I (Court) just returned from not one but two work trips in California, where even they were having dreadful weather. If it’s snowing more in LA than NY, what hope do we really have to cling to in the pits of our winter depression? In the words of Sheryl Sandberg, let’s all lean in. Eat granola for dinner, leftover meatballs for breakfast, redefine the notion of “workwear” and wear that same well-worn, former lover’s t-shirt from night to day to night again. Hopefully these recipes will inspire you to emerge from the couch and cook yourself something nice — you deserve it. If it doesn’t, we’ve also included some food-related news, AKA Takeout, to feed your ever-ravenous appetite for gossip. Eat up!
DINNER PLANS
American Tacos: While in L.A. for a brief and fleeting moment, I unfortunately did not have time to eat one of my favorite tacos, a sacrilegious-yet-delicious hard shell taco filled with ground beef, cheddar cheese and pickles from Escuela. So naturally, I returned home, soggy and saddened, craving the most nostalgic, basic tacos imaginable with this embarrassing earworm stuck in my head. So I made them. You should make them, too. I don’t follow a recipe, just a brown pound of ground beef with a seasoning packet—and don’t buy the low sodium pack of seasoning—and add some broth or water. Add sautéed onion and garlic and some chipotle in adobo, and hot sauce if you want. At the very end, I take a tip I learned about Wendy’s chili and why it’s so good (hold your skepticism please), and add a splash of white vinegar. It changes the whole mix, and for good. Ketchup or Bull Dog sauce also have the same acidic effect. If you’re like me and prefer soft shells, splurge for good ones. Cheddar and sliced pickles are (sorry!) really good on top, but so is avocado and cilantro if you’re not trying to piss anyone off at the table.
Weeknight Meatballs: My boyfriend (who wishes he was Melissa Clark’s) is always making her simple, riffable meatballs for dinner. He uses ground beef, packs them with parsley and briefly broils them in the oven. Their fate is almost always a pot of simple tomato sauce, ready to be served over spaghetti or, if I can convince him, bucatini. Occasionally we make a strange but delicious “meatball salad,” which is literally just a simple arugula salad with thinly sliced fennel, a garlic and mustard-heavy vinaigrette and a few warm, crispy-bottomed meatballs tossed on top. I’m usually partial to traditional Italian meatballs — a pork-beef-veal-blend, hefty amounts of ricotta and parmesan, finished in a boiling pot of sauce — but these manage to have a deep, beefy flavor and delicate texture that I’m consistently impressed by.
Ashure Cereal: I’m not usually influenced by TikTok, but if someone says “homemade cereal,” I tune in. I regularly make batches of granola (and even shared my perfected recipe here), but sometimes I want to switch it up. That used to mean making the EMP Granola (no $335 tasting menu required), but a new recipe has entered the chat after I saw this video. Sarit Packer’s recipe for Ashure is a Middle Eastern mix somewhere between cereal and granola, with crispy puffed wheat or rice, nuts, and seeds, coated in a spiced syrup and baked until crispy and clustered. It’s just the thing I need to spice things up while still maintaining my cozy, deep winter routine.
TAKEOUT
I (Gab) gave up sugar for lent, which has been significantly more difficult since discovering the new pastry program at Prima in Clinton Hill. Kaitlyn Wong is behind the new spread of springy cakes, swirly buns and sweet scones. She occasionally shares the recipes with readers of her newsletter, A Balcony in Brooklyn. Subscribe to that, and send me strength.
RIP William Greenberg Jr., an Upper East Side icon. When I (still Gab) worked at SoulCycle, riders would bring us mini walnut sticky buns and black and white cookies from his bakery. My stomach would start roaring any time someone walked in carrying a little white box stamped with that red logo, and learning that he used his poker winnings to open his bakery made me love him even more. We’re both infatuated by this butter cake filled with jam and frosted with buttercream — it directs you to cream the butter and sugar together for 15 minutes (!!!) and promises to, “please a president.”
Can anyone get us a table at Torrisi? We’re begging you.
ICYMI, we collaborated with Seed & Mill on some HalvaTaschen for Purim. Dear readers, are you wondering, what is halvataschen? Our take is a chocolate tahini dough stuffed with sour cherry jam and pistachio halva frangipane. They’re nutty, chewy, not too sweet and not at all traditional but completely delicious, and if you missed out on getting them IRL we’re sharing the recipe with paid subscribers this week. If you can’t swing a subscription, but really want it, kindly slide into our DMs.