Have you noticed the beautiful ceramic dinner plates and bowl that often make cameos here on Dinner: A Love Story? They’re from East Fork Pottery, who I’m proud to say I partnered with while shooting The Weekday Vegetarians. I love how homey and expertly handmade-feeling they are, but I also very much appreciate how perfectly sized all of their products are. So today it gives me great pleasure to announce that Dinner: A Love Story readers can get 15% off all East Fork products from now until September 15. Just type in the code WEEKDAYVEG at checkout. This bowl shown is the “Coupe” from their new Harvest Moon line, which just feels so right for the fall. I’m also a fan of their weeknight serving bowl, dinner plates, the Everyday bowl (good for pastas and big salads) and the little set of smaller guys because I’ve actually never met a tiny bowl I didn’t love.

P.S. Book owners: This recipe shown, Glazed Maitake Mushrooms with Sweet Corn Polenta is on page 56. I also made a reel on instagram for anyone who just wants to get the gist of it. It’s a good recipe for right now while you can still find corn and tomatoes (add it to the list!) and the chill in the air has you craving comfort food. Don’t forget: WEEKDAYVEG for 15% off everything. Thanks East Fork!

P.S. If you have something* to say about The Weekday Vegetarians, please consider reviewing it on Amazon. (Anyone can submit a review, even if you didn’t buy your copy from Amazon.)

Thanks for the support,
Jenny

*nice only haha

Today is the day! I could not be more excited to announce that The Weekday Vegetarians is officially out in the world. I was just telling Andy on our walk to get coffee this morning that usually when one of my books comes out, there’s a lot of anxiousness mixed in with the excitement…but with The Weekday Vegetarians, it’s just 100% LET’S GOOOOOO. Pure euphoria. I love this book. And I really hope you do, too. 

How to buy the book…

You can find it wherever books are sold!

How to find out a little more about the book…

Here is a Q&A I did over on Cup of Jo, with lots of pics and stories about how and why we became Weekday Vegetarians. I also did a book Q&A on instagram last week that is saved to a highlight reel. As long as you’re over there, you can check out a reel I did on our family favorite, brothy beans with burrata and pesto. They were the first recipe I posted on this newsletter and I put them on the cover of my book for a reason — legit no-fuss, legit delicious. Lastly, yesterday Joe Yonan wrote about my pizza salad with marinated white beans in The Washington Post, and that was exciting for me and my beans. Thank you, Joe!

Listen to a podcast about the book….

Later this week, I’ll be dropping the next episode of The Dinner A Love Story podcast which is devoted to answering reader’s questions about the book, and about going vegetarian in general. (Thanks for all the questions! And thanks to my co-host Andy who will be joining me.) The DALS podcast is usually available only to paying subscribers, but this one is being released to everyone. Look for it in your inbox later this week, and as always: all feedback is welcome.

Listen to a recipe from the book…

Do you all know about Food52’s podcast “Play Me a Recipe?” It’s basically someone walking you through a meal while they’re cooking it in real time — and it’s unbelievably fun to listen to, even if you yourself are not cooking while you’re listening. (I like playing episodes during runs, lol.) I recorded one last week while I was making tagliatelle with corn, tomatoes, and “onion bacon” from the book (page 87) and you can listen to it here. 

Come to my party!

If you are local, or even local-ish, and comfortable with an in-person event, please come to a book party to celebrate with me! It takes place on September 21 at my beloved HudCo, a workshare space that is 100% the most inspiring space in the New York area. (Prove me wrong, I dare you!) The first thing you see when you walk in (after that display up there) is Picture Book a shop run by the lovely Sara Davidson who has the most excellent taste in novels, children’s literature, cookbooks, you name it. You can find all the information about the event here, but please know the ticket cost includes snacks and drinks, a book talk from yours truly, a copy of The Weekday Vegetarians, and a swag bag filled with lots of exciting things you’ll be hearing more about soon. If you already have a copy of the book, consider coming anyway and giving the copy to someone for a gift. I’ll be signing, and what is a better holiday or birthday gift than a book that includes a personal message? ALSO, if you want to come to the party but don’t want to wait three weeks to get a signed book, we can definitely make sure that happens. Just get in touch with Sara or me. Hope to see you there!

Send me pics…

Nothing makes me happier than seeing my recipes out in the real world. Please email me photos (Jenny@dinneralovestory.com) or if you’re on instagram, tag me so I can repost. I’ve been loving what I’m seeing so far.

Thank you as always for the support. Back to regularly scheduled programming next week! 

Last Thursday, a week and a half before we dropped off Daughter Number 1 at college, Andy and I found ourselves in a not-unusual position as the parents of teenagers: There would be no kids eating dinner with us — both had plans. I wouldn’t normally care, but with the clock ticking down to their Departure Days, each missed family dinner — one of the only times in the day when we’re guaranteed to lock eyes with our girls — felt like mini tragedy. But we only have four more dinners with them! I whined, before Andy looked at me and said right back, “Let’s have eggs.”

I’m guessing that most empty nesters are excited about making travel plans without consulting the school calendar; or RSVP-ing to an event without considering anyone else’s schedule; or going right to sleep at night instead of lying awake wondering whether or not their kid is a) safe and b) gonna blow curfew again.

Not us! 

I am not kidding when I say that one of the things I’m looking forward to the most about this new chapter is the fact that I can fall back on eggs for dinner. Anyone who has spent a second reading Dinner: A Love Story this past decade knows that I have one child who can sorta maybe tolerate a frittata if the stars have aligned, and another child who shows up in the kitchen wearing a balaclava if she so much as sniffs a hard-boil, a scramble, a sunny side up. This has made things a little annoying for an Olympic-level egg lover like me, who — you might’ve heard — has made a commitment to eating more vegetarian dinners. How many nights have I wanted to fall back on a spinach-and-cheese omelet when I just need something meat-free on the table fast?

Well, it’s the dawn of a new era. Pretty soon — after Daughter Number 2 leaves in a week or so — I’ll be able to eat scrambled eggs or any kind of eggs for dinner any night I want to. I think all of this must’ve been in the back of my mind when I wrote The Weekday Vegetarians because one of my missions going in was to come up with exciting, dinner-worthy egg recipes that felt just a little more special, or intentional, than, say, eggs on toast. This pizza is a good example of that. So are Migas tacos, a traditional Spanish or Portuguese egg dish that incorporates stale bread or tortas, and was probably the first thing that came to mind. Anyone who has ever been to Austin—famous for its Mexican-style migas made with tortilla strips—knows the strange and magical chemistry that happens when you take five seemingly basic ingredients (eggs, cheddar, jalapeños, tortilla chips or strips, onions), cook them low and slow, then stuff it all inside a soft corn tortilla with hot sauce. They can be otherworldly—the tender eggs, the fresh tortillas, the deep blue Texas sky canopied over the picnic table while you eat them! Wowowowow. It’s not quite the same eating them at my suburban New York kitchen table, but it’s pretty close.

Still, as good as all that sounds, somehow any day of the week, I know I’d sacrifice my dinner eggs for even just a few more rounds of chauffeuring the girls all over the county or negotiating the mountain of cleats and Birks and Chuck Taylors in the foyer with a weed wacker or staying awake, stressing about past-curfew arrivals. Is it possible that I even find myself getting sentimental about the tough parts, like that time my daughter was not invited to the New Year’s Eve party and we spent dinnertime in tears trying to work through it? Eh. Maybe not so much, but I think you know what I mean.

Migas Tacos
From The Weekday Vegetarians, which will be out in four days!!
When we made this last week, we served with rice and refried black beans and made our Salsa Fresca with the most unbelievably sweet yellow cherry tomatoes. Definitely try to find some peak-season heirloom-y type tomatoes — it will take the tacos from good to great. 
This recipe, along with the sides shown, is gluten free.Serves 4 (recipe can be halved)

8 (6-inch) corn tortillas 
2 tablespoons unsalted butter (olive or vegetable oil if dairy-free)
1/2 small yellow onion, finely chopped
1 large jalapeño pepper, stemmed, seeded, and ribs removed, minced (about 3 tablespoons)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
10 large eggs
1 cup crumbled tortilla chips
2/3 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (omit if dairy-free)

Serving

Salsa Fresca (below) or store-bought salsa
1 avocado, halved, pitted, peeled, and sliced
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Hot sauce
Lime wedges

Preheat the oven to 300°F. Wrap the tortillas in foil and place them in the oven, for at least 5 minutes and up to 15 minutes. Set a large nonstick or cast-iron skillet over medium-low heat. Add the butter and, once it melts, stir in the onion, jalapeño, and some salt and pepper. When the vegetables are soft, after 2 minutes, spread them out evenly across the surface of the pan. Reduce the heat to low.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, tortilla chips, cheese, salt, and pepper. Pour the egg mixture over the onion mixture and stir gently until the eggs are cooked but still tender (or until scrambled to your liking). Remove the tortillas from the oven and unwrap them. Distribute the eggs evenly among the tortillas and top with Salsa (or salsa Fresca), avocado slices, and cilantro. Serve with hot sauce and lime.

Salsa Fresca
In a small mixing bowl combine the following:

2 1/2 cups finely diced fresh tomatoes (the freshest you can find), preferably heirloom, with juices
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, leaves and stems
1 small garlic clove, pressed or finely minced
2 tablespoons finely minced sweet white onion
1/2 small jalapeño pepper, stemmed, seeded, and ribs removed
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Dash of hot sauce (or to taste)

Salsa only gets better as it sits in the fridge and the flavors mingle, but if you don’t have time, it’s still great.

Subscribe to my newsletter if you’d like these kinds of posts delivered straight to your inbox.

Photo by Christine Han; food styling by Olivia Mack McCool.

Good morning! Look what’s now keeping me company as I work on your weekly dispatch. My copies arrived last week and I was so excited I even made a reel about it. For those of you who pre-ordered, a) THANK YOU and b) your copy should be arriving in exactly two weeks.

One of the more liberating discoveries about cooking vegetarian dinners — at least for me — has been that I no longer feel beholden to the age-old dinner formula of meat-starch-vegetable. Even so, that was the formula for a long time, and it was hard to retrain my dinner brain from assuming that meat was the anchor of the plate. The book offers several strategies for addressing this, but one of my favorites is to think of dinner as not having an anchor at all — in other words, to think of it as Small Plates Night. A lot of little tastes, and not just vegetarian, but vegetable-forward.

The book gives a few examples for what small plates looks like throughout the seasons (like above), but the decidedly non-rocket-science formula is essentially: A bean or lentil dish + at least one in-season vegetable-forward salad + bread.

I’ve discussed beans, and the bread is coming up, but this time of year, you have no excuse if a tomato-based salad is not part of the dinner spread. Something like this tomato-corn-nectarine number that we made on vacation. (The “no-recipe recipe” is also in the book)….

…Or the simplest sliced tomato salad with crumbled feta (or goat or parm or mozz; keep half of it cheese-free like this if you want to limit dairy), olive oil, sea salt, and a teeny tiny drizzle of good balsamic vinegar. (Though, now that I look at it, I think some pickled shallots would be kinda killer on that.) If nothing else, I want this book to remind you that the name of the game is SIMPLE. No one is splitting the atom here. It’s dinner. Optimize the gorgeousness on display at the late summer market right now and make it happen.

P.S. Those tomatoes accompanied crispy bbq cauliflower tacos last week. (Abby: “Can we please have these every night?”) I didn’t have cabbage to make slaw, so I shaved some market carrots instead and tossed with pea shoots and a nice creamy dressing. (My all-purpose vinaigrette with a dollop of mayo and a few dashes of hot sauce.)

Every week, I send out a free newsletter with a few quick thoughts on what I’m cooking and reading and eating, delivered directly to your inbox. You can sign up here. If you’d like to get bonus content, including access to community threads, book news, and my monthly podcast, you can subscribe for $5 a month.

My children would disagree with this statement but you’re looking at one of the best things I ate last week on vacation that did not include corn or tomatoes. It’s crispy fried eggplant with Romesco sauce and shredded basil and even though I couldn’t get the girls on board, I locked in Andy whose most enthusiastic endorsement of eggplant in the past had been “I mean, I’d eat it if someone served it to me.” I don’t know if it was the eggplant (local, skinny Japanese) or the technique (coating in corn starch and, uh, frying), but the result was the most crisp-tender eggplant I’ve ever made. I served it on Romesco sauce, which I’ve recently discovered as a great recipe to have in the arsenal (indulgent-feeling while being gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegan) but Andy noted that the eggplant was tasty enough to stand on its own without the sauce. I might try the eggplant for dinner tonight with just plain yogurt over rice and maybe cashews and cilantro.

Romesco Sauce
Romesco is a Spanish sauce that traditionally includes charred tomatoes, red peppers, almonds, garlic and bread as a thickener. This is a shortcut pepper-forward version.

1 (12-ounce) jar roasted sweet red peppers, completely drained
1 garlic clove
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
Kosher salt and freshly ground
black pepper to taste
1/2 cup blanched sliced almonds
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Process all the ingredients in a blender until smooth and emulsified. You want it to be slightly thick so it’s spreadable on a plate.

Crispy Eggplant with Basil
3 skinny Japanese eggplant, cut into chunks as shown
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2-3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon paprika
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
3 basil leaves, sliced into ribbons

Spread out eggplant in a strainer as much as possible and sprinkle with salt. Let sit for 15 minutes. (This helps sweat out a little bitterness.) Rinse with cold water. Add cornstarch, paprika, and more salt and pepper to a zip-top bag. Add eggplant (it’s ok if eggplant is still slightly wet) and shake gently so all pieces are slightly coated.

Add oil to a large skillet set over medium-high heat. Using a slotted spoon, scoop eggplant out of bag and on to skillet, making sure not to crowd the pan. (Do it in batches if your skillet is small.) Try to arrange the pieces so that they are flesh-side down. Let sit about 2 to 3 minutes, then toss again, allowing other sides to get crispy. Remove to a paper-towel-lined plate. Once all eggplant is fried and crispy, add on top of Romesco (if using) and top with basil.

Every week, I send out a free newsletter with a few quick thoughts on what I’m cooking and reading and eating, delivered directly to your inbox. You can sign up here. If you’d like to get bonus content, including access to community threads, book news, and my monthly podcast, you can subscribe for $5 a month.

I’m heading into week two down here in South Carolina and I regret to inform you that your weekly dispatch of Three Things has been downgraded this week to just Two Things, but what beautiful two things they are…It’s corn and tomato season, baby! This week begins the stretch of weeks we spend all year pining for: when the corn is like candy and the tomatoes are the deepest red, heavy with flavor. I’m not kidding when I say that every single night we have cooked down here, corn and tomatoes have figured prominently in the meal. Here’s what we’ve made so far…

Sausages with Corn-Tomato Hash 

You might call this the cheater’s version of a Creole maque choux, where corn, tomatoes, and peppers cook down into stew-iness. We picked up some sweet Italian sausages at a local market, and from there it was easy.
The How-to: Add 3 tablespoons olive oil to a medium pot set over medium heat; add 1/2 small onion (chopped), the kernels from 4 ears of corn (raw), 1 small minced jalapeño (leave as much or as little of the pith/seeds depending on your heat preference), salt and pepper. After vegetables soften, add 1 large tomato or 2 medium tomatoes (chopped into small chunks) and stir, cooking down for a few minutes over medium-low heat. Meanwhile, grill or pan-fry four sweet Italian sausages until cooked through, about 8 to 10 minutes total, turning every 2 minutes or so. Serve stew in bowls with sliced sausages as shown. Top with minced scallions if desired.

Gazpacho with Shrimp (with Buttered Corn on the Cob)

Bless the New York Times for turning their mega-popular Seville-style gazpacho into an instagram post. This is good for two reasons 1) anyone can access it, no subscription required* and 2) it really communicates how unbelievably easy it is to make. (I remember writer Julia Moskin described this blender version as flexible and easy as making a smoothie.) There was extra shrimp lying around so one diner got lucky, but the rest of us went full vegetarian. Buttered corn on the cob on the side. What is better?
*But I feel the need to mention that a subscription to NYT Cooking does pay back in the most delicious dividends.

I don’t ever want to not have Gazpacho in a pitcher in the fridge, ready to pour into my chilled drinking glass for lunch.

Chicken Paillard with Tomato-Corn Salad

This dinner in fact wasn’t exactly what I hoped it would be. It was partly inspired by a 5-ingredient chicken dinner on Cup of Jo, and partly inspired by a cold chicken dish I used to obsess over at New York’s Bar Pitti back in the day. The chicken was pounded paper thin, then grilled, then chilled, then topped with a gorgeous tomato-heavy green salad. My version was close, but next time I’m pounding even thinner…and, obviously, adding corn.
The How-to: POUND four chicken breasts paper thin…then pound some more! (My goal was to make each breast the size of a dinner plate.) If you have time, marinate in a ziploc bag in a little olive oil, 2 smashed garlic cloves, juice from half a lemon, salt, and pepper. Grill on a medium-hot grill about 3 minutes a side, or more depending on thickness. (It should be firm to the touch but not rock hard.) If you have time, chill the chicken in the refrigerator. Meanwhile make your salad. Five or six cups of the freshest greens you can find — I’d go arugula even though you’re looking at a mix of greens up here — then tomatoes, the kernels from two cooked ears of corn, and my All-Purpose vinaigrette. Serve each piece chicken topped with a big mess of salad. Bread on the side if you think you need it.

Shrimp Rolls with Corn-Tomato Salad

You might sense a pattern! Here’s the deal: If the corn and tomatoes don’t play a starring roll in the main dish, they are sure to appear in salad form. This is the same salad as described in the recipe above, but we added some sliced avocado and an extra tomato to make it more chunky, less leafy. Shown here with my is-it-even-vacation-if-we-haven’t-eaten-shrimp-rolls Shrimp Rolls. Recipe also in Dinner: The Playbook.

Warm Summer Shrimp Salad with Butter Beans

You already know about this winner, which I wrote about in last week’s newsletter. Potatoes, tomatoes, corn, butter beans, shrimp. We served it warm because we were hungry, but imagine it chilled with a glass of rose? Summer, don’t ever end!

What I’m thinking for this week…

….Toasts with ricotta and tomato-basil salad…fresh-tomato-and-corn pasta sauce…a tomato tart…a risotto made with corn stock and fresh tomato juice…low-and-slow-roasted, crunchy-topped tomatoes with lima beans…you know I will keep you posted.

Every week, I send out a free newsletter called “Three Things” — a few quick thoughts on what I’m cooking and reading and eating. To have these recipes sent directly to your inbox sign up for my newsletter here. 

We’ve been vacationing in Kiawah Island, South Carolina forever, and it doesn’t matter how long the drive has been, or how tired we are of being in the car (or the plane) we always stop at our favorite open-air market on the way to the island. No matter what we are in the mood for, no matter what time of year it is, this place will have something to meet the moment. Usually that mood involves shrimp, which is off-the-boat fresh and sweet and otherworldly down here. Sitting next to the cooler that held the shrimp were bags of fresh butter beans, next to those were deep, rich red heirloom tomatoes, and next to them was a beautiful corn display. In other words, the recipe for my first vacation dinner was essentially written for me…

Warm Summer Shrimp Salad with Butter Beans

1 1/2 pounds shrimp, shelled
7 red potatoes, chopped into 1-inch chunks
1 cup fresh butter beans (or frozen limas)
3 ears corn
1 medium-large beautiful summer tomato (the best you can find), chopped
5 scallions, white and light green parts only, minced finely

Place two medium-large pots of water on the stove. When one comes to boil, add the shrimp and cook exactly three minutes, then drain running cold water over them to cool. Add to a large serving bowl, keeping the strainer in the sink. In the other pot, add potatoes and cook 8-10 minutes until tender. (Test by slicing one; the knife should meet no resistance.) Using a slotted spoon, scoop them out and into the strainer. Add the butter beans to the pot, and cook until tender, about 8 minutes (less if frozen, about 5 probably). Using a slotted spoon, scoop the beans into the strainer as well. Repeat with ears of corn, simmering in water for 3-4 minutes, before straining. Run all the strained vegetables under a little cold water.

When cool enough to handle, cut kernels off the corn and add to the shrimp. Add all the cooked vegetables into the salad bowl, top with scallions, drizzle with dressing (below), and serve.

Dressing: In a small jar or measuring cup, shake or whisk 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, 1/4 cup red wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon sugar, salt and pepper, fresh chopped herbs (parsley, chives, tarragon, dill, basil). Shake or whisk 1/3 cup olive oil into jar in steady stream until emulsified.

Every week, I send out a free newsletter called “Three Things” — a few quick thoughts on what I’m cooking and reading and eating. The warm shrimp salad, for instance, was one of those Things. To have these recipes sent directly to your inbox (and to find out what the other two things are!) sign up for my newsletter here. 

If you’d like to get bonus content on top of that, including access to community threads, book news, and my podcast, you can subscribe for $5 a month.

I write about slaw a lot. For good reason — I eat it a lot, especially in the summer. It’s almost always the answer to the question: What can I add to dinner that will give my plate that hit of freshness and texture? (Do you not ask that question of yourself constantly?) I realized though, that I haven’t ever really about it beyond a side dish afterthought. (“Along side this pork chop/salmon/tofu, you can serve slaw.”) So here is the official write-up.

Basic Everyday Slaw
This is maybe what you’d call classic American picnic slaw. (Or at least, what I’d call it.) But if you think about slaw more like a salad made of cabbage with interchangeable dressings, then your choices are endless. Switch out the green cabbage for red or Napa or Savoy. Switch out the dressing for any one of these. 

Slaw
1/2 medium head green cabbage (6 cups)
1 small carrot, shaved (optional, I like it for color)
3 tablespoons dill, finely chopped
1 tablespoon finely mince red onion or shallot
salt and pepper

Dressing (or one of these)
1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons mayo
1 teaspoon celery seed (optional)
1/3 cup olive oil
salt and pepper

In a large bowl, combine all slaw ingredients. In a jar or measuring cup, whisk together mustard, vinegar, sugar, mayo, salt, pepper, and celery seed. Then, slowly stream in olive oil whisking the whole time until emulsified. Toss cabbage mixture with dressing.

Every week, I send out a free newsletter called “Three Things” — a few quick thoughts on what I’m cooking and reading and eating. The slaw, for instance, is one of those Things. To have these recipes sent directly to your inbox (and to find out what the other two things are!) sign up for my newsletter here. 

I’ve been attempting to recreate some version of these tacos ever since my daughter tried them at a sweet 16 party in the city a few years ago.

“You sure they were cauliflower?” I asked her.

“Yes,” she said.

“You don’t like cauliflower, though.”

After a few follow up questions, I determined that they had been deep-fried to resemble popcorn shrimp, something I wasn’t interested in or capable of doing. But every few weeks, she’d say “Remember those cauliflower tacos?” not so much reminding me as daring me to replicate them at our own dinner table.

It wasn’t until recently, when I made a batch of Einat Admony’s famous cauliflower, that I realized I could achieve the same crispiness without completely deep-frying the florets. And that’s what I did. By chance I had Rodney Scott’s barbecue sauce in the fridge (see today’s newsletter for the recipe), which would serve as the ideal glaze, and that sealed the deal. Total winner. Here’s roughly how I did it:

BBQ Cauliflower Tacos

1 large head cauliflower, cut into bite sized florets
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon garlic powder
3 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Canola oil, poured to about a half an inch high in a large, straight-sided skillet or (better) a Dutch oven
Rodney Scott’s barbecue sauce, in today’s newsletter, (or your favorite store bought barbecue sauce)
6-8 corn tortillas, grilled or charred on a gas burner for about 10 seconds a side.
Your favorite slaw (like the one listed in this post, but swap in apple cider vinegar for the rice vinegar)

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add cauliflower and boil for 2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and drop into an ice bath to stop the cooking. (Or just put it on a paper-towel lined plate, like I did.)

Combine the flour, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a large resealable bag. Throw in the florets, seal, and shake until thoroughly coated.

Heat the oil in you large skillet or a Dutch Oven to medium-high. Working in small batches, carefully drop florets into the oil and fry until golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towel-lined serving bowl.

Remove paper towel then, in a large mixing bowl, gently toss cauliflower with two or three tablespoons of barbecue sauce until the cauliflower is glistening and shiny and not gloppy.

Serve on corn tortillas topped with slaw.

Every week, I send out a free newsletter called “Three Things” — a few quick thoughts on what I’m cooking and reading and eating. The barbecue sauce, for instance, was one of those Things. To have these recipes sent directly to your inbox (and to find out what the other two things are!) sign up for my newsletter here. 

If you’d like to get bonus content on top of that, including access to community threads, book news, and my podcast, you can subscribe for $5 a month.

Fun fact: My daughter wrote her college essay on being a science and math kid living in a house of English majors. (If you want to earn a special place in her heart, ask her about the Unit Circle…or her new acrylic nails.) These past few months, she’s discovered a love for reading a very specific genre, what I’d maybe call “Medical Narrative Nonfiction.” For those of you who might have teenagers like her, or be like her, she’s been on a great run. In my newsletter, I’ve already mentioned that she devoured Hidden Valley Road (about a family with twelve children, six of whom were schizophrenic); but there’s also Patient H.M. (about one of medicine’s most famous patients, who was unable to form longterm memories after a corrective surgery went wrong); The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (probably does not need a summary but it’s about how scientists cultured cells from a poor Black woman — without her family’s consent, knowledge, or compensation — which led to some of the century’s most famous medical advancements); and (on deck) Empire of Pain, about the massive role the Sackler family played in America’s opioid addiction crisis.

When I wrote about this on my newsletter earlier this week and asked readers what she should pick up next, I got the most amazing responses and I wanted to make sure you all had the definitive Baker’s Dozen list. (There were about 35 suggestions in all.) It’s organized roughly by popularity — the first one on the list got the most endorsements — but I also had the resident book editor (aka, husband) in the house peruse the whole list to make sure we weren’t overlooking any masterpieces or Pulitzers.

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman
Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, by Siddharata Mukherjee 
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, by John Carreyou
Lab Girl, by Hope Jahren
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan
The Radium Girls, by Kate Moore
Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande
Far from the Tree, by Andrew Solomon
Five Days at Memorial, by Sheri Fink
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, by Oliver Sacks
The Premonition: A Pandemic Story, by Michael Lewis
The Tennis Partner, by Abraham Verghese

Thank you all for the suggestions. Can’t wait to plow through the list.

PS: By the way, if you want to be part of the conversation as it’s happening, be sure to subscribe to my newsletter. Every week, I send out one email called Three Things (2021’s version of the Project, Purpose, Pantry series), with a round-up of, yep, three things I think you’ll find interesting. In addition to reading suggestions, there are also my signature super simple dinner ideas, like this gorgey-gorge tomato tart that takes under five minutes to assemble. This part is all FREE. If you want book teasers and access to my hotline and podcast, you’ll have to subscribe for $5 a month or $50 a year. And yes, I’ll continue posting here on this platform, but not as regularly. Hope you’ll join me somehow whatever you choose!

(Photo by Gabriel Bucataru for Stocksy)

Abby is her father’s daughter when it comes to expressing her enthusiasm about food. I made this crisp for her and my niece, Amanda on Saturday night and the groaning and ohmygod-ing coming from the two was hilarious. Quote of the night: “This is what tasting good should taste like.” I realize that the magic of the strawberry-rhubarb combo is not breaking news, but I feel a contractual duty as a food writer to remind you of it this time of year, when you can find the ruby red stalks at the farmer’s market by the bushel. More reviews from the girls: “The acid and the sweetness and the crunch and the darker toasty buttery topping with the brightness of the fruit…. How good would this filling be on top of pancakes or waffles tomorrow morning?” Unfortunately, there were zero leftovers, so I guess we’ll just have to make another one this weekend and find out.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp
As usual, I started with my mother-in-law’s tried-and-true cobbler-crisp for the basic formula, then added a little orange zest to the filling — I stole that idea from Ina Garten.

Filling
4 cups fresh rhubarb, diced (4-5 stalks)
4 cups fresh strawberries, de-stemmed, halved
1 teaspoon orange zest
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
pinch kosher salt

Topping
1 cup flour, whisked
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 beaten egg
5 tablespoons butter, melted

In a large bowl, toss together all filling ingredients. Let sit 10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, scoop the fruit into a 13-by-9-inch baking dish. 

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the topping ingredients. Add the egg, tossing with fork or your hands until the mixture is crumbly. (It should not be dry or mushy.) Sprinkle flour-egg mixture all over fruit — it will feel like a lot, but get it all in there — then drizzle the whole thing as evenly as possible with melted butter.

Bake at 350°F for 1 hour. Let it cool slightly so it sets. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Every week, I send out a free newsletter with a few quick thoughts on what I’m cooking and reading and eating, delivered directly to your inbox. You can sign up here. If you’d like to get bonus content, including access to community threads, book news, and my monthly podcast, you can subscribe for $5 a month.

Newsletter readers! Here is the pork chop recipe I was talking about in today’s dispatch. Sweet and spicy, smoky and tender. I beg Andy to make them for us all summer long. (Originally published in How to Celebrate Everything.)

Grilled Soy-Glazed Pork Chops
Serves 4

4 bone-in pork chops, about 3 1/2-4 pounds total
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice (from about 1/2 lime)
1 teaspoon light brown sugar, packed
1/4 teaspoon Sriracha

Prepare your charcoal grill or preheat a gas grill to medium.

Sprinkle the chops with salt and pepper. Bring them to room temperature. In a small bowl or measuring cup, mix together the soy sauce, vinegar, lime juice, brown sugar, and Sriracha. Grill the chops over medium-hot coals, turning frequently, until cooked through, 10 to 12 minutes total. Right before you are about to remove the chops, brush them with the soy glaze and flip 4 or 5 more times until they look glazed and lacquered.

Every week, I send out a free newsletter with a few quick thoughts on what I’m cooking and reading and eating, delivered directly to your inbox. You can sign up here. If you’d like to get bonus content, including access to community threads, book news, and my monthly podcast, you can subscribe for $5 a month.

Thank you for your support.

We are huge soft shell crab fans in my house, but only really get to enjoy them in our takeout spider roll a few times a year. Right now, though, they are in season up here in New York and when I spied them at our new fish store (we are so lucky, everything there tastes like the boat-to-market time is, like, one hour) we snatched up a half dozen and, because they are so fresh, served super simply with a big green salad and Andy’s World Famous spicy potatoes. (Coming soon to a book near you!) When I posted this pic on instagram, there was a common theme to the comments from people who swiped up: Intimidation. So here I am showing you how unbelievably easy they are to make. Literally no different than any other fish you’d pan-fry — but probably ten times as special tasting. Now, you just have to find a good fish market.

Easy Soft Shell Crabs
This fed three of us (two crabs per person), adjust accordingly.

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
6 soft shell crabs
1/3 cup white wine
juice from half a lemon
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
fresh herbs, like parsley or chives (optional)

Add oil and 1 tablespoon butter to a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add crabs to the skillet making sure not to crowd the pan. (Do it in batches if necessary.) Cook 5 to 6 minutes total, flipping half way through. Remove the crabs from the pan on to a platter, and add remaining butter, wine, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Turn heat to high and reduce by about half. Drizzle the sauce all over the platter of crabs and serve.

Every week, I send out a free newsletter called “Three Things” — a few quick thoughts on what I’m cooking and reading and eating. (This soft shell crab recipe, for instance was one of those Things.) To have these recipes sent directly to your inbox (and to find out what the other two things are!) sign up for my newsletter here.

If you’d like to get bonus content on top of that, including access to community threads, book news, and my monthly podcast, you can subscribe for $5 a month.

Thank you, as always for your support.

We made this Spicy Shrimp with Yogurt over the weekend because my friend Robin had texted me a photo of it, rediscovering the meal after poking around in the DALS archives. (You would laugh at the percentage of our text thread that is dinner-related. Thank you, Robin!) The meal had not graced our table for a very long time, and it was crazy how much those flavors, that pinch of cinnamon, the cool yogurt cutting the heat, brought us back to such a specific time in our parenting lives, when we spent half our afternoon in a car shepherding the kids and their friends to various activities around the county, Meghan Trainor and Katy Perry on the radio. The other thing I loved so much about the meal? How freaking fast it came together. The hardest thing is making the spice mixture, which isn’t actually hard at all, and after that it’s 10 minutes in the fry pan. Add one of those Near East couscous boxes and you’ve got something pretty special for a regular old weeknight.

[Under the category of Make New Friends But Keep the Old, we served the shrimp with our new favorite salad, a chicory-gorgonzola-hazelnut number, which will be arriving in subscriber inboxes later in the week.]

To have these posts sent directly to your inbox and have access to bonus content and my podcast, subscribe to my newsletter.

I’m in love with the new cookbook, Vegetable Simple. Eric Ripert — the chef and owner of one of New York’s most revered Michelin-starred restaurants, Le Bernardin — is known for his refined seafood dishes, but here, he turns his eyes towards his second love, vegetables. The most amazing thing about it is how actually simple the recipes are. Like not chef-pretending-to-be-simple simple. Real life simple! The guy is a five-star chef who trained under the infamously exacting Paul Bocuse, but somehow all the recipes (some mains, but mostly sides) feel like the ones he’s making for his family on the weekend. So many restaurant chef cookbooks promise this idea, but few deliver on it the way this one does. So far I’ve made his potato-leek soup, braised cabbage, and this bok choy recipe. The vinaigrette is just as good on asparagus and avocado as it is on bok choy.

Bok Choy with Soy-Ginger Vinaigrette

From Ripert: When you cook bok choy, its heart should stay firm while the leaves become soft and tender. Take care not to over- or undercook it by monitoring its doneness. If you place a paring knife through the heart of the bok choy, you should be able to pull it out with no resistance. To keep the leaves together, cook the bok choy whole, then split it in half before serving.

1/2 tablespoon finely chopped shallot
1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/4 cup canola oil
fine sea salt
about a dozen baby bok choy, trimmed and rinsed
freshly ground white pepper

In a small bowl, combine the shallot, ginger, soy sauce, and lime juice. Slowly whisk in oil and set aside.

In a large pot, bring 4 quarts of water to a boil and season with a large pinch of salt. Add the bok choy and cook until tender, about 5 minutes.

Drain the bok choy, halve lengthwise, and season lightly with salt and white pepper. Divide among four plates and drizzle the vinaigrette over each one. Serve hot or at room temperature.

This recipe from Vegetable Simple was printed with permission.

To have these posts sent directly to your inbox and have access to bonus content and my podcast, subscribe to my newsletter.

I realize this is maybe the seventeenth time I’ve written about this pizza in various ways throughout the years, but it’s such an important recipe in my rotation that I felt it was time it had its own dedicated page. Especially since my version of it (with cheddar and caramelized onions) seems to have strayed so far from the traditional pizza con patate that Jim Lahey made famous in America a decade ago. I keep waiting to tire of it, but I never do. Here’s exactly how to make it.

Potato-Cheddar Pizza
This is just as good at room temperature as it is hot, which makes it ideal for make-ahead entertaining. Also, the photos are missing the onions, but please don’t omit them — they are crucial!

3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for brushing
1 large white onion, sliced
dash balsamic vinegar (optional)
1 16-ounce ball pizza dough (or make your own), room temperature
4 medium yellow or red potatoes, unpeeled, thinly sliced
2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, the best you can find (Cabot is my favorite supermarket brand)
dash garlic salt
fresh thyme

Preheat oven to 450°F. Add oil and onion slices to a medium skillet set over medium-low heat. Cook for as long as you can, hopefully at least 25-30 minutes, allowing them to caramelize. If you want to cheat or don’t have time, you can stir in a little balsamic after 10 minutes.

Add potato slices to a pot of salted water and bring to a boil, then simmer for 5 minutes and drain. They do not have to be cooked through.

Meanwhile, lightly grease a standard baking sheet and drop ball of dough in the middle, pressing and stretching it out with your fingers so it reaches the edges. Sprinkle cheese on top, leaving a 1-inch border around the edges. Lay potatoes on top, overlapping slightly and sprinkle with the leaves from two or three sprigs of thyme. In a small bowl, mix about a tablespoon of olive oil with a dash of garlic salt and brush this mixture around the perimeter of the pizza. Bake for 15 minutes until cheese is bubbly and crust looks golden brown.

Remove from oven and top with onions and more fresh thyme leaves.

To have these posts sent directly to your inbox and have access to bonus content and my podcast, subscribe to my newsletter.

I could not be more excited to show you the cover of The Weekday Vegetarians, which will officially be out in the world on August 31. Can you believe how happy and gorgeous she is?

Before I started writing this book, it’s not an exaggeration to say that a piece of animal protein anchored our dinner plates at least five out of seven nights a week. Back then, when I was trying to decide what to make for dinner, I’d think to myself, We have chicken, lets make some breaded cutlets or We have ground turkey, let’s make turkey chili. Even though I had known for a while that reducing our meat intake was one of the most impactful ways we could personally combat climate change, I suddenly found the conversation was getting too loud to ignore anymore, especially at my own dinner table, with my own children. Plus, I was getting older! I wanted to eat better, I wanted to do better, I wanted to feel better — about my health and about my choices.

This book is about how I challenged my family to flip the formula. What if we limited our meat intake to the weekends? What if we became Weekday Vegetarians? Honestly, when I pitched the book, I wasn’t 100% sure I could do it. So somany of the iconic recipes at my table (not to mention in my books and on my blog) were meat-based. But I’m convinced that the it was the forgiving formula — five nights on, two nights off — that helped my family stay committed. In fact, it was so successful that plant-based eating started creeping into weekend meals and restaurant orders, eventually, so much so that we could legit call it a Lifestyle. Do we have a long way to go? Of course we do. But it feels good to have taken one very large step in the right direction.

I’m not going to lie: The deliciousness of the dinners we discovered along the way helped a lot, too. There are of 100 of them in the book including an entire section devoted to what I call “Hooks,” i.e. that one moment on the plate that gets everyone at the table genuinely excited about dinner. Think: A honey-crusted cornbread to serve with a three-bean chili; or spicy peanut sauce to drizzle over steamed kale or crispy tofu; or pickled onions to put on top of literally anything, especially the veggie burger which I am obsessed with and eat once a week. You will see!!

And do I even need to say it? The food is easy! Fast! Fresh! Healthy! All the things a weekday cook depends on not just to survive dinner, but to love it, too….

Trust me when I say you will be hearing SO much more about this, but for now I wanted to let you know that The Weekday Vegetarians is available for pre-order from all your favorite retailers. You can also subscribe to my newsletter and follow #theweekdayvegetarians on instagram for real-time updates.

As many of you know, Saturday night dinner has become a real thing for us during the pandemic — a way to differentiate a weekend night from all the others — and the dishes we’ve made to mark it run the gamut, each one somehow special in its own way.

Sometimes Saturday dinner is super old-school, like Marcella Hazan’s Milk-Braised Pork Loin or Grandma Turano’s meatballs. Sometimes it’s takeout ramen decanted into nice bowls and eaten at the votive-studded dining room table so we can pretend we are at a restaurant. And sometimes, a recipe qualifies for the big leagues simply because it’s the first time we’ve made it. We got really into expanding our horizons this past year, cracking open new-to-us cookbooks and looking for any opportunity to hop a few towns over to track down specialty ingredients. (An activity!) The recipes that are now regulars on the Saturday night rotation won’t be a surprise to anyone who followed my 2020 Pantry, Project, Purpose series, but if I had to make a leaderboard, at the top would be: Ottolenghi’s Braised Greens with Yogurt (from his last book Flavor, but you can find the recipe at the bottom of this column); Alongside those braised greens we’d always make Samin Nosrat’s Tahdig, the Persian crispy rice dish which involves a dramatic skillet flip (Saturday night, baby!); Andrea Nguyen’s Shaking Beef and her Tofu Bánh Mì, both from Vietnam Food Any Day; Priya Krishna’s Khichdi(which we make during the week just as frequently); Eric Ripert’s Salmon and Leeks with Red Wine Sauce, and finally…

…New England Clam Chowder from the Eventide cookbook. Wow do I love this dinner. The soup is briny, creamy, comforting, and in case you’re worried, absolutely substantial enough for an entire dinner. (There’s cream, bacon and potatoes in there, plus the obligatory oyster or saltine crackers crumbled on top.) Also, perhaps not coincidentally, one spoonful of the stuff beams me right to a table at Eventide, the beloved Portland restaurant I’ve written about ad nauseam on DALS. For a reason, though! Their food — chowder, oysters, crab rolls, miso-broiled black cod, fried fish sandwiches, the signature brown butter lobster rolls and greens with nori vinaigrette— is the food I’d eat every night if I had my druthers. And you would too, trust me! The fact that I have their book now and I’ve been able to replicate authentic tasting chowder from my favorite restaurant in my own kitchen this past year…well, I’d count that as a small miracle, even if it hadn’t been a year where I was searching everywhere for small miracles. 

Here is the recipe…

New England Clam Chowder
Adapted from Eventide, by Arlin Smith, Andrew Taylor, Mike Wiley, with Sam Hiersteiner 

A note from Andrew Taylor in the recipe intro: “This is the one. The lobster roll gets all the glory, but New England clam chowder tells the most profound story of Yankee cooking. While entire books have rightfully been written on the topic, clam chowder is incredibly simple and pure at its core. Clam juice. Potatoes. Dairy. Everything else is just window dressing. Remember this when you’re giving it a go in your kitchen and don’t mess it up too much.” 

Me again: In the interest of simplifying, we did mess with it a little, swapping in bacon for homemade Salt Pork, and omitting nori sheets that you can roast by waving over a gas burner flame. Feel free to add back either!

kosher salt
2 to 3 dozen clams (the recipe calls for 5 pounds chowder clams, 2 pounds steamer clams; we could only find Little Necks)
1 1-inch piece dried konbu (or kelp; you can also find it at Whole Foods or H Mart), optional
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 yellow onion, diced
1 pound medium-starch potatoes (Yukon gold), peeled and diced
2 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
leaves from 1 to 2 thyme sprigs
2 pieces good-quality bacon, cooked and chopped
minced chives for garnish
saltine (or oyster) crackers for serving

Fill a large bowl with cold, clean water that has been seasoned with kosher salt to taste like seawater. In a colander, rinse the exterior dirt from the clams, then submerge them in the bowl of water. Leave them to sit for 30 minutes to encourage them to release their grit. Drain the clams. Rinse the konbu (if using) and set aside.

In a large pot, combine the clams, 2 1/2 cups water, and 1 piece of konbu and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer, cover, and cook until the clams have just opened, 5 to 10 minutes. Remove the clams to a bowl, keeping the liquid in the pot. Strain the cooking liquid through a fine-mesh strainer into a separate bowl. Pick the meat from the clams and place them in cold, fresh water. Agitate them with your hands and remove any excess sand. Drain and coarsely chop the clams.

In the same large pot, melt the butter over medium-high heat. When the butter is just sizzling, add the onion and potatoes and cook until they soften and start to brown, about 3 minutes. Add the strained clam juice, cream, black pepper, and thyme and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to low and simmer until the potatoes are cooked through, about 10 minutes. Add the chopped clams and stir to incorporate and warm them.

Ladle the finished chowder into four to six bowls, aiming for about two parts broth to one part chunky goodness. Garnish with bacon pieces, chives, and crackers.

Reprinted from Eventide with permission.

To have these posts sent directly to your inbox and have access to bonus content and my podcast, subscribe to my newsletter.

Please do not skip over this one if you’re “not a tofu person.” That was me for the longest time! The key to my conversion was perfecting crispy tofu. And by crispy, I mean a lot of things: I can get a good golden-brown edge on my tofu when I toss 1/2-inch cubes in soy sauce, cornstarch, and oil and bake at 425° for 20 minutes. Or even from a good pan-sear if there’s a hot pan and enough oil. But the holy grail of crispy tofu, for my kids at least, is golden-fried, like you see here in Hsiao-Ching Chou’s simple Seared Tofu with Baby Bok Choy, which calls for dredging the soy-sauce-drizzled tofu in corn starch before frying. This method is not new to me (or probably you) but I realized something that I probably should’ve realized a long time ago: The cut of the tofu makes a big difference when you’re dredging. For starters, I’d do anything to minimize touching squeaky-dry corn starch (insert shivering gif here) so the larger the piece, the fewer the pieces to dredge. Next the size of Hsiao-Ching’s triangle cut is just right — large enough to minimize the dredge work, but small enough to still maintain its crispy-chewiness when cooked.

Anyway, I loved the recipe (which went out in Monday’s newsletter) and there are many many more where it came from in Hsiao-Ching’s new book, Vegetarian Chinese Soul Food. Please consider checking it out.

Subscribe to my substack to get the recipe and to get all my updates delivered straight to your inbox.