Fennel

When it comes to Thanksgiving, I’m all about the sides. And my favorite side is stuffing. Or at least it is when it’s anything like this fennel and kale stuffing. Something with hunks of torn bread tossed in olive oil and toasted until golden. Something that feels classic in flavor-profile but has just enough extra …

This citrus avocado and shaved fennel salad is just the thing to get you out of a salad slump. It’s simple and colorful and replete with bright acidity. It’s the kick in the pants I need around the end of February, when winter feels interminable and I crave something that feels like sunshine on a …

I’ve gone most of my life thinking I don’t particularly care for cooked carrots. Give me the raw crunchy ones any time but why bother with the cooked mush? But then I encounter them roasted or braised, cooked slowly until they are burnished with deep dark spots and a concentrated carrot flavor, and I remember …

This sugar snap pea and farro bowl tastes like spring. It is vibrant and earthy like a rain-washed field. Green with sugar snap peas, pops of pink from watermelon radishes, and delicate barely-tinged-green-white from the fennel. There’s crunch from the vegetables and nubbly goodness from the farro, which gives the dish a textural dynamism I …

I have long been a fan of America’s Test Kitchen. I’ve spent many lazy Saturdays watching the show (and its sister show, Cook’s Country), which unlike most of what’s available on The Food Network these days, actually teaches you how to cook. There’s something soothing about it. It’s not flashy or particularly exciting. It’s sometimes (always?) …

For a number of years in my late twenties and early thirties, Dan and I and a group of friends took turns hosting fortnightly dinner parties where we cooked a meal and played board games and enjoyed each other’s company. (We also passed around an infamous set of poorly made, tangled chimes that had originally …