Dinner Recipes

This was supposed to be a Moroccan-style chicken tagine. I had the preserved lemons ready, the saffron threads soaking in warm water, and a brand-new … Read more

My nephew, who is ten and mostly survives on chicken nuggets and a suspicious amount of ketchup, asked me why I couldn’t just toss everything … Read more

This was supposed to be a stovetop braised chicken thing—one of those complicated recipes you see on cooking shows where you brown the chicken in … Read more

I wasn’t expecting cooking advice from a plumber, but there I was, standing in my kitchen with a wrench in one hand and a leaky … Read more

The church potluck was in four hours and I’d completely forgotten. Everyone else would be bringing their signature dishes—Martha’s famous three-layer casserole, Old Man Henderson’s … Read more

It was 10:47 PM on a Tuesday, and I had a sudden, ridiculous craving for bread that was chewy and crisp all at once. I … Read more

My brother-in-law Mark swore he hated squash. For years. He’d make this face—you know the one—whenever a dish with butternut or acorn showed up at … Read more

My husband had sworn off salmon for the better part of a decade. Ten years. That’s how long he’d been politely pushing fish around his … Read more

Sarah wasn’t trying to impress anyone. I’d stopped by to drop off a book she’d lent me, and the smell hit me before I even … Read more

I was standing in line at the hardware store—of all places—waiting to return a paint sprayer that had absolutely defeated me, when the woman ahead … Read more