Welcome Back, Everyone!

sometimes you need a winter break

Feb 21, 2023

Hello and welcome to Home Movies Tuesday! If you’ve found your way over by some miracle but are not yet subscribed, here, let me help you with that:

Hello and WELCOME BACK to A Newsletter. Get ready for these to return to regular cadence, perhaps even more newsletters than you could ever imagine. “Another newsletter??” - you, very soon, probably.

Between the return of Home Movies, the impending launch of Sweet Enough and the resurrection of my desire to cook, you’ll be begging for FEWER newsletters in no time. Thanks for your patience while I took this little sabbatical, during which I visited family on the west coast (twice), went to Mexico (once), got sick (twice), planned a book tour (details next week) and filmed MANY Home Movies (coming soon— next week, even!).

While spending time with family and getting sick, I did a lot of cooking. Less so the creative, relaxed type, more so the survival, practical type. I took a lot of requests and relied on a lot of self-proclaimed greatest hits, bot of which result in things I cook most often when my creativity has run dry and I’m on autopilot, but nevertheless hit the exact way they’re supposed to, pleasing both myself and the crowd I’m feeding.

While I’ll be back this week with some NEW recipes, maybe you also just want to be reminded of some things that just simply work every time, emotionally and literally:

The Luckiest Biscuits in America. Originally published in Dining In (2017), these are still the only biscuits I make. You’d think I have them memorized by now, but I guess I’m just not making biscuits that often (and I have a horrible memory). I ate them with the last of my plum jam from October. Goodbye, October plums.
biscuits from yesterday
Fluffy, Crispy Pancakes. Originally published in the NYT (2018), and then again in Home Movies (I burn at least one, sorry). I also added them into Sweet Enough because they really deserved the page. Pancake recipes are a dime a dozen, but these are special, brilliant, spectacular, totally unique, consistently the best I’ve ever made or had. This weekend a 2-year old said his favorite part was “the crunchy part.” A genius baby!!!
Slow Salmon with Citrus. Also from Dining In (am I regressing?), this remains the best, easiest and now, most popular (!?) way to cook salmon. I used Arctic char which is slightly leaner than salmon, so I compensated with more olive oil. Of course, I saved it all and used it to roast broccoli the next day (no, Heléne, the oil does NOT taste like fish and yes, the oil SHOULD be reused). Makes excellent leftovers, too (consider it for a salad, either like a tuna salad-salad, or like a nicoise salad-salad).
slow salmon with citrus from dining in
Shallot Pasta, made for a first timer. For what it’s worth, I didn’t set out to make the shallot pasta (which I usually only do by request now)— I used tomatoes not paste, red onions not shallot, tube pasta, not bucatini, parmesan, not parsley and garlic, but by the time I dumped a tin of anchovies into the skillet I realized what I was doing and I kept on doing it. What a good pasta this is. Bless this pasta (though I did miss the parsley/garlic topping).
Iceberg Salad. In some places it’s too tough/annoying to find good lettuce in the winter, but you know what’s always there for you? Iceberg. Crunchy and full of water and not much else, it’s petal-like leaves are there to cradle pretty much any dressing you drizzle over it. More often than not, I’m doing a version of this salad or this one (same but different). It goes with everything.
iceberg salad with crushed olives and pecorino from nothing fancy