Go for the gold: What to Cook This Weekend

November 19, 2021

Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Erika Joyce.

What to Cook This Weekend

By Sam Sifton

Good morning. I'll be knocking down my shopping list for Thanksgiving this weekend, with stops at the big market for dry goods and the tiny little one for the most perfect brussels sprouts and winter squash. I'll visit the wine shop for Brouilly and Prosecco, the fishmonger for oysters, and the farm that raises the birds I cook each year, fat and glistening, animals that have had only one bad day in their lives. I'll load the refrigerator and the pantry. I'll consider my place settings. I'll get in the right head to cook next week with abandon and joy.

And I'll make a few pies for the freezer, so I don't have to worry about them on the day itself. That's exciting this year because Melissa Clark has spent the last six months tweaking her recipes to deliver instructions for brand-new but still absolutely classic Thanksgiving pies: pumpkin, apple and pecan (above). (I can't wait to make the pecan in particular, heavy on the nuts and much less so on the goo.) Read those recipes closely, then go watch Melissa make them on our YouTube channel, then make them yourselves.

More planning for the future: Hanukkah's coming hot on the heels of Thanksgiving. You may want to start getting ready, and we've certainly got a lot of recipes to consider. I do love the idea of Joan Nathan's sweet-and-sour brisket following a Thanksgiving turkey by just a few days. That's very land of plenty!

But, against the backdrop of all of this thinking about what's coming, do make plans to cook for yourself today. When was the last time you made smash burgers, for instance, or put together a hot dog party, or assembled a platter of nachos? This could be a cool weekend for vegan tantanmen with pan-fried tofu, for three sisters stew, for a Guinness pie.

Remember: Thanksgiving's going to go just fine. You can take some time this weekend to make a cheesy pan pizza from scratch.

Thousands and thousands more recipes for Thanksgiving and to cook this weekend are waiting for you on New York Times Cooking. It's true that you need a subscription in order to access them, but we think it's worth the scratch. Plenty of people agree, and now may be the very best time to join us. Thanks so much.

As ever, we will be standing by, just in case something goes awry in your kitchen or with our technology. Just write: cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back to you. Or if you'd like to send us an apple or a worm, you can reach me directly at foodeditor@nytimes.com. I read every letter sent.

Now, it's a very far cry from anything to do with the blanching of vegetables or the proper way to skin an eel, but I somehow ended up reading "The Museum of Extinct Animals," by Benjamin Myers in Somesuch Stories. Bracing.

It's the chef Rocco DiSpirito's birthday. He's 55, and I'm reminded of the time the Times writer Jonathan Reynolds, who died recently, met with him and other chefs to talk about the future of fast food. DiSpirito's offering: The Rocco roll.

You'll need to register to read it, but Lauren Groff's consideration of the Danish writer Dorthe Nors, in The New York Review of Books, is absolutely worth the time.

Finally, here's Lisa Hannigan singing "Undertow" with Loah and Kevin Murphy at the National Gallery of Ireland in May, 2020. Listen to that while you're deciding which pie you'll make first. I'll see you on Sunday.

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