process of making chile rellenos in our story, "It's easy to fall in love with Oaxacan-style chiles rellenos." Find more of Lopez's recipes at the website Mole and More.
It was the Blackberry Pie recipe from What a Cook Ought to Know about Corn Starch (1909) that inspired mine. I love the bare-bones filling instructions: “Wash blackberries, drain and fill plate quite full. Sprinkle well with sugar. Sift over all, one generous tablespoon . . . [cornstarch].” Done and done. I added lime juice and zest (for a little zing), a bit of butter atop my filling (for richness), and arrowroot powder instead of cornstarch (for a less cloudy filling), and tucked it all into a tender and flaky cream cheese crust.
I keep a small zip-top bag full of apple cores, peels, and other scraps in my freezer, and I add to it every time I cut an apple for a snack or make a batch of cider. When I have enough to pack into a canning jar, I turn those scraps into vinegar. Essentially, this works by mixing the scraps with water and sugar, letting it ferment, and then ignoring it until the liquid turns into vinegar. The resulting vinegar is slightly less intense and flavorful than “real” vinegar, but still perfectly tasty for making everything from salad dressing to tri-tip marinade.