What to Cook This Weekend

Good morning. You’re all on my jittery mind, even as the reports flood into my inbox about glorious home-cooked meals and your search for a perfect crumb in your no-knead bread.

I think about police on patrol with their neighbors. And about those cleaning office buildings. I think about those cleaning the handles on the carts at the supermarket, blue-gloved and skittish, and about fishermen pushing off the dock for a week at sea. What’s it like for them, right now? You should consider it.

I think about long-haul truckers and full-stack developers and college kids denied graduation, and a lot about grandparents longing for the touch of a child or grandchild, people tied to the outside world through only the phone or a wireless connection, some of them a little scared, desperately bored. What can we do to help them?

I think of moms and dads crowded at home with children in urban walk-ups or spread out across suburban ramblers; about the childless at home with cats and dogs; about those without pets and those with plants annoyed with the over-watering and the constant attention.

It reminds me: We’re all feeding something, somehow. And I’m hoping NYT Cooking can help. Like, for instance, could you, with pantry items, celebrate a quiet Nowruz tonight, the Persian new year? (We have some recipe ideas.) Could you make a chocolate cake (above)? It’s vegan! Someone with whom you vector might enjoy this leek, mushroom and goat cheese tart. Self-quarantined? Self-service: Here are some easy recipes to cook.

I know this weekend I’d like to make a lot of pizza dough, to match the balls of mozzarella I was able to score at the Italian butcher, and the bag of ’roni slices that anchor one corner of my cured-meats pantry. Maybe you’re set up similarly? (Here’s a wild idea if you’re not: Make a vegan pizza with the dough above, the cashew cheese that results from the first four steps of this recipe, and a bunch of super caramelized mushrooms. Come on! That’s gotta be good, like a lactose-free take on the Cheeses Pizza they used to serve at Roberta’s in Brooklyn. Let me know!)

Is this a weekend for pressure-cooker chipotle-and-honey chicken tacos? I hope so! Just as I hope you make peanut butter cookies. And New Mexican hot dish. And some of these freezer-friendly meals for next week.

There are thousands and thousands of actual recipes waiting for you on NYT Cooking. Many more than usual of them are free to read even if you haven’t yet subscribed to the site and apps. We are all in this together.

You can also visit us on our Instagram page, and you can catch up with fellow readers and friends on Facebook (where our community group has proved an oasis of calm and good advice, in a difficult time). We’ve got videos on YouTube sure to bring a smile. And we link to all the reporting we do for The Times on Twitter. So come and like and comment and share.

source: nytimes.com