Rough day? Orange beef is the answer.

With steamed broccoli and a mound of white rice, the dish acts as a powerful antidepressant.

View in browser|nytimes.com October 4, 2024 Sam Sifton's orange beef. Rikki Snyder for The New York Times Rough day? Orange beef is the answer. By Sam Sifton Good morning. The way things usually work for me this time of year: Weekdays are beautiful, crisp and clear. Guides I know text me at work with shots of beautiful fish caught by their grateful clients. Then Saturday arrives, and with it a honking east wind against what seems to be an always falling tide: steep chop that ought to delight the fish I'm chasing in my little, storm-tossed boat, but doesn't because the fish aren't there. They're not anywhere. Every weekend. If I ever write a memoir about fishing, I'll call it "You'd Have Thought." Cooking delicious food afterward helps. Cooking it beforehand, similarly. Delicious food keeps the spirit up when all the spirit wants to do is burn a pile of fly rods and take up a more reliably satisfying weekend activity than using them. Watching planes land at the airport, say, or sock repair. For dinner this evening, then: orange beef (above), a dish I learned from the chef Dale Talde. It's takeout-style Chinese American cooking brought into the home kitchen, where you can get fancy and use rib-eye steak instead of top sirloin or round. Attend to the sauce carefully, so that the citrus really pops. With steamed broccoli and a mound of white rice, the dish acts as a powerful antidepressant, which is great because in this weather I need one. (Paging all Chicago White Sox fans. Orange beef is for you!) Featured Recipe Orange Beef View Recipe → Overnight French toast for breakfast this weekend? Absolutely. (Or overnight oats instead?) Also, portobello patty melts for lunch. (Or peanut butter sandwiches with sriracha and pickles instead?) And then, for sure, Yasmin Fahr's one-pot chicken and lentils for dinner, the leftovers of which I can pick at all week for lunch, reheating it in the office microwave and squeezing lime juice over the top for a subtle sour note that recalls a Persian stew. Things are looking up! If none of those appeal, though, there are thousands and thousands more recipes to consider cooking this weekend waiting for you on New York Times Cooking. To answer a question I get quite a lot, you do need a subscription to read them. Subscriptions make this whole operation possible. Please, if you haven't already, would you consider subscribing today? Thanks. We're standing by to render assistance, should you find yourself caught sideways with our technology. Just write: cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back to you. Or, if you'd like to send an angry note or say something nice about my colleagues, you can write to me: foodeditor@nytimes.com. I cannot respond to every letter. But I read each one I get. Now, it's a far cry from anything to do with cakes and ale, but Dwight Garner wrote a smart essay for The New York Times Book Review about the environmental prescience of the crime writer John D. MacDonald, given the devastation wrought last week by Hurricane Helene. I managed to see Jez Butterworth's new play on Broadway, "The Hills of California," before Jesse Green's rave review was published in The Times. Here's hoping you can get tickets now. I'm deep down a rabbit hole with the Australian novelist Peter Temple, and enjoying his dark 2002 thriller, "In the Evil Day," published in the United States as "Identity Theory." Look for that at the library or a used book store. Finally, I'm very late to it, but Miley Cyrus singing lead on "Nothing Else Matters," with Metallica behind her and James Hetfield singing harmonies? That's music to shallow-fry beef by, and to enjoy all weekend long. I'll see you on Sunday. IN THIS NEWSLETTER David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. One-Pot Chicken and Lentils  By Yasmin Fahr 1 hour 20 minutes Makes 4 servings 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 David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks. Peanut Butter Sandwich With Sriracha and Pickles By Sam Sifton Craig Lee for The New York Times Overnight French Toast By Samantha Seneviratne 1 hour, plus chilling Makes 6 to 8 servings David Malosh for The New York Times Overnight Oats By Genevieve Ko 5 minutes, plus overnight soaking Makes 2 cups 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. 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