New recipe, February 29, 2025

Tokyo Tea from A Couple Cooks. A variation on Long Island Iced Tea. Tasty, but a tad sweet. We would try it without simple syrup.

New recipe, February 18, 2025

Baked Cod from NYT Cooking. This is pleasant, with subtle flavors so as not to hide the fish. We give it a 3.

New recipe, February 17, 2025

French Lentil and Vegetable Soup from Food and Wine. This is brimming with good things, including the lentils, onion, leek, garlic, celery, carrot, tomato paste and thyme. It is pleasant, but seemed a little flat. It calls for a couple tbsp of red wine or red wine vinegar—we would use the vinegar next time to boost the acidity a bit. It might also benefit from from lemon juice, but we still felt it needed something else. We added a small amount of harissa, so as not to dominate the dish but give it a little spice, which worked well. We give the original recipe a 3. It moves up to a 4 with the harissa.

New recipe, February 16, 2025

Roasted Carrot Salad with Arugula and Pomegranate from NYT Cooking. I thought I had pomegranate molasses, but I was wrong, and the markets don't have pomegranates right now, so I used a Balsamic glaze instead of the pomegranate molasses. This is excellent with that, and we look forward to trying it as written. We give this a 4.

New recipe, February 15, 2025

Sheet Pan Coconut Curry with Squash and Tofu from NYT Cooking. The combination of Thai curry paste and coconut milk infuses the vegetables and tofu with delicious flavors. We liked this a lot—we give it a 4.

New recipes, Valentine’s Day, 2025

Our main course is Pollo a la Piña, and dessert is Chocolate Lava Cake for Two, both from NYT Cooking. The chicken makes great tacos, with mixed flavors of two kinds of chiles, orange juice, and the pineapple. Really tasty! And how can you go wrong with lava cake? It is rich chocolate, with just the right amount of sweetness. We give these both 5s!

New recipe, February 13, 2025

Zucchini Salad from NYT Cooking. We wanted something simple with leftovers, and this is quite good. The zucchini slices are just dressed in a simple vinaigrette, but the key is roasting the zucchini slices for 5-7 minutes in a 400 degree oven. The idea is to slightly soften them, which allows them to soak up the vinaigrette. That makes this recipe a 4!

New recipe, February 12, 2025

Creamy Cauliflower Soup with Harissa Tomatoes from NYT Cooking. There is no cream in here, the creaminess comes from pureeing the cauliflower and some olive oil. It takes awhile, but most of the time is roasting the ingredients, so it is still a pretty easy recipe. The soup is rich, and the tomatoes add a nice complementary zing. We give this a 4.

New recipe, February 11, 2025

Creamy Butternut Squash and Coconut Noodle Soup. This pulls together the squash with a number of southeast Asian ingredients and the result is really rewarding. This gets a 5.

New recipe, February 10, 2025

Roasted Broccoli and Whipped Tofu with Chile Crisp Crunch from NYT Cooking. The chile crisp crunch is made with panko, chile crisp and cashews (Yum!) and is delicious by itself, but don't skip the optional cashew cream! It ties the whole dish together beautifully. We give this a 5.

New recipe, February 9, 2025

Spicy Berbere Ratatouille with Coconut Sauce from Ottolenghi FLAVOR. Leave it to Ottolenghi to make something so recognizably ratatouille and yet so distinctive. We loved this. It gets an enthusiastic 5!

New recipe, February 8, 2025

Miznon's Whole Roasted Cauliflower from Food and Wine. This is very simple—the cauliflower is boiled in salted water til soft and then roasted until browned. It is very simple, and the flavor of caramelized cauliflower is also nice. We give this a 3.

New recipe, February 7, 2025

Dutch Baby with Oven Roasted Tomatoes from Ottolenghi COMFORT. There are a number of minor ingredients in the Dutch baby that give it a great flavor. The roasted tomatoes are delicious, but with balsamic vinegar, we thought that adding some brown sugar made it too sweet, and we'd leave the sugar out next time. We give this a 4.

New recipe, February 6, 2025

Chaaza Burmese Curry from Food and Wine. Yet another style of curry, and tasty! It uses toasted chickpea flour as a thickener, which also gives it a lovely nutty flavor. We give this a 4.

New recipe, February 5, 2025

Rasta Pasta from Food and Wine. The name reminded us of the now defunct but excellent restaurant called Rasta Pasta in Breckenridge. We don't recall a dish exactly like this, but this brings together roasted pepper and onion with jerk seasoning and coconut milk and shrimp to make a tasty, very quick dish. We give this a 4.

New recipe, February 4, 2025

Match Mango Chia Pudding from Bon Appétit. This looks fun, and I love a breakfast you can prepare ahead of time. We thought the matcha was a bit overpowering, and would have liked a little more sweetness to balance it. This gets a 3.

New recipe, February 3, 2025

Singaporean Chicken Curry from NYT Cooking. This is recognizably a curry and yet has some unique flavors, including pandan and a whole riot of spices. Yes, you can order pandan leaves (and plants) on Amazon. We found this to be delicious and unique in our experience. This gets a 5.

New recipe, February 2, 2025

Roasted Eggplant with Crispy Chickpeas and Cashew Sauce from NYT Cooking. This is delicious, with creamy eggplant, and a cashew tahini sauce jazzed up with garlic, red pepper, and orange juice and zest. We give this a 5.

New recipe, February 1, 2025

Niki Jyaga (Japanese Beef and Potato Stew) from NYT Cooking. This is a simple dish, but with a mild comforting sweetness. We give this a 4.

New recipe, January 31, 2025

Chicken Adobo with Coconut Milk from NYT Cooking. What this doesn't tell you is that there is a huge amount of rice vinegar in it, and it all comes together beautifully with a lovely caramel, peanutty flavor (and no, there are no peanuts). We enjoyed this a lot—it gets a 4.

New recipe, January 30, 2025

Warm Broccoli Salad with Bacon Dressing from Food and Wine. I never argue with bacon, and this dish has that with a bunch of other complementary flavors. We give this a 5!

New recipe, January 29, 2025

A nod to Lunar New Year, this is Tiger Prawns in Ginger Garlic Soy Sauce from aheadofthyme.com. This is fast, easy, and absolutely delicious. We give this a 5!

New recipe, January 28, 2025

Asparagus and Gochujang Pancakes from Ottolenghi FLAVOR. These came out a bit doughy. We give them a 3. But, there are a couple things I would do differently. The British version measures the flours in grams, and I think that precision would help more. Also, the recipe specifies how long to wait before flipping them, but i would go longer, looking for the setting bubbles as I do in other pancakes.