Good Bread Good Meat Good God Let's Eat : The New York Times Recipes

Rikki Snyder for The New York Times

MONDAY, MAY 23, 2016

SAM SIFTON

Good morning. It's a short workweek for many, even if there will be five days recorded on the timecard – everyone around us is buzzing already about the coming Memorial Day weekend and the start of the summer season. People are planning cookouts and feasts, at least when they're not monitoring traffic and weather apps, planning their getaways or planning not to get away at all, but to enjoy the fantastic quiet that can fall in New York City on a holiday weekend when conventional wisdom says everyone should get out of town.
We've put together a fine collection of Memorial Day recipes to consider whether you're staying home or getting out on the road – dishes that welcome the season of outdoor cooking but don't always require, you know, actually cooking outside. I hope you'll take a look at them.
But those recipes are for later. What are you going to cook right now, this week, before and after work? There are soft-shell crabs at the fishmonger we like right now, proper peelers of decent size. Maybe that's true for you, too. Have you made Mark Bittman's recipe forsoft-shell crab poor-boy? It's terrific, but so is broiling a few of them under a dusting of Old Bay, and then slapping them onto white toast with a squish of mayonnaise and a slice of the best tomato you can find.
Wake up a half-hour early this week and surprise your family or yourself with a platter of French toast amandine, or take the dish a little savory with Melissa Clark's recipe for apple-Gruyère French toast with red onions.
Can you find some morels and a few big bills to buy them? Mark'srecipe for pasta with morels, peas and Parmesan (above) would be a righteous thing to cook this week. So would, for that matter, his recipe for asparagus with morels and tarragon. (I like that alongside Pierre Franey's recipe for chicken breasts with lemon.)
You're not going to be using the oven much in coming months. Make the most of it now, with Melissa Clark's recipe for oven-baked fish and chips. Or Mark Bittman's recipe for roasted salmon with lime herb butter. How about some Trini-Chinese chicken? Or perhaps you could throw a springtime pizza with green garlic, young potatoes and herbs?
Many more recipes to cook this week can be found on the Cookingsite and apps. Please save the ones you like, and rate them when you're done cooking. Share them with friends. Leave notes on them, either for yourself or for others, if you've discovered a short cut or delicious substitution. And if you get into trouble, do not hesitate to ask for help. We're at cookingcare@nytimes.com and standing by.
Together we make this world great.
Now, have you heard this Baby Charles cover of the Arctic Monkeys' "I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor"? Get on it.