Three Things

Chickpea Caesar salad, five cookbooks I'm excited about, and what we ate for our last family dinner before moving (it was pretty perfect)

Good morning eaters and readers. I’d like to begin today’s dispatch by reminding you that there is no law against using Caesar dressing even on salads that are not by-the-book Caesar Salads. Yes, you can do that! Especially when the tomatoes and greens are so good and all you have in the house protein-wise is a can of chickpeas. I made the above last night after dropping off my youngest at college — I walked in the door at 7:00 and we were all eating by 7:25. (A similar recipe for Crispy Chickpea Caesar Salad is in The Weekday Vegetarians, but you can also find a version of it here.) What else am I considering for the menu this week, you ask? Well, we’re cooking down the kitchen in preparation for our move, so lots of pantry-driven meals like Black Bean Tostadas with Avocados and Pickled Onions (also in The Weekday Vegetarians), Curried Chickpeas with Tomatoes and Greens, definitely some kind of breakfast burrito situation, and maybe even Alison Roman’s famous stew because I think I have uncovered a dozen cans of coconut milk in the pantry. Here are your Three Things…

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1. One Last Family Dinner

The other week, I wrote about Milestone Dinners through the years, and asked readers to suggest menus for our last family dinner in the house before we move. I loved the answers, not only because they were legit delicious recipes, but because they were sentimental, too. It made me realize how much I treasure this community — some of you who weighed in have been reading Dinner: A Love Story since the beginning, over 13 years ago, and know my recipes (and me) so well. At least that’s one thing I know I’m not leaving behind when I walk out the door next week. Here were some of the suggestions:

From Jenny C: “Doesn't it have to be one of the recipes from inside the kitchen cabinet?” (By that she means, of course, the recipes painted on the inside of an upper cabinet: Great Grandma Turano’s Meatballs, Rosa’s Mud Cake, Marcella Hazan’s Pork in Milk, or Grandma Catrino’s Biscotti. Don’t worry, the door is coming with me.)

From Beth: “Not to state the obvious but … pork ragu.” (She was not the only one to vote for that one.)

From Cyn: “To me nothing says home, comfort and ‘I love you’ more than meatballs so may I suggest Great Grandma Turano’s Meatballs? Meatball subs, really good rolls, sprinkle of parm cheese and a chopped salad. Yum! and the house will smell irresistible.”

From Danna: “Gotta vote for the black bean burritos with pickled onions - a DALS classic, veg, and easy enough to do in the chaos of moving. If that's not festive enough, I also loooove the monogrammed pot pies, and they could be themed — NYC as the monogram maybe?” (Both of the recipes Danna suggested are from the first month I launched DALS in 2010. Insane. Thank you for sticking with me, Danna!)

From Robin: “Make your yogurt-marinated chicken on the grill! It’s legendary.😋”

From Anne: “I'd go for something that will be hard to do in your new place, which means something grilled.” (I appreciated this nod to reality.)

Alas, because Abby left yesterday, the last supper with all four of us happened on Saturday. We went with grilled Salmon Salad, the recipe for which would definitely be painted inside the cabinet door if we recreated it today; S’mores because: S’Mores; and an amazing cocktail called Old Friend (riff on the Old Pal), which felt somehow appropriate. (The cocktail was made with St-Germain and Campari but I do not have permission from the publisher to share it with you, so instead I would like make a case for you to pick up a copy of Meehan’s Bartender Manual, our go-to book for both classic and special cocktails.) Thanks for weighing in, everyone. It was an excellent night. I can’t wait to discover and share new recipes with all of you in the next chapter.

2. The Case for Using Wedding China Everyday

Because we’re majorly downsizing, I had to sell the very large sideboard we bought from an antique dealer in Lambertville, Pennsylvania over 25 years ago. It was the first major piece of furniture my husband and I bought together, and even though watching a guy from Lake George wearing a Johnny Cash T-shirt loading it into his Volkswagen Atlas got me all choked up, its absence resulted in something kind of fun: our wedding china, with nowhere to hide, now sat on the dining room floor, begging to be used all day long. At snack time, at dinner, and even for a pancake breakfast on Abby’s last morning before being shipped off to college. The china brings me such happiness and made me wonder why I save it for special occasions, so I vow to keep it more at-the-ready in our new place. One more piece of takeaway here: No one in my house is gluten-free, but for some reason my go-to pancake mix is Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free. They have a reliably wonderful texture — light and almost crepey, and are heaven when drizzled with real Vermont maple syrup.

3. Fall Cookbook Teaser

When I was a kid, the end of summer felt almost tragic, and I remember consoling myself by thinking about a few exciting things to look forward to in late August and early September: Sweet corn and juicy red tomatoes, of course. But also: The U.S. Open, back-to-school shopping (I’ve always had a thing for blank notebooks), and the annual trip to Jones Beach on Long Island with family friends. As an adult, I can add a new one to that list: COOKBOOKS. Fall is when all the big ones come out, and I love scanning Publisher’s Weekly to earmark the books I plan to cook (and read) my way through. Here are the ones I’m most excited about this year:

Seafood Simple A Cookbook by Eric Ripert (October) My first thought? Um, how had this book not already been written? Ripert, who runs Michelin-starred Le Bernardin in New York, is perhaps most well-known his masterful seafood preparation. I loved his last cookbook, Vegetable Simple, which I described in this newsletter as “actually simple….not chef-pretending-to-be-simple simple. Real life simple!” I will expect the same from the follow-up.

The Upstairs Delicatessen On Eating, Reading, Reading About Eating, and Eating While Reading, by Dwight Garner. (October) Read it for the title alone! Here, Garner, longtime book critic for the New York Times, is meeting me right where I live: at the intersection between food and books.

For the Culture Phenomenal Black Women and Femmes in Food, by Klancy Miller. (September) Miller, the popular pastry chef and founder of For the Culture magazine gives us recipes and oral histories from black women in food — from the icons to the influencers.

The Food of Sicily Recipes from a Sun-Drenched Culinary Crossroads, by Fabrizia Lanza (September) Being a Sicily lover of the highest order, I already have a copy of this one, so I can say with confidence that it’s going to be a keeper. Only dilemma: The photos are so beautiful and the recipes so cookable that I can’t decide if it lives in the kitchen or on the coffee table. (Shown in photo above.)

The Secret of Cooking Recipes for an Easier Life in the Kitchen, by Bee Wilson. (September) I love the idea of a food scholar taking on a most everyday dilemma: How do we make cooking simple and enjoyable? Here’s the first sentence: “The secret of better home cooking is not to be found in fancy gadgets, chefs’ tricks, or hidden ingredients. The secret of cooking is the person who cooks, whoever that person may be.” Includes 140 “doable” recipes, too. You’ll definitely be hearing more about this one.

Have a great week!
Jenny