Good morning. I drove through Captree in the high winter sun, over the inlet bridge between the island and Robert Moses State Park, toward the glittering Atlantic, the beach covered in snow. It was a Sunday like this one, my thoughts meandering through dinner plans as they so often do, weighing options against options, looking for that little charge that says, suddenly: Yes, that will do nicely. That will make for a very nice meal.
I saw a rabbit on the side of the road, small and oval above plowed snow, and its shape set my course for the rest of the day. I’d make baked potatoes (above) for dinner with a whole fixins bar beside them — warm little satchels of starch to adorn however the family desires. I swung around the water tower at the base of the bridge and pushed north again, toward home. Thanks, Rabbit. (Seriously, this is how it works for me.)
You can get quite particular with baked potatoes. I make some to recall a dish the chef Mark Ladner used to make with pasta at Del Posto in New York, with crab, jalapeño and mint. I like a twice-baked situation, with cauliflower and cheese. I love a totally loaded sweet potato, with butter and sour cream, with chives and crumbled bacon, with Cheddar. And I desire, always, a plain baked potato with sour cream and caviar, though I acknowledge the recklessness of that expense so close to tax season.
Featured Recipe
Baked Potatoes
Whichever, let’s make it baked potatoes for dinner, and then we can turn to the rest of the week. …
Monday
Ali Slagle’s recipe for lemon-garlic linguine is an excellent weeknight meal on its own, and a stunning one if you decide to add seared scallops or shrimp. The sauce is creamy and thick, so don’t forget to add the hit of lemon juice at the end to keep everything punchy and bright.
Tuesday
I think a ham, Brie and apple sandwich is pretty great, with a schmear of mustard. But here comes Zainab Shah with an even better option: a Brie and mango chutney grilled cheese sandwich, with spinach serving as a bass line below the creamy cheese and tangy chutney.
Wednesday
In the middle of the week, there’s no easier way to wow your senses than with Melissa Clark’s recipe for a classic shrimp scampi, built on a simple sauce of garlic, white wine and butter. Cook the shrimp for maybe 30 seconds less than you think that you ought to and they’ll be perfect.
Thursday
Here’s a terrific new recipe from Hetty Lui McKinnon for roasted spiced squash with whipped feta and pistachios. I like it particularly for its looseness. If you don’t want to spice the squash with cumin and coriander, try a spice blend like baharat or garam masala. Add some herbs to the whipped feta. Use whatever thin-skinned squash you like! On a weeknight, that’s just the kind of instruction I want.
Friday
And then you can head into the weekend with Lara Lee’s ace recipe for tofu vegetable satay with peanut sauce. It stars cubes of caramelized pineapple, eggplant and bell pepper alongside the tofu, and features a sweet, fiery, peanut-rich sauce built on a foundation of kecap manis, a dark and sweet Indonesian soy sauce. (You can make a substitute by heating soy sauce in a pan, adding a few tablespoons of brown sugar to it and stirring until it dissolves. Let cool and get to work.)
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Now, it’s nothing to do with persimmons or quail, but here’s a new poem by Amy Woolard in The New York Review of Books, “Delivery.”
Here’s Maya Salam in The Times, on the agony of watching your favorite online dogs age. It can be heartbreaking.
