Fish stew is a favorite and the best thing about this one is its versatility. The first time I made this, it was so good, I burned my tongue because I couldn’t wait for it to cool. The second time, I decided to kick it up a little by adding the Old Bay seasoning and
Drumsticks are my favorite part of the turkey but like most, I used to have them only once a year on Thanksgiving—until I learned how to make them in my slow cooker. I like to brine my poultry for extra flavor and tenderness but you can skip this step if you like. Brining poultry is
This recipe is an update on a favorite meal I had as a child. As the single parent of five kids, my mom had to be pretty inventive in making a dollar stretch. Cabbage and white rice was a filling and economical side dish that I loved except for the texture, which tended to be
I’ve been trying to incorporate Mediterranean cooking into my routine because of its distinctive flavors and healthy fats. My first attempt at this recipe was delicious but the recipe involved more than one pot, included a few more ingredients than listed here and took too long to make, so I started over. Still craving that
I bought a few Gala apples at the end of the summer that tasted kind of flat and flavorless so I just left them in the fridge, planning to turn them into pie or turnovers at some point. Weeks later, craving something sweet and easy to make, I decided to turn my flavorless apples into
Hot and humid summer weather dictates that I use my stove as little as possible for the shortest possible amount of time. Fresh fish is always a good choice for summer meals since it cooks so fast. Sometimes I pan-fry or bake salmon with just a sprinkling of salt and pepper, other times I like
I like to eat bananas when the skins are spotted and ripe because they’re sweeter, but they can go mushy pretty fast. So what do you do with an overripe banana too messy to eat by hand? Make banana muffins! But most muffin recipes make too many for a person who lives alone. Recently I
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. I fell hard for Asian chicken meatballs as part of the dim sum menu in a restaurant, so 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
