My grandson has given me a directive for his overnight visits: “You don’t ever have to ask what I want for breakfast, G. Lee. Just assume it will always be pancakes”). I love pancakes too but lacking his speedy metabolism, I don’t make them often. One weekend morning when he wasn’t visiting, I woke up
I’ve always loved mini-meatballs. Beef, turkey, or Swedish, I could eat them as a meal or snack any day of the week. The first time I had Asian chicken meatballs as part of the dim sum menu in a restaurant, I had to figure out how to make those too. Soy sauce, rice vinegar, and
Pasta with meat sauce is a favorite comfort dish. I’ve made it a million times when I wanted something familiar and filling or when I was short on cash. I used to just open a jar of commercial spaghetti sauce, add some basic spices, and heat it up in five minutes. Now I start from
There are probably a dozen variations of macaroni and cheese and I think I’ve had them all: classic, southern style, gourmet, and the day-glo orange stuff that comes in a box. My own version had been hit or miss in the past but, this year, I finally got it just the way I like it.
A friend from Trinidad introduced me to my first taste of coconut sweet bread around the holidays. Before bringing me a slice, she described it as “a cake with fruit in it”, and said that her mother possessed a ‘sweet hand’, meaning only certain Caribbean folks had the special ability to turn out a perfect
I love classic American beef stew but sometimes I crave something similar but a little less heavy; something beefy without the stick-to-your-ribs potatoes and carrots. That’s when I think of this meat stew known as Ropa Vieja. I serve it over hot white rice but if you drain off some of the sauce, you can also
Candied sweet potatoes are always on the menu at my family’s Thanksgiving dinners. I used to just layer the ingredients on top of the sweet potatoes but cooking the butter and sugar mixture on the stovetop first gives the topping some extra richness. This year my sweet potatoes were especially yummy because the caramelized sugar added
When I was in grade school, my favorite lunch was canned tomato soup accompanied by an American cheese sandwich on wheat bread, cold or grilled. It’s still one of my favorite meals but as I got older, canned soup just didn’t do it for me. Classic tomato soup only requires a few ingredients and doesn’t
Recently a friend at work brought me a bagful of lovely green tomatoes from his backyard garden. I went in search of some recipe ideas for my newfound treasure and came up with two. One is fried green tomatoes and the other is this soup which has become a new favorite in my “simple but
Fried green tomatoes are a traditional Southern treat. I’d heard of the dish and seen the movie, but this New Yorker wasn’t really interested in trying them until a friend brought me a bagful of lovely green tomatoes from his backyard garden. He swore they were so good you could eat them like apples, just
Karaage [ka-RAH-gay] has become one of my favorite snacks. It’s kind of like popcorn chicken with an Asian twist. This recipe requires marinating to make sure the chicken is well-seasoned–which you can do in an hour or so, but I like to marinate overnight. Karaage is often served in Japanese restaurants as an appetizer with a
This is another one of those ‘simple but elegant’ meals I’ve grown so fond of, and it’s also a great option when the weather’s too warm to turn on the stove. The star of this dish is the steak. I prefer rib eye but any cut of steak will do as long as you slice
A hot kitchen in summer can be especially brutal in the sweltering heat of New York City, so at this time of year I look to make tasty meals that keep the cooking to a minimum. I love a good salad, especially one that lets me clear out the fridge. This version of pasta salad
This recipe has become the star of my personal file of “simple but elegant” recipes when I want something a little more upscale than scrambled eggs. One of the best things about a frittata is that you can fill it with anything you like. A few weeks ago I made one with chopped crispy bacon
It took quite awhile for me to learn to cook pork chops that didn’t taste like well-seasoned shoe leather. I was so afraid of serving undercooked pork, I overdid it and wound up with tough, dry meat. At a restaurant one night, I had a blue cheese-encrusted pork chop that tasted like heaven and I
When we were kids, my dad would take me and my sibs to the diner across the street from his job whenever we would visit him there. No doubt my love for simple American diner food began right there. Over the years, I’ve visited diners all over my local tri-state area and have become a little
I had my first bowl of picadillo many years ago in a local Cuban restaurant and it was love at first bite. Picadillo is sort of like a sloppy joe with a twist — and a kick. If you can manage to get the olives, capers, raisins, and tomatoes all in one bite, you’ll be
I’ve sampled a lot of potato salad over the years, at restaurants, neighborhood delis, or made by friends. I’m always a little surprised at how many ways there are to make it — with vinegar, mustard, with or without mayonnaise, for example. But I still prefer the recipe I watched my mother make when I
When I think of pasta, my mind usually goes to spaghetti and meatballs or cheesy lasagna. But sometimes when I’m craving comfort food and don’t want to end up in a carb coma, I go for something like this. Still comforting but not quite as heavy and sleep-inducing. It’s a good way to use up
Collard greens have a long history in the African-American community. No self-respecting soul food restaurant would dare omit them from the menu! They were always on our dinner table on holidays when I was a kid, and even now that my siblings and I have children and grandchildren of our own, we still look forward to them every
