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For fruit, in early October we can still find figs and grapes. Apples and pears are peaking right now. Have you gone apple picking yet? Store apples and pears in the fridge if you want them to last. They love cold storage and can keep for months. Chilly fall weather brings out root vegetables like parsnips, celery root, and beets, which we will be enjoying throughout the cold season. You’ll find tubers too, like fingerling potatoes, ginger, and jerusalem artichokes....

I hated those Chinese birthday cakes. For much of my early childhood, my mom and dad proudly celebrated our birthdays with those cakes. They’d drive all the way to Manhattan or Flushing—a good 40 to 75 minutes away from our home in the suburbs of Long Island, New York—to bring a cake home. Every time I opened up the plain white cake box, I was disappointed. Growing up in a distinctly undiverse neighborhood, wanting desperately to be white and “normal,” the Chinese birthday cake was an embarrassment....

Zucchini is an abundantly versatile summer vegetable. Dark emerald-green zucchini and cheerfully bright yellow squash are the most common of the summer squashes. It’s mild in flavor and almost bland, due to its high-water content. This makes it a ready partner for a variety of pairings. One caveat is that it is sometimes necessary to cook out or salt the squash to remove some of the excess moisture before you can start on the actual recipe....

That leaves an awful lot of neglected breakfast options, so I just make them for dinner instead. I mean, who says eggs are only for mornings? Breakfast favorites at the dinner table make you feel like you’re getting away with something. Delivering quick, appealing, healthy meals, perhaps? I suppose there’s not a point in pondering when there’s so much to gain. Inverting the order we follow all the time is invigorating....

The usual flavors are horchata (a sweet rice drink), tamarindo (from tamarind), and agua de Jamaica (pronounced hah-MY-kah). What Is Agua de Jamaica? What is this agua de Jamiaca? It’s hibiscus tea made from an infusion of hibiscus flowers. I almost always go for the ruby red Jamaica, I think just because I love the color. The taste of this hibiscus tea is slightly tart and refreshing. If you’ve ever had red zinger tea from Celestial Seasonings, it’s a little like that....

I like the simplicity of mixing the dough in a bowl by hand for some unplugged time in the kitchen. All you really need to do is press it into a pie or tart pan, chill it, and bake it. You could even let it chill (covered) overnight, or longer, before baking – something I often do during the holidays when I’m making lots of cookies. You could also make a double or even triple batch of these and bake them in separate pans....

Whether you’re new to cooking and it’s all a mystery, or you’ve been cooking for years and recently stumbled across an unfamiliar cooking term, look it up below and add it to your personal storehouse of cooking terms! We’ll also continue adding definitions as we think of them. You know how new words are: once you learn one, you tend to spot it again and again. A Air fry: To cook in a quick-heating countertop convection oven....

But that’s changing. People are pawpaw-curious, and they want to learn more about North America’s largest natuve fruit. Are you one of those people? Get set, because pawpaws are not just a thing you can eat. They’re a way of seeing the world. Once you know about pawpaws, it seems anything is possible. If you’re an old hat to the ways of the pawpaw, baking an old-fashioned pawpaw pudding is a fine celebration of the Brigadoon that is pawpaw season....

The one glaring example of where this convention does not hold true, and in fact begs to be broken, is with a classic Greek dish called shrimp saganaki or shrimp santorini. It pairs shrimp with tomatoes and feta cheese and is absolutely delicious in every rule-breaking way. We found a beautiful example of this classic dish in a recipe by Ellie Krieger in a publication by Fine Cooking several years ago....

For those who love chocolate, and especially for those who love it regularly, a chocolate subscription box is nothing short of a good dream. Every month, treats arrive at your door—what’s not to enjoy? Whether you only dig into the fancy stuff, want a mystery box of variety, or have special dietary needs, check out these best chocolate subscription boxes. Best Chocolate Subscription Boxes of 2022 Best Overall: Kekao Best for Gourmet Chocolates: Fine Chocolate Club Best for Small-Batch Chocolate: Raaka Best Mystery Box: Mystery Chocolate Box Best for Vegans: Cococlectic Best for Gifting: Speach’s...

What do you do with your excess garden tomatoes? Canning Salsa With Excess Garden Tomatoes Tomato juice or gazpacho are both great ways to use up lots of tomatoes. Or, if you like salsa, try canning some tomato salsa to enjoy throughout the year. Pull a jar out in the middle of winter and use as a dip with tortilla chips (if the jars last that long, we go through salsa pretty quickly around here!...

I spent much of my life thinking that black-eyed peas were a Southern thing, and then I worked in an Ethiopian restaurant, where the African clientele told me that black-eyed peas actually come from Africa. Years later, I began cooking Greek food—imagine my surprise to find all sorts of dishes using black-eyed peas! I have no idea how they became so popular in Greece, but there you go. This black-eyed pea salad a Greek-inspired side dish I’ve done in various forms over the years....

Salmon: An Inspired New Spin on Moqueca Several years ago, a Brazilian friend of mine introduced to me a salmon version of this stew she had improvised, given that the typical Brazilian fish used for moqueca isn’t found around here. It was so good I begged Fernanda for the recipe, which she translated into English for me. (By the way, you can’t get local salmon in Brazil. So, this is really not an authentic moqueca, but a Northern Californian interpretation....

Dear broccoli, meet toasted almond, and her friends grilled chicken, sesame oil, and red chili flakes. You are all going to get along swimmingly. This was one of those what-can-we-put-together-for-dinner-with-what-we-have-on-hand meals that was a surprising success. We almost always have broccoli in the fridge, because it keeps well, and I could eat it practically every day without tiring of it. Toasted almonds are another well-loved pantry item—great for snacking, and good for you too....

Tender and crisp, plain and aromatic, sweet with a dash of salt, the Snickerdoodle has made quite a place for itself in the canon of cookies. But as loyal as its fans are, it’s not the easiest cookie to find on bakery shelves. Video: How to Make Snickerdoodles What Is a Snickerdoodle? A Snickerdoodle cookie has two signature characteristics: With other cookies born from the same method (creaming), getting just the right texture can feel like an impossible journey with way too many cookies to eat along the way....

Whether it’s braised, in stewed, stuffed, boiled, or made into coleslaw, we eat cabbage in every which way around here. But this my friends, this has to be the easiest way to prepare cabbage and still have it taste great. (Boiled cabbage is probably the easiest, but then what you have is just boiled cabbage.) My mother made something like this the other day with curly cabbage. You just simply blanch the torn or roughly cut cabbage leaves in boiling salted water, drain them, and toss with butter, and seasonings....

Blue cheese and celery is a classic combination and is especially good with the additions of dates (or dried cranberries) for sweetness and maple-glazed toasted hazelnuts. Yes, it’s a little fussy, but it’s the holidays! And so worth it. The recipe comes via my friend Peg’s glamorous friend Katie Sullivan (thank you Katie!). Slice the dates lengthwise first in half, then slice the halves lengthwise into 3 or four pieces....

If you are only hosting a few people for dinner and you don’t want weeks of leftovers, you can just roast a turkey breast! (You can also make it in less than half the time of a whole turkey.) This stuffed turkey breast is as delicious as it is beautiful, and easier to make than it looks. We’ve stuffed it like a roulade, a roll-up with minced chard, prosciutto, toasted pine nuts, and onions....