easter!
plus: an interview with ham el-waylly
Monday, March 30, 2026
Good morning!
My Week Of Eating Literal AI Slop [The Cut]
It’s Not Quite Dinner or a Cocktail Party, but It’s All the Rage. [NYTimes, unlocked]
Greetings from … the airport! It’s probably not just me spending a terrific amount of time lately in these liminal spaces, right? We were in Florida this weekend and didn’t quite succeed in getting home last night so after a night in an unmemorable hotel, we are trying again this morning, with fingers crossed and a giant cup of coffee for ammunition, because we’ve got a big week ahead. If you’re hosting Passover, as we are on Thursday, check last week’s newsletter for my holiday menu favorites.
And this week is all about Easter, with both brunch ideas and lunch/dinner favorites too — brighter foods that make us excited that it’s spring, at least 3 of the 5 next days, a ratio I can work with. [Recipes with an asterisk work for both Easter and Passover, perfect for our blended lives. I was forbidden from noting the multi-treif leek, ham and cheese egg bake, but it is flourless, ok?]
But that’s not all! This week we have an interview with Ham El-Waylly, whose comfort food-filled nostalgic cookbook, Hello, Home Cooking: Do-Able Dishes for Every Day, is out now. You’re going to love it
Cheers,
Deb
I’ve written three cookbooks and one audiobook and I’m a tiny bit biased, but I think you’d love them all. Not sure which one to check out first? Take a look at the recipe index and see which collection jumps out at you most.
vidalia onion soup with wild rice
While onion soups are usually hulking, hearty, deep-winter affairs, I like to think of this as onion soup’s spring-hopeful counterpart: sweet onions, mild broth, wild rice for bulk and pungent croutons.
baby wedge salad with avocado and pickled onions*
A crunchy, bright, creamy, and inhalable iceberg salad that I could, and often try, to eat once a week forever.
roasted carrots with lentils and yogurt
These carrots don’t just want to be a side dish. Roasted to perfection and layered over a lentil salad with a bright vinaigrette, a puddle of yogurt, and a fistful of herbs, the whole thing is so knife-and-fork delicious, serving size becomes an abstract concept.
deviled eggs*
Deviled eggs are perfect as both a party snack and a meal anchor. No piping bags or fussy ingredients, use any toppings you crave — I’ve got a slew of suggestions!
lamb chops with pistachio tapenade*
I love lamb chops more than any human being should and this is one of my favorite ways to prepare them, in which a paste of olives, pistachios, capers, garlic and herbs is smashed on mid-cooking and becomes one with the chops before they reach your plate -- it’s also one of the easiest. (Hooray.)
potatoes anna*
The cover dish of my second cookbook, Smitten Kitchen Every Day, is a riff on Potatoes Anna with deeply bronzed and crisp edges and a baked-just-so center, infused with salty cheese and a warming kick of pepper and salad on top. It’s perfect in every way.
creamed chard and spring onions
Creamed Chard and Spring Onions but also how to "accidentally" make it too creamy and turn it into a pasta dish.
lemon cream meringues*
Crisp outside and pillowy within meringues, puddled with lemon curd and finished with a dollop of whipped cream, are an absolute favorite this time of year for both Passover and Easter -- and because they look a bit like sun emerging from behind the clouds. We’re ready.
carrot graham layer cake
A moist, finely-layered carrot cake with warm spices and graham crumbs, stacked with all the cream cheese filling your heart desires. Needless to say, mine desires a lot.
carrot cake with coconut and dates*
This flourless, dairy-optional carrot cake is hearty, spiced, perfect for the April holidays or really any day of the year, whether brunch or dessert or just because it’s Thursday and the vanilla bean-flecked cream cheese squiggles are calling to you.
leek, ham and cheese egg bake
Vying for a place on your weekend agenda: a giant puffed and bronzed bread- (but not decadence-, thank goodness) free egg casserole that serves a crowd, reheats like a treat and tastes like the inside of a very good quiche.
baked eggs with spinach and mushrooms*
One of my favorite brunch dishes of all time, eggs are baked in nests of lightly creamed spinach, mushrooms and parmesan. Scaled down in a skillet, it’s also great for lunch and dinner. Add some fresh biscuits and crispy bacon and you’ll be at the best restaurant in town.
hash brown patties*
The perfect homemade hash brown patty: crisp and so fuss-free, it’s almost baffling. This is my absolutely favorite raft for an egg, or the base of a salad-y lunchtime avocado “toast” -- I hope you’re inspired!
carrot cake pancakes
Carrot cake, formatted for breakfast: full of vegetable but still topped with a swoosh of lightly sweetened vanilla cream cheese (everyone’s favorite part) that we have made a habit of these for over a decade.
pecan sticky buns
The best sticky buns I’ve ever made are a celebration of contrasts: the sugar is restrained in the bun portion and then cascaded with the most unapologetically decadent salt-flecked dark pecan caramel. They make for the happiest weekends.
braided lemon bread
Sweet, buttery dough, cream cheese and lemon curd filling, and crunchy pearl sugar stud the prettiest, easiest braided pastry I’ve made -- basically a mega-danish. What are you waiting for?
AN INTERVIEW WITH HAM EL-WAYLLY
My shelves are full of wonderful cookbooks I don’t get to talk about enough, so I’ve added this section so you can get to know the cool people behind them. Today we’re chatting with Ham El-Waylly. His cookbook, Hello, Home Cooking: Do-Able Dishes for Every Day, is out now.
1. What inspired your cookbook?
The pandemic shut everything down, and I found myself at home with Sohla, forced to reckon with a kitchen I’ve ignored for years as a professional chef (I know, another pandemic chef writing a cookbook... restaurants were closed, ok?!). It was around that time that I finally cracked open my mom’s recipe notebook that I had kept hidden away; she passed away when I was younger, and I buried those food memories for years because unlocking those memories was too painful. Opening that notebook and cooking from it revitalized my appreciation for home cooking and was one of the most impactful things I’ve done in the kitchen. This book came out of that desire for comfort and the rediscovery of the healing powers of a home-cooked meal.
2. What recipe are you the most proud of in the book, or felt the most triumphant when you got it right?
The Beijinho Swiss Roll. If you didn't grow up going to Brazilian parties, here's what you need to know: no celebration is complete without a table of brigadeiros and beijinhos. Brigadeiros are the famous chocolate condensed milk truffles that have had their moment. Beijinhos are the lesser-known sibling, which is insane, because they're better: condensed milk fudge rolled in coconut, studded with a clove, sitting in a little paper cup. I grew up in Doha in an international community where Brazilian house parties were a weekly occurrence. The first time I tasted the roll cake I developed for this book, it brought me right back to those parties. I feel like it could become Brazil’s national cake.
3. What recipe is so low-effort, high-reward that it’s worth cooking for dinner tonight, even if we’re tired and don’t want to cook?
Toasted thin spaghetti with black beans and parm. It’s pasta e fagioli meets sopa seca, which sounds like a concept you’d pitch to a fusion restaurant that closes in eight months, but in practice, it is one of my favorite things in the book. You snap the spaghetti into pieces, toast it directly in oil until it's golden brown and nutty, then cook it in broth (or water) until the liquid is fully absorbed, then throw in a can of black beans and whatever greens are dying in your fridge. Finish it with sour cream, parm, and lemon, and you’re done in about twenty minutes. I use this pasta technique as a base for whatever greens, vegetables, or beans I have lying around to make a comforting bowl of creamy pasta. The toasting step is key; it adds depth of flavor to the pasta and prevents the noodles from getting too soft.
4. What’s something you wish more people knew about your book?
That it’s not a “chef’s cookbook.” I spent years in professional kitchens, slowly losing touch with the food I actually grew up eating, and writing this forced me to find it again. The comfort food. The nostalgia. The recipes my mom made that I’d buried deep inside. What came out of that was something for everyone: weeknight tired, total beginner, no idea what’s in the fridge, solid cooks looking for excitement in their meal routine. There's something here for you. My biggest goal is that your copy never ends up on a bookshelf. I want it stained, dog-eared, and with a spine held together with electrical tape because you cooked out of it so much you destroyed it. My mom’s recipe notebook looks exactly like that, and I hope your copy is just as loved.
Thank you, Ham! You can order Hello, Home Cooking right here.
raspberry coconut macaroons
The Staub x Smitten Kitchen Braiser is a lower-walled enameled cast-iron Dutch oven that works as well as a deep sauté pan as it does a soup pot, roasting pan, or even casserole dish that perfectly fits a pasta bake. It’s the ideal size and usability (dishwasher safe!) for everyday cooking. Not a week has gone by in the 14 years I’ve had mine when I don’t cook in it at least three times, so when it was no longer sold in U.S. stores, I asked Staub — a French cast-iron manufacturer originally from Alsace; you can watch me tour the forge/factory here! — if they would partner with me to bring it back, because I knew you’ll fall in love with the pan too. We launched the Staub x Smitten Kitchen Braiser in spring 2024. The Braiser is now sold exclusively at Williams-Sonoma and available in eight gorgeous new colors! The newest two — a classy off-white (pardon, French Crème) and a soft pink (Pink Peony, which you know I sing to the tune of Pink Peony Club) — launched just last month.
Cranberry (bright red)
Grenadine (deep red)
Sage (light green)
Basil (dark green)
La Mer (dark blue-green)
Sapphire (dark blue)
(New!) French Crème (off-white) ✨
(New!) Pink Peony (soft pink) ✨
The Staub x Smitten Kitchen Braiser Recipe Starter Pack: Oh, you did get a new braiser? I’m so happy for you. Here are a few recipes you can kick off your cooking with!
Braiser: An entire category of recipes on smittenkitchen.com
My “I Dream Of Paris” Menu for the French Crème launch: Dijon Roast Chicken, French Onion Soup for a Crowd, and a Perfect Apple Tarte Tatin
Baked Ziti with Meatballs and Ricotta (Williams-Sonoma, Video)
Apple Butterscotch Crisp (Zwilling, Video)
Braised Chickpeas with Kale and Burrata (Zwilling)
shop my favorites
Ever wonder where I get my cutting boards, paring knives, offset spatulas and more that you see when I cook? I've created a page on Smitten Kitchen with links to some of my favorite kitchen items, the ones I'm asked about the most. This isn’t just an Amazon storefront. For each item, I attempt to provide a range of shopping links so we're not just focusing on one giant retailer.
See you next week!
