Cook for Comfort - The New York Times

Good morning. The news is menacing these days. Irritation and mistrust dog at those who would like nothing more than to be celebrating unreservedly with family and friends this time of year: Christmas, African heritage, the Jewish festival of lights, the end of the year. The front page is scary, though. Social media is a neurotoxin. They are shouting on TV.

We at least have the kitchen, a place into which we can retreat either actually or in our minds, to make food we can serve others, and in so doing, improve their lives, fill them with deliciousness. We can serve. Service is, most often, the cure for what ails us, the thing that improves our lot.

Give it a try this evening, please. Take the Thanksgiving experience you accrued a couple of weeks ago and roast a chicken (above) in a hot oven while making fast work of some mashed potatoes on the stovetop. Top and trim a bunch of carrots and roll them around in a few tablespoons of butter in a pan set over low heat while the chicken and potatoes cook. Swirl some maple syrup onto them about 20 minutes in, and then an enormous amount of cracked black pepper.

When the chicken’s done, remove it to a cutting board to rest, and make a pan gravy with the drippings. Light a couple of candles, then cut the chicken up and serve it with the mashed potatoes, caramelized carrots, the salty gravy. That’s a fine way to spend an hour and it results in a meal of heartwarming simplicity. More than this, it’s hard to stay freaked out about the present and future, eating that kind of food.

Another option: Alison Roman’s spiced chickpea stew with coconut and turmeric, the Jennifer Lawrence of recipes. (Famous and rightfully so.)

You could set yourself up to serve an English muffin breakfast casserole tomorrow morning, a taste of vacation on a workday. (Heat milk on the stovetop for your coffee and serve it in a big bowl, as the French do. Ask yourself why you don’t do that every day.)

Or you could cue up live Son Volt and make stuff to give people: granola, chile-scallion oil, caramel corn, XO sauce. The idea is to labor not so much for your own pleasure or benefit, but for the pleasure and benefit of others around you. Spoiler alert: This will please and benefit you as well, making not just the world a little better but your understanding of it, how it actually works.

Thousands and thousands of other recipes to make for others are waiting for you on NYT Cooking. Go browse around among them. Take out a subscription if you hit a paywall (that’s how we’re able to keep doing this) or, in the spirit of service, buy someone you love a gift subscription.

I know what I said about social media, but I still use it like a water cooler, like a library, like my work truck filled with tools. So, come visit us on Facebook. And join our NYT Cooking Community when you do. Check us out on Instagram. And you’ll find us on YouTube as well.

Definitely write for help, should anything go wrong while you’re cooking or surfing the site. We’re at: cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back to you. And I’m at foodeditor@nytimes.com if you’d like to sound off, or say something nice. I’m easy, either way.

Now, it’s nothing to do with cakes and ale, but check out this Vox explainer on three trees with superpowers, and how they can help protect us from climate change if we don’t destroy them and their habitats.

A while back I told you about CJ Hauser’s remarkable story, “The Crane Wife.” Here she is in The Guardian, writing about the small talk purgatory of dating on Tinder.

Finally, from Book Riot, here are the best epigraphs of 2019. Stay frosty. I’ll be back on Wednesday.

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December 16, 2019 at 10:30PM
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Cook for Comfort - The New York Times
"cook" - Google News
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