A fan of your column and recipes. I went and bought your new cookbook today. Absolutely drool worthy. I don't know where to start. I collect cookbooks and this one is most exciting. Thanks for sharing. Already looking forward to the next one.
Home cooking needs two indispensable psychological factors: self-love and self-esteem.
You deserve to buy healthy and tasty ingredients and you like to eat the timely and best cooked food.
No restaurant worldwide can give you that, specially for the time being when real cooking is gradually disappearing in the restaurants' kitchen to be seen more and more on the TV screens.
Finally, please Ms Clark, don't show that lemony pasta, which is horribly sitting in the plate, that means it is overcooked. No good for a cooking website.
You deserve to buy healthy and tasty ingredients and you like to eat the timely and best cooked food.
No restaurant worldwide can give you that, specially for the time being when real cooking is gradually disappearing in the restaurants' kitchen to be seen more and more on the TV screens.
Finally, please Ms Clark, don't show that lemony pasta, which is horribly sitting in the plate, that means it is overcooked. No good for a cooking website.
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Not quite sure how pasta "sitting in the plate" indicates it being overcooked; could you elaborate?
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This writer---and good for her---is out of touch with why making dinner is so tiresome for many of us. It's not because restaurants have figured out small plates and we have not. It's because we're exhausted with stress, kids, physical illness, political instability, financial anxiety.
Sorry you feel this way. When I was a single parent with heavy responsibilities and no money, one of the things I found welcoming about making dinner was the opportunity to spend time with my kids in what some days seemed to be the only creative moments we had together. Now, I still find enjoyment in being able to prepare even seemingly mundane meals with friends and family. Last night a friend's four year old helped wash the dishes after we shared a basic meal of homemade soup, bread, and applesauce. Nothing fancy but a warming time of fellowship and very healthy food...And an intentional effort to talk only of non-stress producing topics--two hours of reminding ourselves of the good in our lives.
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Get back to us after you've been cooking dinner almost every night for 50 years....
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My neighbors and I didn't think it were possible to appreciate Melissa Clark and her work more than we already did; but, it is! We were with her last night at Politics and Prose Book Store simply to see in person the woman who had re-inspired us and given us the courage to try so many new things. The same down-to-earth, clear-headed, talented "gal-pal" feel you get with her informative videos, is the person we met answering questions, sharing tips and the behind-the-scenes anecdotes about food "reporting" and prep. Did you know that is actually her NYC apartment kitchen not some commercial food prep studio? Gotta love her and we do!
I just made herbed chicken with root veggies...Brussels Sprouts, red potatoes, onion, garlic and diced parsnip.
Next time, I think I'll roast the parsnip and half the garlic separately and then puree them to make a dressing to drizzle over the top of everything when done.
Next time, I think I'll roast the parsnip and half the garlic separately and then puree them to make a dressing to drizzle over the top of everything when done.
Making dinner each night is one of the great joys of my life. I decide what to cook on the subway home; stop off along the two-block walk home for ingredients, and enlist one of my two teen boys to help prep. I put on my favorite music, pour a glass of wine, and unleash a little kitchen alchemy while the boys do their homework. It's the best part of my day, and I know my sons are eating real, fresh, healthy food, from scratch. Leftovers make nice lunches and save me money.
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My mom does most of the cooking in the house. I occasionally help her out here and there and sometimes I find myself cooking the entire meal. Cooking to me is more of a way to help my mom out then a hobby. But that doesn't mean I don't enjoy it. I love cooking and the best part is sitting some and getting ready to eat your own, homemade meal. The amazing thing is that there are no rules or regulations (I mean there are certain rules if you don't want to burn your house down.) But especially if you're cooking for yourself, you can do whatever you want. In my house, we eat traditional Indian/Pakistani food. And if there is something else like Italian for instance( my favorite), I would usually make it. At this point, I'm kind of sick of Indian food, but at the same time I wouldn't be able to live without it. Indian food is great if you love spicy food. That's the best part! But other then that, my favorites would be Mexican and Italian food.
In my house, my mom is the one who makes dinner for us. She tries to plan out our meals on Sunday for the whole week. My favorite food to eat that my mom makes is her pork and rice. The pork is flavored with a variety of spices and the rice is baked and has onions and dried cranberries in it. My favorite food to eat is filet mignon. Filet mignon is the best dinner meal because it is so juicy and melts in your mouth.
What a beautiful article! Dinner can so often be a burdensome chore at the end of a long day. Thank you for helping me think about the lovely dance it can be instead.
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In my house, my mom often makes dinner. My favorite dish by her is her baked chicken. I love her baked chicken so much because it incorporates a variety of spices from the Middle East. Each bite, is like trying a whole new recipe. Yum!
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The majority of the time I'm the one who makes dinner in my household. To me cooking is not a chore, it is one of my favorite things to do. My favorite dish that I make would have to be macaroni and cheese because it's fast and doesn't require a lot of work.
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Enjoying food at home requires a lot of planning. We don't get home from exercise til after 8:30 most nights and don't want a big meal then, so we have home-made soup at least twice a week, which has been packaged in single night containers in the freezer. I don't like to cook on weeknights, but love to cook on the weekends- so meals are planned, food is purchased and prepared on Saturday and Sunday, usually dining with friends as well- and I make enough to have left-overs for our non-soup nights, which also fulfills my empty nest need to make big meals. The left-overs can be "jazzed up" with spices, different sides, etc, so it is not the exact same meal several times a week- which does offer some opportunity for weeknight creativity.
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The trouble for me is that I can't cook meat unless I have defrosted and marinated it the night before. This would require planning and forethought and organization-none of which I'm good at. I feel I need to get better at making vegetarian dishes.
If you don't use a microwave to defrost, how do you handle this challenge of frozen meat at 6 PM when you're starving.
If you don't use a microwave to defrost, how do you handle this challenge of frozen meat at 6 PM when you're starving.
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Before freezing, pack the meat with "starving at 6 pm" in mind. 30 minutes on the counter is all a thin tender cut of boneless pork, some steak or half a chicken breast needs before you can slice it thin. It can finish thawing in a quick marinade while you cut up veggies and turn it all into tacos, stir fry or gussied up ramen.
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I do not have a microwave.
Take the frozen meat out of the freezer the night before for a few hours - enough so that it has thawed out somewhat - then place it in the refrigerator overnight - keep it more forward as the back of the fridge is colder generally. When you get home from work the next day, take the now-thawed item out to come to room temp for cooking.
I do this about half the week for meals.
Take the frozen meat out of the freezer the night before for a few hours - enough so that it has thawed out somewhat - then place it in the refrigerator overnight - keep it more forward as the back of the fridge is colder generally. When you get home from work the next day, take the now-thawed item out to come to room temp for cooking.
I do this about half the week for meals.
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I live in NYC with several butchers within a block of my house, so I buy fresh meat each day on the way home from the subway station. I hate the texture of formerly-frozen meat.
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Wonderful article about cooking and dancing. Now if someone can please provide the magic recipe for cleaning up after using the assorted pots, pans, cutting boards, bowls, utensils and those little shimmers of spattered whatever on the stove.
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The magic recipe in our house for cleaning up after cooking is our daughters. Teach them young. The rule in our house is if you cook dinner, you don't have to clean dishes. Get's them cooking too. Spread the love at dinner time- and the cleaning too.
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@ Lori
No sons in the house?
No sons in the house?
I put one large just-used pot or bowl in the sink, while cooking, squirt liquid sopa in it, and hot water. As I finish a step, anything that can't go in the dishwasher goes in to soak. Clean up is much easier. That's the water I use to hand wash the cutting board. As for spatters, I have a metal 3-sided folding "screen" which goes around 3 sides of a skillet. It, too, can be washed quickly with the soapy warm water in the large pot or bowl. I love clean up as I cook. That makes the end of the meal much better.
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Love Brussels sprouts. My New Zealand friend used to call them "bitter little cabbages." I couldn't disagree more, but would appreciate some sauté recipes that don't include ham or speck yet add a little kick. Thank you.
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Halve them and then slice very thinly. Sautee and then add to your favorite omelet.
Melissa Clark is a national treasure! Thank you, Melissa for yet more amazing recipes.
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This article is inspiring. I thought that when I retired, I would cook and eat great food every night. Alas, that has not been the case. I still hate to cook dinner. But if I start earlier in the day,mi can get something on the table at 7:30. The problem seems to be that hunger causes fatigue, which translates into cheese and crackers for dinner.
I am in awe of parents who can cook dinner after a two hour commute. I like to cook, but not in the evening.
I am in awe of parents who can cook dinner after a two hour commute. I like to cook, but not in the evening.
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There are so many dishes that can be assembled earlier in the day and then quickly sauteed (or just reheated) for that witching hour when you are too hungry and too tired to start a meal from beginning to end.
What a lovely essay. Thank you. Let's dance.
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As someone who was a chef for many years, I agree with many others that this is a wonderful article that does a great job of pointing out that cooking most nights doesn't have to be a chore. But none of the 22 comments so far has discussed the chicken & Brussels sprouts recipe. As currently displayed it is crazy. It says that 3lbs of chicken + 1.5lbs of Brussels sprouts (4.5lbs total!) feeds only 3 people, & the nutrition info includes these ugly & unhealthy per serving stats:
1281 calories; 90 grams fat; 340mg cholesterol and 1704mg sodium
I'm guessing it's an editing error. If the recipe feeds 6 instead of 3 (that's 3/4lb of raw ingredients per person instead of 1.5lbs each as written) it would be just fine, as every measurement above would be halved.
Will a Times editor please double-check the recipe as posted? We love Melissa! Please don't step in the way of our love because of preventable editorial errors.
1281 calories; 90 grams fat; 340mg cholesterol and 1704mg sodium
I'm guessing it's an editing error. If the recipe feeds 6 instead of 3 (that's 3/4lb of raw ingredients per person instead of 1.5lbs each as written) it would be just fine, as every measurement above would be halved.
Will a Times editor please double-check the recipe as posted? We love Melissa! Please don't step in the way of our love because of preventable editorial errors.
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I've been in anxious pre-order mode for Melissa's Dinner book. Hurray! It'll arrive next week. Fun reading and cooking, I'm sure!
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Cooking can be a dance IF the other members of the household get out of my way so I can move freely and efficiently around the kitchen. And after over 40 years of marriage, my spouse has yet to internalize the simple principle, though I have explained it many times: I can do any two out of these three -- cook, listen to the radio, and chat with you -- but I cannot, cannot, CANNOT do all three at once. So if I turn off the radio when you come in the door, that is not a passive-aggressive insult, it's just facing reality.
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An inspirational piece! I cook most every night for my spouse (and me), trying to be inventive and creative, healthy, etc. And I have fresh veggies from my garden most of the year (which can be constraining -- kale, again..). Thanks for the thoughts about shaking things up.
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Cooking really helps you decompress after work. Kids can and should help by the age of 6 (at the latest, in our family they start around 3). If you are really stressed, make strudel dough. You have to slap it 100 times against the kitchen counter. You're guarenteed to feel better after that.
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I really appreciate Melissa Clark!!
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Beautifully written piece. Smart, practical too. Thank you!
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I wouldn't welcome the cabbage-y smell of Brussels sprouts on chicken. There are advantages to cooking some things separately and embracing their differences. At least shove them to the other side of the pan.
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While my wife is a superb cook, since i usually arrive home first, I will be the one to get supper/dinner on the table. When pressed for time I go back to some old French classics, eggs in any form, a large baked potato with good butter or a salad of mixed greens and a loaf of French/Italian bread, maybe some good cheese too. Simple yet satisfying. We are not parents, so it's easier for us for sure.
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Yes yes. This is how we should cook. It is not just the harried working parents who are enslaved by habit. We older empty-nesters, still working, do not have much energy for cooking, but certainly we have flexibility; often we feel that changing eating times is "the thin end of the wedge" and stick to a 7:30 dinnertime because eating early is a sign of the age we do not want to give into. Why not cook when your energy is still hanging around? I had not made a cheese souffle for twenty years, but I saved the NYT "new Essentials of French Cooking" from last week, and found myself reaching for a hunk of gruyere at market. Thanks to Clark's great tips, what emerged from the oven was perfection, and we devoured the hot soufflé at 6:00 with a leftover garlic dressing on a few greens and a glass of wine. . We were absolutely full both of glorified cheese and a sense of accomplishment and active until bed at 11:30. On principle we eat usually at 7:30, but this craving-driven change made us think outside our own particular mealtime box.
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Sorry, none of the illustrated dishes appeal to me. Apart from scrambled or sunny-side-up fried eggs, the only thing I can cook well are fillet steaks. The tendency of the NYT Food Writers to chicken is like further promoting hamburgers with ketchup in a nation of hamburger eaters.
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Or maybe steak with ketchup.
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Once again Melissa hit home. When I first retired I thought I would turn the kitchen into a den. I didn't care if I never cooked another meal. Over time a strange thing happened; I found myself enjoying the time spent over a new recipe in the kitchen (that still had yet to become a den). Spending hours on an elaborate dish was like meditation, like taking the time to read a good book, like sitting quietly enjoying the view. Of course it helped that I had a good husband who enjoyed experimenting with food and loved nearly everything that I cooked. It's been a wonderful surprise and a satisfying way to spend an afternoon. Many thanks to Melissa and her colleagues whose participation in the NYTimes food pages inspire me.
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Cooking dinner is one of my favorite ways to decompress from the day and to share time with the people I love. Music (or NPR if I'm alone), a glass of wine and a good knife are key. I get a basket of seasonal vegetables delivered every other week, which means things I didn't think I liked (endives) or wouldn't normally buy (sunchokes and black salsify) all take a rotation on the dinner plate. When time is tight, there's always the German stand-by: bread and cheese.
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I absolutely love this article! As a husband and father, nothing is more therapeutic than coming home and making dinner for the family. I find cooking one of the most creative ways to express what mood you can be in, how you can surprise your family each night and better still, when you think there's nothing you have in the pantry you're able to get it together and make something from nothing!
Cooking allows you to experiment in so many ways and take your family to different places around the globe through their pallets. As simple as yellow rice and beans to a more complex dish such as a slow baked roast with collared greens and salad, creating meals each night, for me, is a lot of fun and a de-stresser.
Yes, we all live busy lives but it's trying to enjoy the simple things in life that make it worthwhile!
Cooking allows you to experiment in so many ways and take your family to different places around the globe through their pallets. As simple as yellow rice and beans to a more complex dish such as a slow baked roast with collared greens and salad, creating meals each night, for me, is a lot of fun and a de-stresser.
Yes, we all live busy lives but it's trying to enjoy the simple things in life that make it worthwhile!
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While I understand the point here to streamline dinner preparation, as a working parent and one who arrives home before my spouse at 7pm after a nearly 2 hour commute, the last thing I want to do is prepare dinner. I've come to think of it as the tyranny of the evening meal. Oftentimes, and as a morning person, I find myself preparing it before I leave the house for the day and prefer to have something to reheat at the end of it. It's just another chore. Crockpots, anyone? I've come to think of those as my dinner guardian angels. Yes, self prepared food and eating as a family is important but it doesn't always fit in with the lifestyle of dual working parents.
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Crockpot, reheating, weekend cookahead -- whatever works best for YOU is what you should do. Midsy, keep it simple and appreciate yourself for doing your best under challenging circumstances
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I learned to cook as a college student. When you don't have much money, the refrigerator is mostly empty, or food is left ignored for week, and is about to spoil. I developed my own recipes, one actually, and it's called "Zen surprise".
Basically taking items, almost at random, and making dinner from them. The results, were, on the whole, successful. That's when one or more housemates said, "that was good, could we have it again". Sorry, no, there was no recipe and I don't remember what I did. I was just "in the moment".
I married a foodie who was an engineer, like myself. When we eat at restaurants we try to "reverse engineer" the dishes we like. Even asking the chef to come out to verify an elusive ingredient.
What's common to both methods is paying attention to the food itself. Once you know what individual ingredients taste like, you can imagine what they taste like together. Make what appeals to you at the moment.
Basically taking items, almost at random, and making dinner from them. The results, were, on the whole, successful. That's when one or more housemates said, "that was good, could we have it again". Sorry, no, there was no recipe and I don't remember what I did. I was just "in the moment".
I married a foodie who was an engineer, like myself. When we eat at restaurants we try to "reverse engineer" the dishes we like. Even asking the chef to come out to verify an elusive ingredient.
What's common to both methods is paying attention to the food itself. Once you know what individual ingredients taste like, you can imagine what they taste like together. Make what appeals to you at the moment.
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With a spouse who works, my contribution is to cook dinner 3 nights a week. Two of those nights I light up the stove after a 2-hour commute home. I find it's a great way to shake off the commute, and actually decompress.
So thrilled that buratta is finally catching hold on this continent. Years after a relavatory exposure in Lucca to burrata personally delivered by a farmer from Campagnia. But serve it at room temperature, people!
So thrilled that buratta is finally catching hold on this continent. Years after a relavatory exposure in Lucca to burrata personally delivered by a farmer from Campagnia. But serve it at room temperature, people!
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Édouard de Pomiane's work is great. Some years ago the BBC had a series of short 10-minute shows with an actor portraying Pomiane, cooking a full meal during each episode. Charming. Here's one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzjyfqPe7ZE
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OH, this is fantastic! Thank you so much for posting the link. That said, I'm afraid his food looks pretty dire. But the video is adorbs.
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How thoughtful of you to supply a link. I had never heard of de Pomiane. It was delightful and I shall look for more!
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Adorable. Makes me want to create special moments out of nothing special.
My mouth is watering! Your sheet pan recipes are a life saver, although I think I might have ruined forever the one with the potatoes. chicken, arugula and yogurt by making it for every single one of the presidential debates and on election night. Thrilled that there are other variations because the method is fantastic ( busy mom who loves to cook but with three kids)
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I MUST try that recipe!!
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