Dinner Recipes

This was supposed to be a traditional stuffing for a small Thanksgiving dinner I was hosting for a few friends. I had my grandmother’s recipe … Read more

There used to be this tiny Italian place tucked behind a laundromat on 12th street called “Mamma Rosa’s.” It wasn’t fancy—the tablecloths were vinyl, and … Read more

I was standing in my kitchen last Tuesday, staring into the fridge at a mountain of Thanksgiving leftovers that seemed to have multiplied overnight. The … Read more

Bernadette wasn’t trying to impress anyone. I’d stopped by her place that Tuesday afternoon to borrow a drill—of all things—and the smell hit me before … Read more

It was 11:47 PM on a random Wednesday in October, and I couldn’t sleep. Not because of caffeine or stress, but because I had this … Read more

My daughter, then seven, watched me shaping a traditional meatloaf one Tuesday evening. “Why don’t you just put them in the muffin tin?” she asked, … Read more

The office potluck was in six hours and I’d completely forgotten. Everyone else would be bringing their showstoppers—the elaborate lasagnas, the slow-cooked brisket, the from-scratch … Read more

My neighbor Carol watched me fumbling with a box of corn muffin mix at the grocery store last Thanksgiving, and she didn’t say anything at … Read more

I was standing in the frozen food aisle of a grocery store last November when the smell of someone’s holiday candle—something buttery and vaguely cheesy—hit … Read more

My brother-in-law had refused to touch sweet potato casserole for thirty-seven years. Thirty-seven years of Thanksgiving dinners pushing the orange stuff around his plate, of … Read more