When you’re looking for food that delivers on pure comfort, it’s tough to beat a soft and chewy oatmeal raisin cookie. I know, I know. Raisins are controversial. And you could, of course, swap in chocolate chips or dried cherries or any number of other mix-ins. But if you’re not deeply raisin-averse, maybe just a …

These days, I’m all for simple when it comes to cooking. But I still like food with big flavors, that doesn’t feel like it all came out of a boxed mix. And it’s tough to beat these ramen eggs (ajitsuke tamago) for matching their ease with their great flavor. They’re just boiled eggs that get …

Carrot cake has a tendency to veer into maximalist territory. If you let it, it can become a multi-layer affair with not just shredded carrots, but pineapple and raisins and even shredded coconut. But this simple carrot loaf cake is not like that. It is carrot cake stripped down to its essentials. This minimalist carrot …

When you’re stuck at home, there’s little that’s more soothing and rewarding than engaging in some stress baking. Baking is predictable. If you follow the instructions things turn out pretty well. There’s nothing scary about it. The stakes are low. No one will die if you screw this up. And, unless you have a major …

If you can’t or don’t want to go grocery shopping very often, you’d be smart to stock up on canned or dried beans and lentils. But once you have all of those chickpeas and black beans and red or green or brown lentils, what are you supposed to do with them? I’ve got you covered. …

Perhaps the strangest thing about living through a crisis is how much stays, relentlessly, normal. There are already 120,000 people in the world infected with this novel coronavirus, and those are only the cases we know about. But this number is an abstraction. I cannot grasp the magnitude of the problem—not the grandmothers and uncles …