Three Things

Savory apple recipes, vegetarian dinner of the week, what your cookbook shelf says about you

Greetings eaters and readers! Last week, I holed up in South Carolina to work on my next book by day, and binge-watch season 3 of Never Have I Ever by night — gotta grab those empty nest perks where I can — and in between caught up on a few favorite podcasts, namely George Saunders on Taste. (I know I’ve mentioned this a couple hundred times, but his new short story collection, Liberation Day, is out TODAY!) In other news, our friends Todd and Anne had us over for dinner on Sunday and served us the cover recipe from Melissa Clark’s all-time greatest cookbook imho: Harissa Chicken with Leeks, Potatoes and Yogurt. Such a showstopper — and all made on one baking sheet. Herewith, your weekly Three Things…

1. Vegetarian Dinner of the Week: Pan-Fried Gnocchi with Brussels Sprouts

I have a pack of gnocchi in my fridge and I’m craving this quick fall stunner almost as much the company of my college sophomore daughter who first discovered it. The recipe is an Ali Slagle creation from the Times, but it’s one of those recipes that’s so simple, you can probably guess how to make it based solely on the photo — you pan-fry Brussels cut-side down in olive oil over medium-high heat and cook until golden brown and very crispy, then remove to a plate. Next, add gnocchi to the same pan and do the same. Toss in some onions, cook a few minutes; drizzle in honey, add red pepper flakes, salt and pepper, and serve everything together with Parm. P.S. Runner-up Brussels sprouts dinner: pan-fried pizza with shredded Brussels sprouts and bacon.

2. All the Apples

Last week, the subscriber discussion thread featured one of our Autumnal VIPs: the humble, versatile, biblical Apple! I asked readers for their go-to recipes, and as usual, they delivered. (If you subscribe, be sure to check out the whole list.) It was reader Shannon* who weighed in with the cake recipe above that looked irresistible: Luisa Weiss’s Versunkener Apfelkuchen from her wonderful Classic German Baking, and as soon as I had a chunk of time, I whipped one up. (You know it has to be easy when this bake-o-phobe “whips up” a cake.) I also wanted to point everyone (subscriber or not) in the direction of the DALS archive, towards some more savory spins on the fruit: Leah Koenig’s Fig-Glazed Chicken with Apples; Curried Chicken with Apples (and its very 90s cousin, Curried Chicken Salad); a classic Butternut Squash Soup with Apples first made famous by Ina (from now through the end of the year, you can pretty much always find a batch in my fridge); the One Pan Sausage Apple Cabbage number which is not so much a recipe as it is an assembly job.

*Shannon - please email me so you can redeem your free book! Jenny AT dinneralovestory dot com.

P.S. That Apfelkuchen made me nostalgic for Luisa Weiss’s German Marble Cake (Marmorkuchen), and more specifically, the essay she wrote about birthday rituals in Germany. “Like many other parents,” she said, “I am in awe of the decorating (and crafting) skills of the stylists at Martha Stewart and the talented bakers who post their creations on Pinterest. But after ogling the artistry (and briefly blanching at the amount of frosting needed to produce such works of art), I power down my computer and feel rather sheepishly grateful that I live in a country where the pinnacle of birthday-cake-baking…mostly ends up being the humble marble cake.” You can find the recipe here.

3. Attention Cookbook Nerds!

Do you read Paula Forbes’s Stained Page News? It’s a super fun, super insidery substack all about the cookbook industry past and present, and Forbes, who used to write for Epicurious and Eater, gets hilariously granular about her passion — as all the best writers do. Last week she wrote Let's Pick Apart Carmy's Cookbooks in The Bear and it was so funny, not only because she spent hours deconstructing a fictional character’s bookshelves (!!!), and was so spot-on with her observations, including what was missing (“I would bet my entire career on the fact that IRL Carmy would have at least one Joe Beef book”), but ALSO because I happen to do this same thing all the time, with real people. I walk into a house and immediately scan their bookshelves to glean some kind of clue about who they are, what they read, and how they cook. (And yet the converse of this does not hold true: It never occurs to me think about what books friends don’t have.) Do you do this?

For instance, this is my friend Sonya’s kitchen bookshelf — I knew were going to get along (and that I’d be well-fed at her table) as soon as I laid eyes on her heavily Francophile collection with a sprinkling of Silver Palate-era nostalgia. (Plus the vintage Gourmet Cookbooks! Ferran! Julie Sahni! Michael Ruhlman!) And this past August, I found myself fantasizing about sitting down to a meal with the owner of the Vermont airbnb where we stayed because she had an impressive shelf of Meera Sodha and Ottolenghi books as well as the Emily Wilson translation of The Odyssey, which, tbh, was more of a big deal to my English major daughter than to the person writing this newsletter who has never read any version of the Odyssey. Naturally, if I spy any of my books or my editor husband’s books, the owner instantly become a candidate for best friend status. In summation: Subscribe to Stained Page News if this behavior feels in any way relatable.

Lastly!

Nakano, makers of affordable high-quality Japanese knives — many of which I own and love and use everyday — are offering DALS readers a 20% discount on the entire store with code DINNER. Don’t you feel special? I have my eye on that pretty new chef’s series shown above.

Have a great week!
Jenny