You gotta eat, and you might as well eat as easily and deliciously as possible. Here are all the sweet and savoury posts that helped this last year go down just a little more easily.
Photo: A.A. Newton
I’m so pleased to tell you that even among salted butter cookies, Roman’s are exceptional. I was ready for the caramel-like flavour that salted butter cookie dough develops as it browns, and I already knew how I felt about dark chocolate chunk cookies flecked with sea salt — I’m for ‘em! — but what blew me away was the complexity you get from three kinds of sugar.
Photo: Claire Lower
Somewhat surprisingly, my favourite was the 50/50 mixture of egg and cottage cheese. It was creamy, smooth, and rich, with just the right amount of salt and lactic tang.
Photo: A.A. Newton
For me, the Buffalo wing experience is 90 per cent sauce, with the remaining 10% split between juicy meat and some degree of skin crispiness; basically, as long as Frank’s and butter are involved, I’m thrilled. But even if I had exacting Buffalo wing standards, I’d be impressed by Instant Pot Buffalo wings, which are easy, infinitely adaptable, satisfying, and best of all, fast.
To ensure your guests don’t accidentally bring the flame—or cause a gas leak—with their butts, remove the knobs from the stove, eliminating the possibility of someone accidentally turning it on.
Photo: Claire Lower
Technically “gratin” just means “topped with a brown crust,” but that crust is usually cheese, breadcrumbs, or breadcrumbs and cheese. This recipe, however, omits cheese entirely, and consists of nothing more than potatoes, heavy cream, and salt. It seems too simple, but it is, in a word, “dope.”
Photo: A.A. Newton
I’ve been poaching eggs pretty successfully for a decade-plus, but I’m not exaggerating when I say this method changed my life. It’s fast, simple, and highly reproducible—which is just what I need for my first meal of the day.
Photo: Claire Lower
Potato chips are usually thought of as a lunchtime companion — a crunchy side to your sandwich or wrap—but their time has come to shine as a breakfast star. Think of them as a low-effort breakfast potato, which is the best kind of breakfast potato, especially on those morning where frying something seems impossible.
Photo: Claire Lower
As someone who lives in a tiny studio apartment, I don’t get to do a lot of grilling, smoking, or any other outdoor cooking. This makes me very sad, because I do love smoked and grilled meats. (Grilled vegetables are also fantastic, but we’re not talking about those right now.) Fortunately, a sous vide setup—which I happen to have!—can help you come close to the texture and flavour you get from low and slow smoking.
Ketchup is not something that needs to be elevated. Commercially made ketchup is a perfect condiment that is a genre unto itself. Though it contains tomatoes, ketchup is not tomato flavored; nay, it is ketchup flavored. It should be sweet (HFCS is non-negotiable, in my opinion), tangy, and impossibly smooth. Homemade ketchup is rarely all of these things (or any of them to the proper extent), and I wish people would quit making it. Appetite is easily swayed by one’s emotional state, so for people with mental illnesses, food can be a source of constant anguish. Depression does a number on your ability to feed yourself, but it’s very rare to struggle with depression alone. Eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia nervosa, binge-eating disorder, and avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) rarely present without comorbid depression and anxiety disorders; the same goes for personality disorders, learning disorders, chronic illnesses, and drug and alcohol addiction. Basically, any condition that makes it difficult to navigate life is likely to mess with your relationship with food.
Photo: Claire Lower
The result was a mayo with very slight pimento-cheese vibes and hints of deviled egg filling. It’s great on a burger, yes, but I think it does wonderful things to a bacon and tomato sandwich.
Photo: Claire Lower
When it comes to cheese and egg pairings, we usually think of omelettes or scrambles. Those things are good, but they are nowhere near as good as a gloriously yolky sunny side up egg sitting happily atop a bed of lacy, crispy, salty cheese.
Photo: Samin Nosrat
So it took me at least a year of going to work and being surrounded by everyday home eaters and home cooks to understand that, like, “oh, people just bring like a meatball from last night’s dinner and eat that with some carrot sticks and that’s lunch,” and that I didn’t have to make this huge deal, and I could still be nourished and satisfied.
Photo: Clare Lower
Having an excess of FIRE! sauce is not exactly a “problem,” but the condiment does have a particular flavour that is best suited for — if not Taco Bell — food that falls near “Taco Bell” on the trash food spectrum, like chips and popcorn. Since pouring sauce on chips and popcorn makes them soggy, the natural solution was to dehydrate it and make Taco Bell salt.
Photo: Claire Lower
This burger is a messy bitch that lives for drama, and she is almost without flaw. The only criticism I can ever imagine anyone levelling at Lucy is that she can only be filled with American cheese, as other cheeses grease out and separate when you try to transform them into a molten core. Actually, that criticism isn’t even valid, as I have a found a way to turn any cheese, even the prone-to-greasing cheddar, into a gooey, molten mess.
Photo: Claire Lower
The sweetness of the pickled product means you don’t have to add any sugar to this recipe, and it provides the perfect amount of tang. When pureed, then mixed with toasted sesame oil and soy sauce, you get what I can only describe as the perfect ginger dressing. No wonder I hadn’t been able to nail this recipe before; I was making it much too complicated.
Photo: Claire Lower
What? Yes. I am a genius, and I am also a little gross. But by this point in November, I am so tired of Thanksgiving flavours that my entire leftover ethos becomes “and now for something completely different,” so I have to get creative. This usually means gumbo, but this year it means Crunchwraps, because I’m very, very tired, and Crunchwraps are very, very good. Microwave ovens get a lot of love around here, so long as the results are legitimately good—not fine, not passable, and certainly not “hey, this isn’t awful!” They need to work as well or better than traditional preparations, and I’m thrilled to tell you that a microwave croquembouche ticks every single box. Each component comes together twice as fast as it would on the stove and turns out perfectly every time. Best of all, with the exception of the caramel, every bit of it can be made ahead of time.
Photo: A.A. Newton
Photo: Claire Lower
Photo: A.A. Newton
Photo: Kelsey Chance, Unsplash
Photo: Claire Lower
Photo: A.A. Newton
Photo: Claire Lower
Photo: Claire Lower
Image: The Kraft Heinz Company
Photo: Dominik Martin, Unsplash
Photo: Claire Lower
Photo: Claire Lower
Photo: Samin Nosrat
Photo: Clare Lower
Photo: Claire Lower
Photo: Claire Lower
Photo: Claire Lower
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