I was not wowed by this dish but I think it has potential. The instructions tell you to slice the zucchini as thinly as possible but you will realize that how thin you slice them will (duh) influence the number of slices you end up with. I had it in my head that this...
Review: The Essential New York Times Cookbook
What can you say about a book that contains more than 1000 recipes? That it is comprehensive and exciting and a bit overwhelming? That the passion of the editor/author is apparent in every page? That it could use some pictures? You’ve probably heard by now...
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Seared Tuna in Black Pepper Crust
I adore tuna and I would eat it once a week if it weren’t $549/lb. Expensive fish makes me nervous. Plus I’m a native Midwesterner so cooking fish well comes about as naturally as surfing. But I love it so I keep trying to perfect my skills. This...
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Pasta a la Vodka
As any Italian or Italian-cooking snob will tell you, Pasta a la Vodka is not authentic in any way. Even though it was, allegedly, created in Italy, it was only embraced by us ignorant Olive-Garden perpetrators. But love it we do and there are a few really good...
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Spicy, Garlicky Cashew Chicken
I’m going to need you to go out and make this immediately. And while you’re at it, you might as well corner the market on cashews because this could become your go-to dish of the summer. I mean, think about it: your smearing chicken with cashews. It...
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Italian Roast Potatoes
Nice, right? I think I just invented potato porn. Not to stereotype myself but I am, in fact, Irish and I do, undoubtedly, love potatoes in all forms. I think real mashed potatoes were the first thing I ever learned to make. Even my mother, who has made not cooking...
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Grilled Onion Guacamole
So the husband says, and I quote, “This is the best guacamole I’ve ever had.” And the man eats a lot of guacamole. “Obsession” would not be too strong a word for his relationship with guacamole. It is good. I love onions that have been...
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Buttermilk Roast Chicken
This is a really handy little number to have in your repertoire. The brine is started at least the night before and then the chicken just roasts, mostly unattended, for 1 hour and 15 minutes. As I was eating it, it occurred to me that this is really fried chicken...
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Fettuccine alla Romana
It’s recipes like this that make me wonder why anyone would buy a jar of congealed hydrogenated oil, corn syrup, and stabilizers calling itself “Alfredo sauce.” This is almost as easy as opening that jar. This recipe was featured in an article by...
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Caramelized Brown Butter Rice Krispies Treats and Maple Shortbread Bars
I chose both of these recipes because I wanted to make two things and didn’t have a lot of time. And, as you may remember, the word “maple” almost always stops me in my tracks. So let’s start there. What a hit these were. Even my...
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Stir-Fried Chicken with Creamed Corn
This is, by far, the weirdest stir-fry dish I have ever made or heard of. Part of the reason I decided to make it was because it was so intriguing in its improbability. Had the normally sane and rational Mark Bittman taken leave of his senses? Was the date on this...
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Welsh Rarebit
There’s something really fun and somewhat risky about making a recipe from 1875. How do you even translate something that was probably made on a wood-burning stove to modern-day equipment? And didn’t people have very different tastes back then? I mean,...
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Spinach Dip and La Paloma
Or as it’s formally known: The Best Spinach Dip with Chipotle and Lime (from Melissa Clark, 2007). This was delicious. It is a pretty standard spinach dip but, as the name suggests, chipotle peppers, cilantro and lime make it special. It’s quite easy;...
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Warm Soft Chocolate Cake
So again I find myself with a recipe that I want to shout about from the rooftops. I already ambushed my neighbor on her way to her car, now it’s viral time. Hesser rightly points out that this dish became too popular for its own good in the 1990s. It started...
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Jean Yves Legarve’s Spaghetti with Lemon and Asparagus Sauce
Well this is awkward. Not only did it take some digging to find this recipe in The New York Times archives but I can’t find “Jean Yves Legarve” (if that is his real name) anywhere in the Google-verse. I even had a heck of a time finding Michele Evans...
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Moroccan Chicken Smothered in Olives
This was a great dish with wonderful flavor. Even the husband liked it a lot, despite the fact that it’s all dark meat. Also I think I’ve found a new favorite spice: smoked paprika. Smokey, as you might expect, and complex. Best of all, McCormick makes it...
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Spanish Fricco
It’s hard to start off a cookbook with a disappointing dish. And this one sounded so promising: layers of thinly-pounded beef, potatoes and onions, laced with butter and cream and baked in water bath for a couple of hours. How could that go wrong? And...
The Next Book: The Essential New York Times Cookbook!
What a formidable task Amanda Hesser set for herself: a comprehensive review of 150+ years of New York Times recipes. Good thing she had no idea what she was getting into. As she says herself: “Had I known then that it would take six years and entail more...


















Just watched them make these on tv. I think I want to try them.