Toasted white bread spread with microwaved cheese spread was a prized snack of my childhood. It was a total thrill to dig the rubbery cheese corners out of the plastic Stouffer’s container of Welsh Rarebit and try to mold them on the bread. Why and how did it fall out of favor?

A few years ago when my husband and I were a spry, travel-loving couple instead of the couch-bound dullards we’ve become, we took a lovely autumn trip to Vermont and Montreal.

It was the ’90s. Olive oil and vinegar on your salad was a thing. The explosion of homemade dressings had not yet trickled down from Chez Panisse to Middle America. So when a homemade (and I use that term loosely) dressing came around to our family table, we were thrilled.

A few years back I started making homemade pork and cabbage gyoza, a laborious but worthwhile endeavor. Making and folding homemade gyoza are a favorite “let’s spend time together not watching TV” event at my house. A little music, a little Asahi beer, and just watch the plump little crescent dumplings pile up.

Some readers may think Beef Stroganoff is not a seasonally appropriate dish. Where are the ramps and asparagus, the sweet peas and favas? If the temperature weren’t still lingering in the mid-40s in my hometown Chicago, I might agree with you. Chicago clings to stew season longer than necessary and for the time being…

Welcome to The Takeout’s Asian Noodles Week, a tribute to the O.G. pasta bowl. 

Ah, the carefree days of living by one’s self. I remember those halcyon days as filled with joyful capriciousness, expendable income, and cooking whatever I damn well felt like. My introduction to, and subsequent fondness for, pork chile verde began in those days. I was always challenging myself to try slow-cooked,…

Maybe’s it’s the meal you were eating when your high-school sweetheart dumped you. Or the snack you overindulged on at a slumber party. Or a dish you now associate with a really scary movie you were watching at the time. But for whatever reason, you just haven’t been able to stomach this particular foodstuff since. We…

I consider myself an un-squeamish cook. The more visceral activities involving meat are often relegated to me in our household. Boning chicken thighs? My husband would rather I do it. Tearing a shoulder roast along its seams? Unfazed. Picking minute veins and blood bits from steak, even if they get stuck under my…

As I write this, I sit devouring the last slice from what has been The Fortnight of Cheesecakes in my household. It started with a birthday cheesecake, which sent me down the rabbit hole of exploring methods, all purporting to deliver the best cheesecake. I’ve done standard oven baking, water bath-baking, mini…

I’ve become such a junkie for beautiful food photography that I sighed when I saw The Good Food on my kitchen counter. It looks like a paperback novel—colorless, photo-less, with deckled edges. How could I be inspired if I wasn’t shown what the food should look like, and more importantly, the lifestyle that…

Chicken stew on toast, however delicious, lacks sophistication. Now pour that stew into an elegant edible vessel? Thrilling. Crisp. Like a golden chalice of cream sauce. Now that’s downright ladylike. The good news is even if you’re not feeling particularly ladylike, this dish is scrumptious to all manner of persons.…

Deliciousness is not just how a dish looks, but how it feels. It’s the tactile and textural pleasures. And being that we’re in the midst of soup and stew season, there’s nothing more disappointing than digging in with your spoon and discovering a thin, watery bowl. Think about it: Chicken pot pie with runny juices…

Seven years ago, I starting baking yule logs around Christmas time. I enlisted the help of my friend and baking soulmate Cristin. It’s become our annual tradition, a chance for us to spend time together, flex our baking muscles and eat some really good cake.

In all my years of reading glossy food mags, I don’t think I’ve ever made a magazine recipe twice. Then I met the apple cider cream pie.

My favorite part about Thanksgiving isn’t the turkey, the cranberries, nor the stuffing. It’s the cheese sauce.

This technique was inspired by an episode of Jamie Oliver’s 5 Ingredients—Quick and Easy Food in which he plonked his whole chicken right on the rack in the oven. I did a double-take. Was this okay to do? No pan? No intricate arranging of carrots like Lincoln Logs to support the chicken in the roasting dish? Would…

Velveeta gets a bad rap, and frankly, we think it’s undeserved. (The state of Texas will respectfully disagree.) The golden processed brick has actually been around in some form for a century—it was created in 1918 by Emil Frey of the Monroe Cheese Company, then sold to Kraft in 1927. Yes, the product has been…

Knobby and fatty, with protruding discs of marrow, oxtails turn off a good many home cooks before they even get a second look. But step right up, your new favorite fall braised dish is here.

My Cantonese in-laws were in town last weekend to spoil our toddler and make us tasty Chinese food. The talk turned to the latest restaurant dish they’re attempting to faithfully replicate at home: Hong Kong-style char siu, the sweet-and-salty staple of barbecue shops known colloquially as “barbecued pork.”