Parsley boniet

Early spring fresh food! Here in Portland, parsley grows like a weed in my yard, and it’s one of the few things that grows in February and March. But it turns out parsley’s way more than a garnish. Instead of using parsley in little sprinkles, try recipes that involve a cup or two of parsley …

Spicy Thai pork salad

Great for company This has a lot of ingredients, so it takes a while to make. But you can do it ahead and have it ready when your guests show up, and it’s very pretty to serve. Plus, it’s gluten and lactose free, if that’s an issue. This would be hard without a food processor, …

Salade Niçoise

Salad for dinner? If it’s hot, sometimes a cold dinner is just what you want. This one can be served warm or cold. How to make salade Niçoise: Start by making homemade bread to serve on the side. While the bread is rising and the oven preheating, make three hard-boiled eggs: gently place three eggs in a …

Ratatouille

“Like a Braque still-life” I’ve always liked the description of ratatouille in the Joy of Cooking where she says that the bright colors all together look like “a Braque still-life”. It’s true that ratatouille is a beautiful thing to put in front of guests, and you can make it before they arrive and leave it …

Pulled pork

Everybody loves it, and it’s easy to do for guests Pulled pork has to be slow-cooked, but you can get it ready an hour before everyone shows up, and then just warm it up when it’s needed – and who doesn’t love pulled pork? Sweet, salty, sour – this has everything you want. How to …

Homemade pizza

Pizza before baking “You can get pizza delivered?” Once I was on a long plane flight with the kids, and we were going to get home late for dinner, and the kids were hungry. They wanted to know what I was going to make for dinner, and I said oh, maybe we’d order a pizza …

Hot and Sour Soup

Chinese soup Half an hour, one pot and a small frying pan, and mostly stuff you already have lying around your kitchen How to make hot and sour soup: Start half an hour before dinner. Put a saucepan half full of water or chicken broth on the stove (enough water to make soup for everyone), …

Chawanmushi

Japanese breakfast for dinner? We ate this at Smallwares on Fremont Street in Portland, and it was so delicious I wanted to figure out how to make it at home. It was surprisingly simple and cheap, and delicious too. Also, open to endless variations. How to make Chawanmushi: Put on a pot of beef broth: …

Caramelized cabbage

This is a stove-top version of a Times recipe that involved long slow baking I never have time for, but we liked it this way. First make some noodles to serve on the side: In a medium-sized mixing bowl, mix 3 cups of flour with 6 eggs and 1/3 cup oil. Knead and divide in …

Boston baked beans

Doesn’t it take forever to make baked beans? No, not really. You can start after lunch and have delicious baked beans in time for dinner, if you’ll be home all afternoon. There’s not more than half an hour of total work time involved, but it’s spread out over four hours. So yeah, it’s not something …