Your Dinner Cheat Sheet
The May issue of Bon Appetit celebrates all things beverages — from recipes that use vodka in unconventional ways to 15 cocktails you can make with just 5 bottles of booze. So here on Dinner SOS, we're joining the party! Shilpa joins Chris for a deep dive into the issue's cocktail recipes and a mailbag full of listener questions about alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. Then, they're both joined by BA staffers Dan Siegel and Sam Stone for a roundtable tasting of just a few beverages in the ever-growing NA category.
Recipes and Links:
Reverse Engineering (video series)
World of Wine (video series)
How to Party with Soju, Korea's Most Iconic Spirit
What Nonalcoholic Drink Matches Your Mood?
A Pickle Martini Is the Best Dirty Martini
NA Options We Tried:
You might know Michele Norris from her work as a journalist (including a decade-plus stint at NPR, where she co-hosted “All Things Considered”). You might know her from her Peabody Award-winning Race Card Project, or the two books she’s authored. Or you might know her as the host of the podcast Your Mama’s Kitchen. Michele joined Chris for a conversation about food memories and a mailbag full of listener questions all about hosting.
Recipes:
Peggy King's Macaroni & Cheese
Crunchy Ramen Noodle Salad With Cabbage
Cast-Iron Roast Chicken With Crispy Potatoes
Andy Garcia's Fricase de Pollo
Nonna Wambach's Pasta for Thousands
Gabe and her husband have befriended an American couple in Treviso, Italy, where they all live. In order to give them a taste of home, Gabe would love to cook her new friends an American meal. But what typifies American food? And how can she source the right ingredients in the Veneto? Chris enlists the help of Bon Appetit's resident Aussie, Adam Moussa, and sommelier André Mack of BA's World of Wine series, to figure out what Gabe should make.
Recipes:
Most weeks on the show, we help out home cooks who have had a kitchen fail. This week, the "fail" is coming from inside the test kitchen. Test Kitchen Editor Kendra Vaculin joins Chris to chat about the fraught recipe development process of Kendra's Foolproof Lemon Bars — which was caught on camera as part of our "How I Developed" video series. Chris and Kendra also share how the team works together in the Bon Appetit test kitchen to bring you recipes you'll be excited to cook at home.
The Recipe: Foolproof Lemon Bars
The Video: "Developing These Perfect Lemon Bars Nearly Broke Me"
Izzy and Nina are twin sisters who love to cook together. But while Izzy loves baking, Nina finds the precision it requires endlessly frustrating. So Izzy's got one more shot to get Nina to love baking with her. Chris and Shilpa come to their rescue, helping the sisters capture the joy of baked goods that taste even better from your own kitchen than from a bakery.
The Recipes:
BA's Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
Dan Pashman, of The Sporkful podcast, is somewhat of a pasta fanatic. In 2021, he invented the pasta shape Cascatelli (and documented the process on his show). Now, he's back with a cookbook, Anything's Pastable. He joined Chris to nerd out about pasta and answer some listener questions.
Recipes:
Erin is an accomplished baker who regularly makes both meringue and lemon curd. But when she tried a lemon meringue pie recipe last year, it turned into lemon meringue soup. Chris and Shilpa are on the case to help Erin figure out what went wrong and make a citrus pie that will hold its shape and delight her friends.
The Recipes:
BA's Lemon Meringue Pie
Michelle loves all things French, and dreams of making the perfect Beef Bourguignon at home. But there's a slight issue: her husband has an intolerance to garlic and onions, the bedrocks of French flavor. Chris enlists the help of Chef Tanya Holland to teach Michelle how to develop deep umami flavors without alliums.
The Recipes:
- Tanya's Chicken Fricassee
- Red Wine and Soy-Braised Short Ribs
For more French cooking techniques, Chef Tanya recommends:
Sarah's family loves pasta... almost too much. So she turned to Chris and Kendra for help finding vegetarian meals that bring more veggies and plant-based protein to the table.
Recipes Mentioned:
Sheet-Pan Tomatoes and Feta with Chickpeas
Black Pepper Tofu and Asparagus
Whether you're in a relationship or not, the question of what—and where—to eat on Valentine's Day can feel overwhelming. Out or in? Fancy or casual? Chris, Shilpa, and Kate solve this perennial dinner emergency once and for all.
Dinner Ideas from Bon Appetit and Epicurious:
Valentine's Dinner Ideas That Make the Case for Staying In
Valentine's Day Dinners You'll Love
Chocolate Desserts for Pure Romance
Twenty one countries make up Latin America—and within those countries lies myriad food cultures, recipes, and histories. This week, Women Who Travel host Lale Arikoglu chats with guest Sandra A. Gutierrez about her latest cookbook Latinísimo: Home Recipes from the Twenty-One Countries of Latin America, an encyclopedic exploration of the region through its dishes and the home cooks who make them. Plus, her travels in countries like Peru and Colombia, and insider tips for tracking down the best eats in a new city.
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