Three Things

Don't-overthink-it dinners, breakfast burritos, rituals as a mindset

Greetings friends! Since we last spoke, I’ve discovered my new favorite way to consume rhubarb: Infused in a cocktail with Dorothy Parker Gin, Cocchi Americano, Lillet, and coconut milk, and if you want to know exactly how to make it you’ll have to ask the geniuses at ABCv who served it to me on Friday night. I don’t think my enthusiasm for that restaurant — which pre-dates my 2018 vegetarian pivot — will ever wane, and I was not in the least bit surprised to see that it’s included once again in the New York Times’s 100 Best Restaurants in NYC. As always with these kinds of round-ups, it’s almost as much fun to read the reactions to the list — no Bar Bête? No Cosme? No Chinatown spot with the bad lighting but the world’s best peanut-sauce drenched hot-and-spicy wontons? — as it is to read the list itself. It made me realize yet again that a) every single New Yorker lives their own New York experience and b) I need to spend wayyyy more time exploring Queens. (I was, however, very pleased to see a decent amount of overlap with my own New York restaurant list.) One more thing before your Official Three Things…

…As we approach the first official long weekend of summer, I thought it might be fun to get menu ideas from someone whose idea of outdoor eating involves the enthusiastic use of an actual grill as opposed to takeout pad thai on the roof deck 👋 . Please join What to Cook’s Caroline Chambers and me on the afternoon of May 21 (ET, details forthcoming) as we discuss all things grilling, family barbecuing and summer cooking. I’ll remind you to tune in next week, but as always, a recording of the conversation will be available to paying subscribers.

And now, Three Things I’m excited to tell you about today…

1. Market Dinner of the Week (or, Don’t Overthink It)

A few weeks ago, at the end of a capital-F Fancy dinner in midtown Manhattan — the kind of place I imagine Don Draper patronizing if he lived in 2026 New York — I was served the most beautiful little complimentary rhubarb gumdrops alongside a dessert I ordered on purpose, a Meyer Lemon Sponge Cake that looked like it belonged in MoMA next door. Inspired, I googled “how to make rhubarb gumdrops” on my walk home thinking it would be fun to try something new with rhubarb instead of falling back on my usual gooey cobblers and turnovers, and by the time I walked in my front door, the gelatin and citric acid were officially on order. A project for the weekend, I thought, pink gumdrops dancing in my pupils like a goofy cartoon character. But when the two pouches arrived the next day, there they sat…and there they remain, weeks later, even as bundles of market-fresh rhubarb cycled through the kitchen again and again.

Here’s the thing I tend to forget about myself: The stars really have to align if I’m going to engage in Project recipes. And after all these years and all these words, I was reminded that the kind of cooking I enjoy the most — the kind that brings me back to the kitchen the next day and the next and the next — is the simple, fresh, straightforward kind. This is a long way of bringing you around to that dinner you’re looking at above, focused on ramps, the spring market’s current blink-and-you’ll-miss-it darling. Last week, after grabbing a bundle of the sweet and earthy onion-garlic sprouts, I wasn’t thinking about pouches of preservatives and powders. I prepared the ramps with ingredients I had in the pantry — pasta, anchovies, breadcrumbs — and 30 minutes later ended up with an A-plus dinner, one that I’m sure I’ll make again next week, next spring, and on and on.

Pasta with Ramps and Anchovy Breadcrumbs

If you can’t find ramps, you can absolutely use scallions. Serves 4.

Dals Pasta With Ramps

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Meanwhile, how do you feel about recipe PDFs vs. recipes written directly into the newsletter? I’d love to hear any feedback.

2. World Cup Breakfast Burritos

The official one-month countdown to the World Cup has begun, and even though I have yet to figure out a way to get tickets to a match without spending a zillion dollars (thanks, FIFA), I have at least nailed down a new breakfast burrito I can enjoy while spectating from my couch, as I did during last week’s Liverpool-Man U game. Remember: If it’s utensil-free, it qualifies.

Mushroom-Spinach-Green Chile Breakfast Burrito

Makes 2 burritos: Sauté 5 ounces sliced shiitakes and 1/2 red onion (diced) in olive oil over medium-low heat. Add salt, pepper, a dusting of sweet paprika, pinch of cumin, a bit of garlic powder. Cook until mushrooms have shriveled and onions have caramelized. Add a handful of spinach and cook another two minutes until spinach has wilted. Turn off heat. In a separate nonstick pan over medium-low heat, add two whisked eggs and cook in one layer, flipping like a crepe once it looks mostly cooked through on the bottom. Remove egg from heat but keep the pan on low heat. Divide the eggs into two large pieces and arrange each on the bottom third of 10-12-inch tortillas. Top each with the mushroom-spinach-onion mixture, a few diced green chiles (such as Hatch brand) and very thin slices of cheddar. Wrap the sides of the tortillas around their fillings and roll the burrito away from you, wrapping and tucking in the edges as you go so the contents don’t spill out. Add the stuffed tortillas back to the pan, seam-side down, and cook about 1-2 minutes a side until it’s golden brown and sealed. Flip and cook another minute. Let them cool a bit before slicing gently with a serrated edge knife. Serve with salsa.

3. Rituals are a Mindset

Bruce Feiler’s A Time to Gather is out next week, and needless to say, it was hard not to love a book dedicated my favorite topic: the power of rituals. Among other things, Feiler argues that the decline of “life rituals” — traditions around major life events like birth, marriage, death — has been one of the major contributing factors to the current loneliness epidemic, but the response has been a renewed interest in personalized rituals that help cultivate community and give us a sense of belonging. I particularly liked this passage about “bites of passage:”

“A ritual is not a fixed mindset; it’s a frame of mind — a frame we must open whenever we can. To achieve this goal, we must also move beyond another dated concept. Rituals are not just rites of passage — sprawling, multi-day events requiring months of planning and bags of cash; they’re also bites of passage — smaller, more targeted nibbles of connection requiring far less planning and sometimes no money at all. What psychologists call social snacking are brief interactions that promote happiness — with a neighbor, a barista, a friend on the street. Bites of passage are the ritual equivalent of social snacking — the wedding dress fitting, the tomb stone unveiling, the divorce paper signing, the grieving and weaving circle. They’re morsels of empathy and noshes of compassion that reinforce the larger message of rites of passage.

He calls it “a ritual-anything-anywhere attitude” and I like the potential this framing has for all of us. It reminded me of…well, the book I wrote on the exact same subject over a decade ago…but also the rituals Jodi Levine and I collect over on Like Magic and elsewhere. To name a few: Getting up early to watch the sunrise on vacation; dropping off surprise boxes of doughnuts on neighbors’ doorsteps on the first Sunday of every month; inviting your teenage nieces and nephews to drive to your house for dinner the week they get their licenses; dog-walking dates with old friends; making pie with your kids every Friday; hosting “bus stop socials” at the end of the school year for the families you got to know on those early morning pick-ups; hosting a monthly meatball potluck for the neighborhood or just a regular old Half-Assed Potluck; eating your grandfather’s favorite dessert on his birthday every year as a way to keep his memory alive; after-dinner walks in the summer; sending a friend flowers on the anniversary of her mother’s death; interviewing your kids every Thanksgiving and saving their answers as a keepsake; going on a milkshake date with your daughter on the first and last day of school; adding “courage flakes,” aka sprinkles, to breakfast on the day of a big test or challenge…you get the picture.

What are your anytime-anywhere rituals, food-related or otherwise? I’m guessing you have dozens — you just have to take a moment to shine a spotlight on them.

Thanks for reading,
Jenny

Thanks again for being here. If you like what you’ve read and have a second, please hit the ❤️ button at the top left or bottom left of this newsletter. It helps spread the word about Dinner: A Love Story and it also really makes my day.

For more easy, approachable vegetarian recipes, check out my New York Times bestselling books The Weekday Vegetarians and the follow-up: The Weekday Vegetarians: Get Simple. 🍳🌿