You’ll never eat hot dogs the same way again.
READ MORE...

It's restaurant-good while also being wham-bam fast. READ MORE...

Perfectly moist and juicy every single time. READ MORE...

If you love tuna salad, you’ve got to make this tuna pasta salad. This version checks all the boxes, plus it’s easy to mix together with a few basic ingredients. Here, bowtie pasta is tossed with a light and creamy, lemony dressing and mixed with flakes of meaty tuna, crunchy celery, fresh dill, and tender peas for an easy pasta salad. It is truly the best of both worlds, and a must for summer cookouts and picnics. It’s quick and easy. READ MORE...

I’m always looking for new ways to turn a BLT sandwich into something I could easily bring to a party (other than making a lot of sandwiches, of course), and this dip has quickly become a favorite. I love BLTs in pretty much every form, from creamy BLT pasta salad to a breakfast BLT piled high with a fried egg, so a dip version felt like the perfect twist. It has all the flavors I want in a classic BLT, but layered into a creamy, scoopable dip that’s perfect for get-togethers. READ MORE...

It comes in six different flavors! READ MORE...

They’re on major sale. READ MORE...

I tried 11. READ MORE...

Plus, six more cans to grab ahead of summer. READ MORE...

“Wow this just changed my life!” one person wrote. READ MORE...

Dinner’s done, the kitchen is clean, and you want something cold and a little bit special without committing to an actual dessert project. It’s a surprisingly hard craving to satisfy. Ice cream from the freezer feels like settling. Making something from scratch feels like too much. The Ninja Creami lives in that middle ground. You freeze a base in the machine’s pint container overnight, lock it in the next day, press a button, and it spins into a delicious frozen sweet treat. READ MORE...

Makes burgers taste so good. READ MORE...

They are a Chicago exclusive.
READ MORE...

Make your house a steak house. READ MORE...

In 2007, when this website was still in its infancy, I shared a recipe for a layered strawberry chiffon shortcake. I’d never made a chiffon cake before, but I brought it to a friend’s rooftop birthday BBQ, correctly assuming that no one would be unhappy with a towering, featherweight cake sandwiched with whipped cream and fresh strawberries, however inexpertly made.

While I could appreciate a chiffon cake back then, I wasn’t a superfan. Chiffon cakes seemed a little stiff and lean. Plus, they’re fussy: there’s sifting; cake flour instead of all-purpose flour; superfine sugar instead of regular granulated; an uneven number of egg whites and egg yolks; cream of tartar; and a minimum of three bowls just for the cake layers. Oh, and chiffon cakes have a tendency to dip in the center as they cool. Gosh, where do we sign up!?

Read more »

It’s just $25. READ MORE...

Don’t miss the seafood counter. READ MORE...

It couldn’t be easier. READ MORE...

They stay fresh for over two weeks. READ MORE...

Note to self: Hide the container from family members. READ MORE...

Strawberry salad is one of those things that seems to always be an option on the menu, but it’s never the thing I feel enticed to actually pick (not to be confused with strawberry pretzel salad, which I will always accept). It’s partly because the berries are typically paired with spinach — this is where I reveal myself to be generally “not into raw spinach,” and I’m sorry if that bothers you. READ MORE...

It's the fanciest sandwich I've ever had. READ MORE...

The crumbled gorgonzola is back!
READ MORE...

The brand offers way more than olive oil. READ MORE...

Surprisingly good. READ MORE...

They compared ingredients, versatility, and price. READ MORE...

It doesn’t take much to step up your game. READ MORE...

The sauce is everything. READ MORE...

According to a former TJ's wine buyer. READ MORE...

One of my most exasperating traits — or, perhaps one that makes me ideally suited for this space I invented, coincidentally, to suit my collection of traits — is that I have a terrific amount of random ingredient preparation ideas in the overflowing file cabinet of my brain that will spill into conversations the second I hear the triggering keyword.

Read more »

I’m not sure if this is a sign of hitting a certain age — like a sudden interest in bird feeders (check, and please tell me about yours), or beekeeping (well, in the TikTok sense, not sorry), and animated conversations on the best pillows (I hate mine) — but I’ve found over the last year that I have very strong opinions on chicken salad and the correct way to make it, which, naturally, is my way. I hope I’m in the right place to release them into the world.

Read more »

While I’m not from a cheesecake family — it is never unwelcome, but we are more deeply devoted to things like pastry creams, chocolate pudding, and stellar coffee cakes — I married into one, which means that even though this site’s cheesecake archives are very well-populated, not a single peep of protest could be heard as far as my apartment walls reach (to be fair, a short distance) as I tinkered with these bars over the last few weeks.

Read more »

If there’s anything that’s been consistent about this site in its near-20 years of beaming (babbling?) hypertext to servers and back to you, it’s that I’m very bossy when I get into something new, especially cocktails. When I fell in love with Porch Swings, I wanted you to as well. Ditto for Blood Orange Margaritas (but only when in season), a Perfect Manhattan era that spanned over a decade, Boulevardier that has been woven into almost every year since, and a Slushy Paper Plane phase last year. This past winter and spring still, it’s been Sidecars, 1920s-era cocktails with about as many conflicting stories as my kids regale us with when they didn’t do their homework.

Read more »

I’ve been pining for a springy way to combine leeks and lentils in an unfussy, one-pot, weeknight-friendly meal but would get stuck on one thing: how annoying leeks are — and I say this from a place of adoration! I think leeks are one of the most stunning vegetables, an ombre of chromatic ringlets from buttery yellow to pea green and back to a pale shade of lima. They look exactly like spring (even though it’s climatically July outside but will be March again next week), and taste even better: Oniony but not harsh and silky, wonderful, and a little sweet when braised. They should be everywhere, but first we need to address the fact that if you go to the store or market for a bundle of leeks right now, you have no idea how much leek you’re getting.

Read more »

I was in Paris* last week — no, I cannot believe I get to utter sentences like that so casually, either, pinch me — and it was really, truly, and surprisingly spring. The magnolia trees at the Jardin du Palais Royal supplied us with a lace curtain of fluttering pink shadows, the daffodils and hyacinth were popping up from the ground like they’d missed us, and everyone was outside and stayed out until after midnight and this energy climbed inside me, evicted all of the seasonal malaise (turned out I was just cold!), and I did my best to bring all of this warmth and joy back to NYC with me. And despite the fact that my grouchy (sorry, “weathered”) friends tried to warn me that we were experiencing a “false spring” and “don’t fall for it,” la la la, I said, it is spring in my heart now — and in my kitchen, and busted out a warm weather salad. Which is to say: I’m sorry, this sudden cold spell might be my fault.

Read more »

Somehow, despite how impossible it seems (to me, a person who has neither aged nor matured a day), it’s been almost twenty years since I first told you about my family’s favorite coffee cake. It’s tall, plush, crisp with a flaky layer of cinnamon sugar on top, studded with a quilt of chocolate chips and is downright, well, adorable when cut into cubes because they’re a little wobbly. When one tumbles, it shakes off a little pfft of cinnamon sugar, like a pup coming in from today’s blizzard. It’s perfect. It needs no changes or updates.

Read more »

How do you cook when your kitchen isn’t available for kitchen-ing? On a Sunday last April, I awoke at the crack of dawn jet-lagged from an (excellent) trip to Amsterdam* to an email from my apartment building that ConEd had found a gas leak in the main line to the building and had shut down service for safety. With this, I was indoctrinated into a society of New Yorkers I previously hadn’t known existed, as NYC is apparently riddled with tales of people who lived without gas for (what seemed like the minimum of) 6 months and up to 18 months while their building trudged at a snail’s pace through rounds of repairs and inspections.

Read more »

If you want a homemade pizza that requires no kneading, no special flour, or long wait time (because who among us has ever said “what I really crave is pizza that will be ready 1 to 3 days from now”), you should really, really be making more pan pizzas at home. You might even consider it a worthwhile addition to your 2026 cooking bucket list.

Read more »

Almond-studded choux pastry and rich, nutty praline crème mousseline join forces in this impressive French dessert. Get Recipe!

This eggy, aromatic, and plush Armenian bread is traditionally made to celebrate Easter, but it’s delicious enough to enjoy any time of year. Get Recipe!

Basque cheesecake boasts a deeply caramelized top and bottom, with a creamy center thanks to a high-temperature bake. No crust required. Get Recipe!

Cauliflower cooked down into a savory-sweet sauce with Sicilian staples: anchovies, pine nuts, raisins, saffron, and toasted breadcrumbs. Get Recipe!

This pasta bursting with clams, mussels, shrimp, squid, and fresh tomato is a coastal Italian classic. Get Recipe!

Eggs and cheese come together to form this silky, meatless Neapolitan sauce. Get Recipe!

A shortcut homemade pork sausage is the key to this creamy, hearty Umbrian pasta. Get Recipe!

Vegetables are the star of the show in this meatless Tuscan "fake" ragù. Get Recipe!

Cozy, comforting pasta with ham, cream, and peas. Get Recipe!

Pasta with brothy chickpeas is Italian comfort food at its best. Get Recipe!

Gnocchi alla bava is true mountain food. Hailing from the Italian Alps, it features tender and lightly sweet potato gnocchi in a rich and creamy Fontina cheese sauce, flavored with little else aside from a touch of black pepper and nutmeg. Get Recipe!

Onions are the star of the show in this slow-cooked beef ragù from Naples. Get Recipe!