Here, help yourself to sour cream pancakes

With cardamom apples, too. Coffee's in the thermos.

View in browser|nytimes.com October 20, 2024 Ifrah F. Ahmed's sour cream pancakes with cardamom apples. Rachel Vanni for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Spencer Richards. Help yourself to sour cream pancakes By Sam Sifton Good morning. How are you doing? It's a weird, uncertain time for many, parlous and dizzying, and sometimes it seems as if the last thing anyone wants to do is gather to eat and talk, to try to understand one another, to commune. But it's exactly what we ought to be doing, as often as we can, as enthusiastically as possible. A meal taken with family, with friends, even with (perhaps especially with) strangers is a meal that can bridge distances, that can make things better, if only while everyone's seated at the table. Hospitality matters. That's my new bumper sticker. Come over for breakfast, and let's see if it sticks. Say, sour cream pancakes with cardamom apples (above)? It's incredible how the cardamom pings off the maple syrup to become something entirely singular. Or a big Dutch baby with a side of oven bacon? Works every time. Featured Recipe Sour Cream Pancakes With Cardamom Apples View Recipe → I could imagine a crowded table at lunch: kimchi grilled cheese for all, and the Seahawks-Falcons game afterward, viewed from the couch. Could that spill into dinner? Let's hope so, because a huge platter of chicken with mixed mushrooms and cream isn't going to eat itself. With Sunday sorted, we can look to the rest of the week. … Monday Melissa Clark's recipe for sweet-and-spicy roasted tofu and squash delivers a riot of complex flavors and textures that belies the ease of its preparation. There's the smooth velvet of the roasted squash, the soft tenderness of the tofu and the excellent crunch of the sesame seed garnish, all dressed in the salty-sweet fire of soy sauce, sriracha and honey. Put that on a bed of baby spinach and start your week off right. Johnny Miller for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Susan Spungen. Sweet-and-Spicy Roasted Tofu and Squash By Melissa Clark 1 hour Makes 2 to 4 servings Tuesday I love a patty melt unreservedly, but I had a revelation when I developed this recipe for a portobello patty melt to serve to folks who don't eat beef. Portobello patty melts might actually be better than the original kind. Davide Luciano for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Gozde Eker. Portobello Patty Melts By Sam Sifton 1 hour Makes Serves 4 Wednesday A sheet-pan meal is just the thing for a busy weeknight dinner, and Ali Slagle's new recipe for crispy gnocchi with sausage and broccoli proves the point plain. Make little meatballs of Italian sausage and brown them alongside gnocchi and broccoli florets, and then top the pan with grated Parmesan and a spray of lemon juice. There won't be leftovers. Kerri Brewer for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. Crispy Gnocchi With Sausage and Broccoli By Ali Slagle 45 minutes Makes 4 servings Thursday More chicken, more mushrooms. Yasmin Fahr has an amazing recipe for skillet chicken with mushrooms and caramelized onions that's one of the great uses of boneless, skinless chicken thighs. It's like a French onion soup that's not soup and doesn't take as long to cook. Could you stir in some baby lettuce at the end? You could and ought to! Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini. Skillet Chicken With Mushrooms and Caramelized Onions By Yasmin Fahr 30 minutes Makes 4 servings Friday And then you can head into the weekend with Lidey Heuck's recipe for goulash. It's a deeply American version of the Hungarian dish, made with ground beef, bell peppers, diced tomatoes, macaroni and shredded Cheddar. But it's no less soulful for that — very Midwest proud. (Omit the paprika, and you have what they call "American chop suey" in New England.) Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Goulash By Lidey Heuck 50 minutes Makes 4 to 6 servings There are many thousands more recipes to cook this week waiting for you on New York Times Cooking. Go browse our digital aisles and save the recipes you want to cook. If you have questions about your account, write to us at cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back to you. Or you can write to me at foodeditor@nytimes.com if you'd like to escalate matters or simply say hello. I can't respond to every letter. But I do read every one I receive. Now, it's a far cry from anything to do with lentils or kale, but Joe Sexton has a wild tale in The Sunday Long Read about three friends flying to Florida from the Bahamas in a Cessna Caravan. Only one was a pilot. When he slumped in his seat, unconscious, his friend had to land the plane. That would take a miracle, and there were two of them that day. Here in The New York Times, Pete Wells profiled Joe Holtz, who helped found the Park Slope Food Co-op in 1973 and has worked there ever since. Holtz is retiring in June. Tina Brown has taken to Substack. I'm in. Finally, here's a new track from 2nd Grade, "I Wanna Be on Your Mind." Play that before dinner, and I'll be back next week. Sign up for the Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter Fresh dinner ideas for busy people who want something great to eat, with NYT Cooking recipes sent to you weekly. Get it in your inbox Sign up for The Veggie newsletter Tanya Sichynsky shares the most delicious vegetarian recipes for weeknight cooking, packed lunches and dinner parties. Get it in your inbox Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for Cooking from The New York Times. To stop receiving Cooking, unsubscribe. 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