Go for the gold: What to Cook This Weekend

February 18, 2022

Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.

What to Cook This Weekend

By Sam Sifton

Good morning. Weekends are for project cooking in my house — lasagna, birria tacos with chile broth, guanciale and the like. Three-day weekends, though? They're for project baking. And with Presidents' Day on Monday, I can't wait to dig into the possibilities presented by my colleague Krysten Chambrot's thrilling new article, "24 Brilliant Baking Recipes to Change Your Kitchen Game."

It's filled with sage advice and clever hacks, and two dozen of our best and most favorite recipes for baking joy. I want to dive right into the tray of butter mochi, to spread ganache and marscapone on this amazing chocolate cake (above). I'd like to make tres leches bread pudding, mango pie, peanut butter-miso cookies, namoura — all my friends. Explore our collection of baking recipes, and cook what you like.

But that's not all you should make, or eat, this weekend. I'd really like to lay into a tray of pastelón, for instance. I'd like to make gravlax, too, though even with Monday off work it won't be ready until next weekend, a brunch to dream about all week long.

Arctic char with spinach butter on Saturday night? A carrot tart with ricotta and feta on Sunday night? Seeded pecan granola for late breakfast on Monday?

And definitely I'd like to steer into lunches: a Reuben sandwich for sure (unless you don't eat meat, in which case, hail the portobello patty melt); and either a mushroom tart or a crab-meat quiche (or both!).

You can find more inspiration for what to cook this weekend on our social media channels — primarily on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. And there are thousands and thousands more recipes waiting for you on New York Times Cooking. It's a fact that you need a subscription to access them, just as you need a subscription to learn how to cook intuitively in an online class taught by the Los Angeles chef Roy Choi. Subscriptions are the fuel in our stoves. They allow our work to continue. If you haven't yet taken the plunge, I hope you will subscribe today. Thank you.

And if something goes sideways along the way, either with your cooking or our technology? Please write us: cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back to you. Or you can write to me: foodeditor@nytimes.com. I'm not the guy to resolve issues. I pass those requests along to our team. But if you've got a complaint or a kind word to spare, I read every letter sent.

Now, it's nothing to do with rice pudding or the excellence of preserved black fungus in chile oil, but I still think you ought to take some time this weekend to read Jessica Bennett's spare and intriguing review of Imogen Crimp's novel, "A Very Nice Girl," in The Times. You may hit the bookstore or library after that.

Here's a poem from Jen Calleja, "Dust Sucker," in The White Review.

There's a fine exhibition of the work of Hans Holbein up at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, but don't take my word for it. Jason Farago's review of the show, also in The Times, will get you there or, at any rate, have you exploring the collection online.

Finally, Spoon's back. Here's "The Devil & Mister Jones," from the band's latest, "Lucifer on the Sofa." Listen to that nice and loud. And as the saying goes, I'll see you on Sunday.