game day eats
plus: a classic lemon curd tart
Monday, February 3, 2025
Good morning!
The Life-Affirming Properties of Sichuan Pepper [NYT, unlocked]
Welcome to February! Listen, I’ll be the first to admit that January was a drag: 100 days long, an average of 0 degrees, and full of bad news. I, for one, am ready to welcome a new month — one in which the days will feel a little longer, and spring will inch a little closer, and if nothing else, it’s going to go really fast. Plus February food, and Super BowI in particular, is a mid-winter highlight. I want Buffalo everything. I want guacamole. I want chili. I want baked macaroni-and-cheese. And I want nachos, which is also the topic of my new podcast episode that dropped today. Plus, I’ve got a new recipe for that lemon tart I promised you last week and it’s just the puddle of sunshine I’m ready to dive into right now.
Cheers,
Deb
I’ve written three cookbooks and I’m a tiny bit biased, but I think you’d love them all. Wondering what you might cook from Smitten Kitchen Keepers in the depths of winter? I thought you’d never ask! Try the ginger garlic chicken noodle soup, charred salt and vinegar cabbage, creamy coconut rice with chili-lime vegetables, and oven-braised beef with harissa. To finish, I recommend the oatmeal date shortbread, the chocolate dulce puddle cakes, and/or the white Russian slush punch. Were you looking for a list of all the recipes in each of my cookbooks? I’ve added these in a separate page and hope it makes it easier for you to find everything you want to cook.
classic lemon curd tart
New! A great big puddle of winter sunshine; a lemon curd tart for home cooks like us. Whole eggs, no rolling pins, no pie weights, no thermometer. It’s fancy enough to be served to the fanciest people at the fanciest brunch, but simple and sunny enough to make a dreary winter day feel brighter.
“One of the winning elements of ‘The Recipe’ is that it’s not prescriptive — rather than settling on one universal ‘perfect’ recipe, the chefs explain their personal preferences, then give listeners the information they need to make their own adjustments. By breaking their recipes down ingredient-by-ingredient, digging into what each one is doing, they make the science of cooking approachable and fun.” — New York Times, 7 Podcasts to Inspire a New Hobby
“J. Kenji Lopez-Alt and Deb Perelman’s new podcast gets to not only the heart of how they make their recipes—but also the why behind each decision, too.” — Esquire, The 26 Best Podcasts of 2024
The latest full episode of my podcast with J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, The Recipe with Kenji and Deb, is all about Nachos! You can listen to it anywhere you get your podcasts, such as Apple, Spotify, and more.
quick, easy salsa
An impossibly simple recipe for tomato salsa to tuck in your repertoire, perfect for days when you only want chips and salsa for breakfast/lunch/dinner (hey, it happens) or as a finishing touch on your favorite tacos. It goes quickly.
guacamole
This is my favorite way to make guacamole: a virtually uncluttered celebration of avocado with only lime juice, minced white onion, jalapeño, cilantro, and salt, ready to be eaten with abandon.
pimento cheese potato bites
Bite-sized, bronzed, melty, and completely-impossible-to-stop-at-one potato bites, perfect with (or for, heh) dinner tonight or at any party you're heading to -- minus a few, you know, for "quality testing."
cheddar, beer and mustard pull-apart bread
It's a little bit brioche (you know, if brioche had rye flour and beer in it), a little bit rarebit and I imagine it goes as well with beer and big games as it would with coffee and scrambled eggs.
soft pretzels, refreshed
Unequivocally the best thing about watching the Superbowl (that is, after the commercials), soft pretzels also make the tiny sandwiches of my dreams.
baked buffalo wings
If you didn't know oven-baked Buffalo wings could be awesome, you're in for a treat. These are browned, crispy, craggy-surfaced, well-seasoned, and with so little hands-on work, this won't be the last time you make them.
buffalo chicken cobb salad
This Buffalo Chicken Cobb is one of the best dinner salads I have ever made and I now crave it incessantly. It's got everything: a heap of colorful vegetables, grilled chicken, and lots of unsolicited opinions, all served help-yourself style so everyone ends up with the salad of their dreams.
skillet-baked macaroni and cheese
A no-boil, one-skillet, utterly cozy and decadent baked macaroni and cheese that’s taken over my life in the best way, and became my new forever go-to. I hope you make it immediately as written for dinner tonight, and then double it for all of the Superbowl parties ahead. [Video below!]
meatball subs with caramelized onions
Starring pillowy, fork tender, flavorful meatballs, buttery caramelized onions, and melted gruyere on a toasted bun, I bet you can't remember when you last had a meatball sub this good.
salted caramel pretzel blondies
Wildly decadent blondies with melty pockets of salted caramel, crushed pretzels, and chocolate chunks are impossibly good, almost too good to share. But should you be feeling generous, you can also cut, freeze, pack these tightly in a container, and overnight to the luckiest person you you know.
buckeyes
Buckeyes are basically bite-sized marble-shaped peanut butter cup truffles and if the thought of this doesn't make you spring forth from wherever you are into the nearest kitchen to make them right now, perhaps this photo will?
blood orange margaritas
Does it seem like all of your so-called friends are on beachy vacations without you? Did you hear it's going to be super cold again this weekend? I have just the elixir. It's almost 5pm, right? I think we know what needs to be done.
skillet-baked macaroni and cheese
shop my favorites
Ever wonder where I get my cutting boards, paring knives, offset spatulas and more than 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 — yes, including the the Smitten Kitchen x Staub Braiser (currently out of stock but we’ll have more in soon!). For each item, I've attempted to provide a range of shopping links so we're not just focusing on one giant retailer.
See you next week!
