Go for the gold: What to Cook This Week

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Johnny Miller for The New York Times Food stylist: Susan Spungen.

Sunday, December 13, 2020

What to Cook This Week

Sam Sifton

Good morning. Last winter, I walked across the huge parking lot of a bankrupt mall in Maine to eat soggy chimichangas at a knockoff Chili’s, and it was a great night because the bartender was kind and interesting and the room was warm. That same season, I ordered a ham and pineapple pizza at a diner in the Everglades and ended up sharing it with newlyweds who were in town for the fishing. And if the pie was pillowy in the sense that it tasted like a pillow, the couple was nice. They had good stories. That was a great night, too.

I’m eating better than I ever have, these days. I hope you are too. But the experience of doing that rarely surprises. There’s a relentless sameness to the experience of eating without travel, without restaurants, without strangers to meet. The meals, even the spectacular ones, run into one another. It’s a difficult cycle to break.

Still, I’m going to try to cook my way out of it. Will this spicy hot chocolate (above) help? Or this creamy vegan one? It will, if you serve it theatrically for breakfast on a day that otherwise would start with oatmeal and a brisk walk around the block before a day of work on the screen — or of looking for work on a screen.

This lemony sheet-pan chicken with brussels sprouts? Bust that out for lunch tomorrow, just as if food was your business, and hot food for lunch a part of the program. You can make the time. Have a tuna salad sandwich for supper.

Or make this a vegetarian week if that’s not already your game. We’ve certainly got the recipes for it.

These soy butter basted scallops with wilted greens and sesame? This chicken korma? This cheesy baked pasta with sausage and ricotta? Come up with a story about what you’re cooking and serving, a narrative to share around the table, something to make the meal somehow different from all the ones that have come before. Sit in a different seat, in a different room if you can manage it. Eat at a different time. The point is simply to create distinction. To invoke surprise.

Thousands and thousands of recipes to help you do that are waiting for you on NYT Cooking. (Try spiced chickpea salad with tahini and pita chips. Or spicy tamarind pork ribs with scallions and peanuts.) You can save the recipes you want to cook, and rate the ones you’ve made. You can leave notes on recipes, as well, for yourself or for your fellow subscribers — hacks and substitutions are welcome in our community, absolutely.

But you do need to be a subscriber. Subscriptions support the work of the dozens of people who make NYT Cooking possible. Subscriptions allow that work to continue. Please, if you haven’t already, I hope you will subscribe to NYT Cooking today.

We’ll be standing by to help, should you find you run into trouble in your kitchen or on our site and apps. Just write: cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back to you, I promise.

Now, will you please spend a little time luxuriating in Cookie Week, our collection of delectable cookie videos from Melissa Clark, Sohla El-Waylly, Eric Kim, Yewande Komolafe, Claire Saffitz and Vaugn Vreeland? Like and subscribe!

It’s nothing to do with pasta or peas, but do read about Britney Spears in Vanity Fair. It’s bonkers.

Long and so worth it: Hannah Sullivan’s poem, “You, Very Young in New York.”

Asian snack rugs? You’re welcome.

Finally, Mariah Carey for the seasonal win. Here’s “Oh, Santa,” with Jennifer Hudson and Ariana Grande. Enjoy that, and I’ll be back on Monday.