u/PopFormal4861

🎁 Gift Link: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/762526913-slow-cooker-red-lentil-pumpkin-soup?unlocked\_article\_code=1.F1E.4tC3.ZbNMiGb6quBd&smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share

It’s very much fall where I live which signals my annUl tradition: consuming as much orange food as possible before we hit winter. Give me all the recipes with butternut squash and pumpkin and let me loose in the kitchen. I’m ready to say goodbye to the reds of a perfectly ripe heirloom tomato, freshly picked strawberries, and watermelon and hello to the orange root vegetables of fall.

This soup slaps. And it’s a one pot, pantry recipe that requires no chopping or prep. I would argue the peoria topping is optional, but does add some fun to the lentils.

Do not shy away from the salt on this one.

Ms. Komolafe has served as a real source of inspiration for me. If you haven’t already, do yourself a favor and read her NYT piece about her journey with sickle cell, falling into a coma after medical mistreatment, and becoming disabled — losing her limbs to be exact. She also wrote about navigating cooking and recipe development as a newly disabled person. She relies on aides to be her hands.

This recipe is delicious, and it was easy to whip together after a long day of work.

🎁 Steak Diane sauce: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1023898-steak-diane?unlocked\_article\_code=1.71A.1U4D.O-YDSrrbb9E8&smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share

🎁 Steak et Frites: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/784919636-steak-frites?unlocked\_article\_code=1.71A.QlWL.DrUDC1Mnt8yg&smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share

Sometimes you just want to treat yourself. This was one of those moments.

I wanted steak et frites but using my encyclopedic knowledge of my city’s food scene I deduced that steak et frites would run me $50-$70 at a restaurant, so I decided to take matters into my own hand. I had a bag of old russet potatoes sprouting in a corner, a well stocked pantry, and a beautiful day to support a bike ride to the Good Grocery Store.

One $25 strip steak purchase later, I was back in my kitchen where I proceeded to absolutely destroy my surroundings. At first I thought I would swap the tarragon butter for bernaise sauce, which was such an utter disaster that we will not speak of it. Having wasted my tarragon, I pivoted to my tried and true Melissa Clark steak diane sauce — which is non traditional but one I love.

Fries are my own doing and I have notes for myself for future attempts.

🎁 Gift Link: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/761597267-kitchen-sink-skillet-cookie?unlocked\_article\_code=1.71A.1F34.Ue7k9rCKnb4z&smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share

Sometimes it’s 11pm on a Tuesday and you need a chocolate chip cookie. This was a surprisingly easy recipe that came together quickly. I was surprised at the toppings I had on hand — I’m sure I could have gotten creative if I spent more time rifling through my pantry but I didn’t want to wait.

Highly recommend this one if you have kids (:

🎁 Gift Link: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/786125287-spicy-cottage-cheese-pasta-alla-vodka?unlocked\_article\_code=1.51A.iBFO.Q0u6ySB8HMUh&smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share

I’m in the middle of TMS treatment for my dysautonomia and depression and on doctor’s orders to eat high protein — rewiring your brain is hard work. I’m an equal opportunity eater but groceries are expensive, so I jumped at this recipe that swaps cottage cheese for the more traditional al heavy cream in pasta alla vodka.

Be warned: don’t make this if you’re a single person because you will be tempted to eat the entire dish in one go, which does include a whole cup of cottage cheese and an entire cup of parmesean.

Also that’s not basil it’s spinach — I desperately needed something green for the photo apologies to the italians in the chat.

Also I bought these vinyl backdrops for my food photography and am loving it

🎁 Gift Link: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/11823-strawberry-shortcake?unlocked\_article\_code=1.21A.UmkH.rcG9jhh76Eim&smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share

I don’t recommend making biscuits in your in-air conditioned apartment on a 90 degree day but here we are.

My mom grew up in a small, southern town with an annual strawberry festival. I grew up listening to tales about how much my mom looked forward to getting strawberry shortcake every year at the festival years before I ever got to taste the dish myself.

I no longer live in the south, and while my palate has expanded to the point where I don’t need everything I eat doused in either ketchup or butter I still yearn for some of the dishes of my childhood.

Turns out I like making biscuits. I guess I come from a long line of biscuit-making women. Up next: an attempt at a hot honey chicken biscuit.

I really like this recipe. I am not an accomplished baker and was shocked that it turned out pretty damn okay. Your results will likely be better than mine.

I sinned against the author by using shrimp dumplings instead of sticking to the vegetarian motif, but it was delicious anyways.

I highly recommend making the tomato one while it’s still tomato season!!

Shalom Japan’s Lox Bowl: this was one of the very first recipes I saved on the NYT Cooking app. My mother is a wannabe-Rabbi turned atheist who settled down in the Bible Belt and would treat my twin brother and I to our local, family owned Japanese restaurant as kids — this recipe feels oddly like a childhood comfort.

🎁 https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1021207-shalom-japans-lox-bowl?unlocked\_article\_code=1.z1A.DKoS.\_eMZVR2bz6i7&smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share

I’ve made this before with much more attention to copying the look of the NYT photo, but tonight I was in a rush and decided to go with the ingredients I had on hand with the presentation from my own invention.

Seen here are the finest heirloom tomatoes that Whole Foods has to offer and two peaches that had yet to fully ripen despite setting in my fridge for a week. I could not for the life of me source purslane, mâche, or watercress — nor did I want to risk anything green in this moment. So we opted for radicchio and added the green with a pop of scallions.

The dressing is this beautiful sherry vinaigrette that I would eat with most things.

Bone apple tea
🎁 https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020367-tomato-and-peach-salad-with-whipped-goat-cheese?unlocked\_article\_code=1.zFA.uQ4u.yt6wo\_jt85hw&smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share

Sometimes…you are really going through it and you spend hours the night before crying til you can’t breathe and it’s the one year anniversary of calling the national domestic abuse hotline and leaving your shitty abusive ex and you’re remembering how you made him *both* steak diane and lobster thermidore for valentines and you eventually calm yourself to sleep and the next day your therapist’s voice is in your head telling you to be kind to yourself.

presenting: Steak Diane by Mellisa Clark
🎁 https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1023898-steak-diane?unlocked\_article\_code=1.zFA.5MIy.TbCY9UKUkI4f&smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share

This is my go to dish to impress a date or myself. I am abysmal at cooking steak so go ahead and sue me for my doneness here. I am trying my best.

I am sober so I chose the cheapest, smallest bottle of cognac I could find at the state liquor store. I did not flambé the cognac because I don’t think my landlord would like that, nor do I have that much faith in their handiwork.

Also, presenting: Martha Stewart’s Mashed Potstoes
🎁 https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1026245-martha-stewarts-mashed-potatoes?unlocked\_article\_code=1.zFA.q0Q9.tqOsA5wTueXM&smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share

I’m from a “holler” in the south so I grew up with mashed potatoes that were mostly dairy. This Martha Stewart recipe was the closest I could find to how my mom makes them.

Conclusion: I am a cultured woman but there’s nothing like meat and potatoes that makes a gal happy.

I don’t know where y’all live but here it is 95F and 90% humidity so I consider it a moral sin to turn my stove on. Thankfully, there is no shortage of flavorful and versatile salads to make from the NYT app.

This was a huge hit for me. Simple. Easy. More flavor than anticipated. I figured it would need soy sauce and rice vinegar — but it doesnt.

🎁 https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1027233-tomato-and-burrata-salad-with-chile-crisp?unlocked_article_code=1.uFA.EYcN.mi1KCz6KONaY&smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share

I personally believe pancakes and waffles should be banned from the American breakfast table and instead served as dessert, but it’s summer and I’m fabulously unemployed — I can wake up at 11am, lazily make my pour over while I watch my daily mahjong video, and destroy my kitchen by testing out a new recipe.

A disaster happened right as I was about to offer up the initial sacrificial pancake: I was out of butter. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t have an emergency box of butter hiding somewhere in my freezer but alas here I was, batter ready to go, and not a tab of butter anywhere in my kitchen. So these pancakes were cooked in Giant Eagle branded oil cooking spray. Sue me.

at first, I was really disappointed that the batter yielded only three large sized pancakes, but it was only after I had gorged myself on half of them that I realize that it was quite a filling recipe.

These are delicious and a real treat for a lazy Sunday morning. for me it’s in the category of like a nice Mother’s Day brunch recipe or something you’re doing to impress a date.

I don’t have a baking bone in my body, so I was surprised that even a buffon such as I could manage the biscuits in this cobbler. I grew up in the south (in a holler for those playing along) and used to eat my great aunt’s blueberry cobbler on our front porch in rocking chairs watching the storms roll in.

This cobbler is not my great aunt’s recipe but damn does it come close.

I recommend this recipe for those of you who have little kids because I bet they’d love forming the biscuits — it’s very tactile and fun and reminds me of play-doh.

This dessert is best eaten with vanilla ice cream.

Blueberries are in season and cheap at my local grocery stores so give it a go if you’re up for it!!

Gift: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/9291-chez-panisses-blueberry-cobbler?unlocked\_article\_code=1.p1A.hqA-.HIPVKT9ep1Sf&smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share