Before kids, Halloween used to almost be a bother. It seemed like just another chore, to make sure that I had a basket of treats to hand out to the little ghosts and goblins. Fast forward thirteen years later - after life with kids - and my entire experience of Halloween has evolved. Halloween, a bother? Certainly I was too young to be such a fuddy-dudd. Amazing what fun and learning kids can bring into your life. Take, for example, making punch for a Halloween party. While you could just go with soda or regular punch, it's a prime opportunity for...
Maybe you received a last minute invite to a Halloween potluck, or maybe *someone* forgot to tell you that you needed to bring a treat to a party. Or, maybe you just procrastinated (hey, we don't judge!). Whatever the reason, we've got some great last minute Halloween recipes to share that won't require Martha Stewart-like decorating skills, or a major investment in special baking pans, or a trip around the city looking for illusive ingredients (have you tried to find black food coloring the day before Halloween?).
Just like the monster lurking under the bed or those things that go bump in the night, there is nothing scarier than the unknown, and that goes for food too. When it comes to food, from childhood we are often conditioned to be scared of everything that looks weird: iridescent purple eggplant, whole cooked fish with heads still attached, spiny green artichokes. Being scared of how a food looks for most of one's young life (and into many adult lives) and thus not eating it just isn't sound policy. There are a whole world of good eats being missed out on, not nearly as scary...
Good morning. Stew chicken is a dish you'll find all over the Caribbean and its diaspora in America, as good for hungry children fresh off the playground as cube farmers exhausted from a week of toil in the content factories of our cities along the coasts. And making it is easy work on a Friday night off Rachel Wharton's terrific recipeadapted from the Brooklyn chef Rawlston Williams.
Rachel calls for the chicken to sit in its marinade for a couple of hours or overnight, but cheating is no sin. Even a quick 30-minute bath will yield great chicken surrounded by a densely flavored gravy of caramel, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, cloves and allspice, with a hint of fire from Scotch bonnet peppers. Go to!
Then tomorrow morning you can greet the weekend in luxury, with the saloonkeeper Elaine Kaufman's recipe for supersilky scrambled eggs brought to The Times by Alex Witchel back in 2004. Serve with toast and a swipe of marmalade, and you'll be living a life worth living. Skip lunch and read "The Crossing," Michael Connelly's new novel, instead.
For Saturday night dinner we'll be eating roast turkey, part of our endless rehearsal of the coming Thanksgiving feast – and if cooking a turkey will be new to you in late November, joining us for a run-through after the candy's been handed out to the kids in the Harley Quinn costumes would be no error. (We're working on a new fast-carving technique, to share with you in due time.)
But if not, may we suggest these awesome lamb burgers I picked up from Peter Meehan at Lucky Peach? Or Martha Rose Shulman'srecipe for peppers stuffed with farro and smoked cheese? You could try Melissa Clark's endlessly adaptable recipe for scallopine, which you can make with virtually any meat. Or Mark Bittman's recipe forricotta gnocchi – that'd be great on its own or as a rich accompaniment to Julia Moskin's ace recipe for a cast-iron steak.
Sunday's for smoothies: strawberry for us, to share with "Bonita Applebum (Pharell remix)." Follow it with a long run and a nap, maybe some leftovers for lunch. Bake this ridiculously simple and delicious recipe for Katharine Hepburn's brownies (above) in the afternoon, then round out the weekend with a bowl of Mario Batali's penne all'Arriabbiata.
Many other good things to cook this weekend are available onCooking. (Have you cooked Mark Bittman's recipe for pasta alla Norma yet?) Save the recipes you're interested in to your recipe box, where you can arrange them in collections (Easy Weekend Favorites! Things DH Will Eat!) at your leisure. You can leave notes on recipes that you've cooked and altered in some way for the better (or worse). And if you run into problems, don't hesitate to reach out for help. We are standing by: cookingcare@nytimes.com.
Finally, our pal and erstwhile colleague Nigella Lawson has a new cookbook out, "Simply Nigella," featuring "recipes to invigorate and inspire," according to the jacket copy. Does that make it sound like a diet book? It's not, as her recipe for chocolate-chip cookie dough potssurely suggests. We'll knock that down this weekend as well and let you know how it goes. (Pots of chocolate-chip cookie dough! #SquadGoals.) Have a great weekend.
SAM SIFTON
