Easy

Fair food nachos aren’t like any nachos we’ve had anywhere else. No fancy sauces or piles of extra toppings. No impressive presentation or attempts to win us over. We’re simply handed a paper tray of corn chips that have been drizzled with the creamiest, saltiest, and most strangely addictive cheese sauce imaginable.Wandering between booths with the sun on our faces, this is heaven.The secret ingredient to that extra-oozy, gooey sauce is our old frenemy, American Cheese.

If we had to name the ultimate Fair Food, hands down it would have to be funnel cakes. The sweet smell of fluffy, frying bread in combination with powdered sugar is enough to make even the strongest go weak in the knees.Well, lucky for you, they aren’t difficult to make and are perfect for a party or just a weeknight snack.Not wanting to disappoint anyone’s favorite childhood (or adult!

My mother made a mean Seven-Layer Salad back in the day. And still does, I’m happy to report. A classic 70’s dish, Seven-Layer Salad offers much in the way of practicality: it’s assembled ahead of time, easy to transport, lovely to look at (especially if you use a clear glass bowl) but, most importantly, it’s a crowd pleaser. Oh, and it has bacon.There are hundreds of versions of Seven Layer Salad. Some have ingredients like taco cheese and sugar (up to 1/2 cup!

Earlier this week, a reader inquired about more uses for mung beans. Like several of you, my thoughts turned to Asian-style sweet mung bean soup.In Vietnam, sweet soups or puddings are known as chè. They may be served hot or cold in bowls, glasses, or over ice, and contain ingredients ranging from various kinds of beans to tapioca, glutinous rice, jellies, lotus seeds, and fruit. As a child, the scent of chè simmering on my family’s stove always had me jumping in excitement.

In the summer, we want fast, easy, and, if it’s hot out, cold desserts. This is one of the simplest out there—even quicker if you use a prepared pie crust. Just fresh, ripe fruit, yogurt, some whipped cream, and a little stay in the freezer…The entire pie has only three tablespoons of sugar, so most of the sweetness comes from the fruit. You could of course use any ripe fruit—strawberries and peaches would both be good.

After writing about this cherry recipe from The Atlantic yesterday, we decided to try the leave-the-pits-in method with another fruit: plums. It was so easy and fast, and we love the way the whole, pudgy plum looks nestled in a bowl with some ice cream. Get the recipe, below…We followed a similar technique as in the cherry recipe, stewing our fruit in a mixture of water and sugar. But because we used so little liquid, we really could call this steaming rather than poaching.

We love make-ahead desserts, and among easy, delicious, elegant make-ahead desserts, panna cotta reigns supreme. And yet we find that it’s not as well-known as it should be. Why? Is there an impression of difficulty? If so, let us banish that immediately. Panna cotta is perhaps the easiest dessert we know. Read on, and allow us to lecture you further on the delights of this gelled Italian pudding.What is panna cotta?

Eton Mess is a lovely, versatile dessert: It’s light, yet very satisfying, and appeals to both young and sophisticated palates. Traditionally made with strawberries, it takes advantage of seasonal fruit and can be thrown together in a matter of minutes. Served in bowls, it makes a nice casual family dessert or spoon it into vintage champagne glasses as a elegant finale to a fine dinner.But how does it taste?

Can you tell that we’re wild about radishes right now? They’re such a refreshing vegetable in the springtime, with their pleasant crunch and gorgeous color, creamy inside and scarlet outside. We threw together this very, very quick appetizer last weekend for some guests. We were subliminally inspired by Elizabeth’s afternoon snack suggestion, and these simple little tartines were a big hit.

Tuesday night some old friends who live upstate came for dinner, and surprised us with an armful of Morel mushrooms and a sack full of ramps. I’d planned a simple roasted chicken and vegetable dinner, but when I saw the gift I’d been brought, I clicked into cook-by-instinct mode, the kind of cooking we are about to start espousing in the second half of our online Kitchen Cure (today is the last day to sign up and catch up.)I had to practice what I’m about to preach.

My Easter meal this past weekend was a fusion menu between my own cultural heritage of Eastern European food (fried rolls, rich sweet bread) and Indian cuisine (tandoori-spiced leg of lamb, sunny yellow pressed rice). This cucumber salad bridges the cultural divide between Eastern Europe and India: both cultures have creamy, cooling salads with dairy and cucumbers. Here’s my easy fusion version.

Furikake is a Japanese condiment typically sprinkled over or mixed into rice. There are dozens of varieties on the market – most contain seaweed, sesame seeds, sugar, and salt. Other ingredients may include MSG and dried fish, shrimp, roe, egg, and vegetables. Although I love looking at the rows of colorful furikake jars at the Japanese grocery store, I recently decided to conserve money and packaging by making my own.

When I brought home a bunch of Chinese broccoli from the farmers’ market, I figured I’d prepare it the same way I always do: blanching followed by a quick stir-fry with soy sauce and garlic or ginger (my dad always added imitation oyster sauce). But then I started poking around the Kitchn archives and decided to try this Cookie Magazine recipe Faith linked to last summer.This recipe starts out similar to my usual method.

“Tofu steak” is one of those Japanese restaurant menu items I’m overly familiar with. As a vegetarian, the sizzling skillet of tofu is often one of the few dishes I can order (as long as it isn’t topped with bonito, or dried fish flakes). I’ve found most tofu steaks to be uninspiring, but then a a ginger-laden version at one restaurant changed my opinion. It turned tofu steak from a dish I was relegated to eating to something I started craving at home.

Yesterday we showed you a basic recipe for cooking and shredding a pork shoulder. It’s a great recipe on its own; there are plenty of soft carrots, tomatoes, and caramelized onions to make it a stand-alone meal. But we like to set aside some leftover meat, free from its braising sauce, and save it for other meals throughout the week. This is a good one that’s super easy and has a really unexpected flavor.The idea of a mustard cream sauce came from a recipe in Food & Wine.

Last week, we spotted something called a Nantucket Cranberry Pie over at the blog Cooking Books. It’s a recipe from Laurie Colwin, and it involves so few ingredients and so little effort, we had to make it immediately. Yes, we know those don’t look like cranberries. Bear with us…There were no cranberries to be found at the grocery store (nope, not even frozen), so we went with a mixture of frozen cherries and blueberries.

A recent meal at an Armenian restaurant inspired this recipe for yogurt barley soup. Creamy without being heavy, the zesty yogurt provides a nice balance to nutty and chewy barley. When the barley is cooked ahead of time, the soup is a snap to put together, and it can be served hot or cold. This one is definitely going into our comfort food repertoire.

Here is a very, very last-minute food gift that takes literally five minutes to make, and yet everyone you share it with will love it (and you). Too good to be true? No — it’s just chocolate-dipped pretzels.The other very nice thing about this pretzel project is that it is quite inexpensive. All you need are pretzel rods, chocolate chips or another chocolate good for melting, and some sprinkles or coarse sugar.Here are a few tips for making these salty-sweet treats.

Whether you’re planning on making candy for the holidays or want to make your own candy in general, it’s a great idea. Candymaking is both economical and fun, and since you’re choosing your own ingredients, you know exactly what’s going into it. You can easily make your own organic, low-sugar candy without additives and preservatives. In this post, we’ll share a recipe for making your own peppermint patties. You’ll never buy them at a store again!

It’s a beet day! And with good reason: beets are in season and marvelously festive with all their scarlet coloring. Earlier today Sara Kate gave you a recipe for a wonderful salad with beets and frizzled onions. We take a step back now to the hors d’oeuvre course and offer one of our favorite appetizers, direct from New York City’s own Rick’s Picks and his famous pickles.

We tore through these sweet potatoes before we had the chance to take much of a picture, so we’ll have to describe them instead.These are the easiest things. So much flavor for so little work. We caramelized onions slowly in butter and olive oil (hands off, really – they cook themselves) then browned sweet potatoes and garlic. We let them steam until soft, then added some ginger and paprika for flavor.

Spicy and sweet, crystallized ginger can add a wonderful zing to cookies, cakes, ice cream, and cranberry sauce. We also like it finely chopped and sprinkled over savory dishes like roasted acorn squash and pumpkin soup. Chewing on the ginger treat can even help soothe an upset stomach. Although a jar of it can be outrageously expensive at the store, crystallized (or candied) ginger is quite simple to make at home.Use the freshest, most tender and firm (not spongy) ginger root you can find.

A pipérade is a Basque dish made with tomatoes, peppers, Bayonne ham, and piment d’espeletteThis dish is very quick and versatile, and hearty. I think Aida Mollenkamp’s recipe here is closest to the most authentic style.

We have a trustworthy method for making sweet and spicy acorn squash, but there’s one downside: it’s slow. So we perked up when we saw this alternate method from Alicia and Summer at Bread & Honey.They used a Martha Stewart recipe – such a simple formula, really – and sliced the acorn squash before baking. They dotted each slice with butter, brown sugar, salt and pepper, and then put them in the oven.

This is definitely one of those dishes that evolved from being home alone on a weeknight and having nothing in the fridge. Success! Who knew a handful of leftover soba noodles, the last egg in the carton, and a few condiments could make such a delicious and satisfying meal?!The best part about this meal is the fried egg, in our humble opinion. The runny yolk mixes into the sesame-coated soba noodles like a creamy sauce, adding richness and substance to the dish.

While attending an olive oil workshop last week, we were inspired by some of the other participants’ tales of beloved olive oil-infused meals. One woman’s description of Italian fried sage leaves intrigued us so much that we couldn’t wait to return home and try making them for ourselves.

You may remember our last attempt at this jam, when it turned out a wee bit hard. But because the flavor was so good, and because we were determined not to let the jam win, we gave it another try…This time, we made a couple of changes. We peeled the peaches, making the jam a little paler than our last batch.

Last weekend I found a bush on the side of the road teeming with wild blackberries. Our two-year old thought it great fun to pick them, and drop a few of them into her red bucket, while eating the rest. That left us with about seven berries. Later, when she wasn’t looking, I dashed back out and filled the bucket again for Blackberry Buttermilk Ice Cream. The lighter berries you see in the photo are some pale pink raspberries from my garden.

My mystery box offered up several Little Gems lettuces last week, a most pleasant event indeed! We featuredLittle Gems look like tiny versions of Romaine lettuce, with a crisp, crunchy texture and a sweet flavor. My favorite way to serve them couldn’t be easier: simply cut in half and drizzled with a nice lemon-shallot vinaigrette. Occasionally, I’ll sprinkle on some thinly sliced radish or a few capers, but mostly I let them shine straight up.

OK, this makes three – three! – dessert recipes with lavender that we’ve posted in the last month or two. Lavender is just such a wonderful ingredient for spring and summer desserts; used with a light hand the herbal notes elevate fruit, cream, and honey into a whole new space.Even with the extra step of steeping lavender though, this light, eggless pudding may be the easiest dessert we know. So little work – so much benefit!

Lemon verbena is one of our favorite herbs. It’s a tall, spare, long-leafed plant with slender leaves and a fragrance to die for. It’s not hard to capture that fragrance in a simple syrup.We grow lemon verbena out on the patio; we clip the top leaves regularly and so far it’s doing beautifully.This simple syrup is a snap to make.

For the sauce-hungry crowd, here is a basic tomato sauce, with some lemony and spicy elements for adding an optional zing. It’s easy, quick, and isn’t a boring old sauce. Basic sauces were one of the requested items from Cure-takers. This week’s assignment was to add a new skill to your cooking arsenal.

We just posted a great video about Hush Puppies, along with a similar story by Nathalie Dupree, known as the originator of the New Southern Cooking movement. Here, she shares her recipe for these little tasty tidbits of friend cornmeal.Get your oil vat hot!

This is not a combination we would have thought of on our own.We recently enjoyed a cheese plate at a restaurant, where a hard goat cheese was paired with a tomato garnish. At first, we asked the bartender who served us if he could swap the tomatoes with something else (the figs looked good), but he insisted. And when we tasted them, we realized there was something different going on.

Pilaf makes a quick and elegant side dish to almost any meal. You can buy pilaf mixes at the grocery store, but we think it’s just as easy–or easier–to make it yourself and then fancy it up with whatever veggies and seasonings you like!The basic method for pilaf is not all that different from making regular rice. The main difference is that when you make pilaf, you saute the grains of rice before adding the liquid.

We love fruit flavors and shallots sautéed up together. You know what else we love? Easy dishes that take very little time and effort to put together. Behold — the best of both worlds. Our dad taught us this dish, although we’ve forgotten a lot of his instruction and gone our own way over time.

During the week, I’m often too busy to cook breakfast, but as the weekend approaches, I start making mental menus for Saturday and Sunday morning. Freshly brewed coffee, fruit salad, toast with jam, fresh-squeezed juices, frittatas, pancakes with maple syrup, crabcakes Benedict with hollandaise …Hollandaise is one of my most favorite sauces ever, and it is ridiculously easy to make.

We chopped everything into even pieces, drizzled some olive oil over with herbs and salt and roasted. See the results below!Confetti Potatoes and Pearl Onionsserves 2-4 as a side About two pounds mixed baby potatoesAbout one pound pearl onionsKosher saltBlack pepperOlive oil 4 sprigs of rosemary4-6 sprigs of thyme Heat the oven to 400°F. Cut the potatoes into quarters – just a little larger than the onions. Cut the top off each onion, then slice in half and shuck away the skin.

When turkey is on everyone’s minds it may seem strange to be talking about lamb. But if you’re not bound to a turkey or a traditional menu, this lamb makes a fast, foolproof, and delicious holiday main course. We rubbed it with cinnamon, turmeric, cumin and other warm spices, along with salt and pepper. You don’t need a grill and your oven can be devoted to other things; this is cooked on top of the stove and takes less than an hour.

Instant pudding brags that only five minutes will get you the “homemade” pudding you crave. Ignore the marketing and make real homemade pudding in nearly as short an amount of time. This basic, old-fashioned pudding has the benefit of being entirely natural, with no artificial thickeners or flavorings, and you can make it as sweet or warm as you like. And you can even eat it with skin on top, if that’s the way you like it! All you need is a little milk, cornstarch, and sugar.

It’s not quite time to put the grill away yet! There’s still sunshine and warm weather to inspire us to use our grills as long as possible. This pork tenderloin is so easy on the grill – it’s moist and the garlic flavor permeates the whole cut of meat. Plus it takes so little time; try it with a salad and a good loaf of bread and you’ll have dinner in under an hour.

Plums are in season, and we have been busy thinking up more ways to use them. We were inspired by Heidi Swanson’s Rosewater Plum Compote a couple weeks ago, and we set out to make our own plum sauce. We love tea and plums together, so we played around with an Earl Grey concentrate and sweet-tart red plums until we found a combination we liked. The tea gives the sweet plums undertones of tannins and herbs, and these deep flavors ripen as it sits.

Tofu is something we have been learning to like more and more lately. It’s easy and light and fries up quickly, and when it’s poached like this in a little liquid with a heap of delicious vegetables, we really can’t resist it.This dish is even vegan, with a dash of fermented black beans for savory umami flavor, and some chilies for a kick. Leave the chilies if you don’t like it spicy, but we suggest adding a little extra garlic if you do that.

Summer is here, more or less, and we’re cooking easy, light and quick. This catfish recipe is one of the easiest, quickest dinners we know; it also happens to be one of our favorites. We learned this technique for flash frying thin fish fillets from Mark Bittman. It’s fast and easy; the only challenge is that you have to be very careful turning the fish in hot, spluttering oil and butter.

Braising ribbons of cabbage in butter and wine steams away the sharp, sometimes bitter flavor of raw cabbage, leaving an entirely new vegetable. It’s soft, sweet and juicy – a warm, delicate vegetable for a winter’s evening. Dusted with fresh Parmesan it’s even better.

Acorn squash is tremendously good for you, and when roasted it has a velvety, luxurious texture that lends itself to both spicy and sweet flavors. Fortunately, there are two halves to a squash, so I dust one with curry powder for a spicy dinner and the other with small mounds of brown sugar for a sweet dessert.I am giving measurements here, but obviously this is the most flexible sort of recipe. Adjust to your taste.

Fortunately, onion soup is one of the easiest little dishes to prepare. And you don’t need very many things at all. Onion soup grew out of the constraints of poor people making do with what they had, and yet its simple preparation rewards with rich taste far beyond the sum of its parts. All you really need is an onion, some butter and broth, some wine if you have it – or water if you don’t – and salt and pepper.

Chicken Thighs with Balsamic Vinegarserves two1 pound skinless chicken thighsSalt and pepperGreek or Italian dressing (for marinade, optional) White wine1/2 teaspoon ground gingerBalsamic vinegarFresh grated Parmesan cheesePat the thighs dry and rub in some salt and pepper. If you have time, marinate the thighs overnight in some Greek or Italian dressing, or in a little balsamic vinegar mixed with olive oil.Preheat the oven to 425º. Place the thighs in a deep baking dish.

These freeze well. I, regrettably, prefer them straight from the freezer. They are also the first of several Christmas candies, suitable for food gifts or the holiday buffet table, that we’ll look at in the next several weeks.Chocolate and Peanut Butter Buckeyesmakes about 13 dozen 2 lbs. powdered sugar3 cups peanut butter (smooth and not the all-natural kind)1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)1 1/2 lb. chocolate chips, semi-sweet (24 oz.

Here’s the thing about slow cooking – you can put meat into a slow cooker with almost nothing else and it will still turn out succulently moist. A little extra work may yield some extra complexity, a darkening in the flavor, but you can skip that and still have a great roast. Either of the two methods offered in this recipe will give you a delicious pork roast with almost zero work, which is just what I like the week after Thanksgiving.

But sometimes when I just want some dinner after a long day, I do need to be reminded of the basics. For this you need only a handful of ingredients: a big tomato, half an onion or a few shallots, garlic, olive oil, some fresh basil, sage, or rosemary. Some red wine really helps, but don’t knock yourself out. Swirl over some tortellini from Trader Joe’s, pour the rest of the wine into a glass and you have yourself a very nice dish of pasta – all in about 10 minutes flat.

Here’s a fall flavored weekend dessert that can be assembled ahead of time and baked just before serving. It’s great for company as a finale to a homey fall meal. The earthy flavor of the sweet potatoes really comes through, pairing well with the spices and the caramely, nutty sauce. I made a batch and gave some to two sets of friends who heated it up in the microwave later. Everyone raved.

Here’s a recipe from a reader, SarahW, for a simple pasta dish using Swiss Chard (it’s been a hot topic of discussion on the Open Threads for a while) and Feta cheese. With greens such as spinach about to come into season on the East Coast, this would make a great spring dish. Pasta With Greens and Feta 6 Tbsp. olive oil (or less) 4 cups chopped onion 8 cups packed chopped bitter greens (e.g.