Good morning. This is going to be a long week, even if you love Thanksgiving unreservedly.
Either you’ll experience travel hell or you’ll welcome people who’ve gone through it themselves, arriving jittery and annoyed on your doorstep in need of quiet that may be hard to deliver. Stress will creep in on cat’s paws to yowl in your ear about whether you’ve got enough food, enough wine, enough seltzer, enough place settings, enough patience to deal with Aunt Martha and her incessant questions. Just breathe.
Make sure to take time for yourself today. It may be that it’s the last time you’re going to be able to do so for a spell. Make some biscuits (above) or, for a bit more punch, Andy Baraghani’s new recipe for pickle biscuits. Either pairs really nicely with slices of deli ham and swipes of grainy mustard, a perfect Sunday meal to eat while you’re watching, say, “My Man Godfrey” on Amazon Prime.
Featured Recipe
All-Purpose Biscuits
With Sunday sorted, you can turn to the rest of the week. …
Monday
I love Ham El-Waylly’s recipe for kung pao tofu for its numbing, tingly heat. Lately I’ve been swapping cashews in for the peanuts to great effect. Taste your hoisin before adding it to the sauce. If it’s quite sweet you can omit the brown sugar.
Tuesday
Here’s my no-recipe recipe for a kale salad with dried cranberries, pecans and blue cheese. Or maybe with dried cherries, walnuts and triple-cream Brie? Sometimes I shallow-fry herbed chicken thighs to lay on top. There’s no script. Improvise!
Wednesday
Your house may be filling. You may be settling into a short-term rental near your cousin’s. Whatever your circumstances, today’s a good one to make Sohla El-Waylly’s recipe for taco salad, a nostalgic treat. Tomorrow’s a big day.
Thursday
Take a deep breath and make yourself breakfast before you get started on the turkey and trimmings. I’m thinking Ali Slagle’s recipe for fruit salad for that, with a dollop of plain yogurt. And to answer a question that comes up over and over and over again this day: Your turkey is done when its internal temperature, measured at the thickest part of the thigh, is 165 degrees. (You can take it out of the oven at 162 or so — the temperature will continue to rise while you rest the bird. And you should rest the bird.)
Friday
Whatever you get up to with leftovers today, you should aim to keep yesterday’s festive mood alive. For that, you can’t do better than Melissa Clark’s recipe for smoky red devil eggs. Let your guests believe you make these all the time.
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Now, it’s nothing to do with huckleberries or sunchokes, but Ben Goldfarb has a fascinating read in The New Yorker about the spread of Italian wall lizards across the northeast and the “herpetological Johnny Appleseed” who aided their proliferation.
Yes, you should watch R.J. Cutler’s Martha Stewart documentary, “Martha,” on Netflix — even if, as our reporter Brooks Barnes discovered, Ms. Stewart didn’t like it much.
Christian Lorentzen reviewed Richard Price’s new novel, “Lazarus Man,” for The New York Times Book Review. I’m still going to read it.
Finally, there’s a new exhibition up at the British Museum, “Picasso Printmaker,” that has me looking up fares to London. Spend some time with a few of the prints and see if you want to join me. And I’ll see you next week.
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