Table Talkers

Halloween may be the holiday known for candy, but it also ranks as one of my favorite holidays to invite folks over for a casual supper.

Searing is the basic cooking process of applying high heat to the outside of foods to give them a golden-brown crust. Mostly we use it on tender meats, like steaks and roasts.

Tahini, a staple in my condiment collection, is best known for homemade hummus, baba ganoush and as a key ingredient in sauces to pair with falafel and other Middle Eastern bites.

To me, this bread signals that autumn is upon us. It’s also a yummy way to use up any surplus summer squash.

These are meals that are made entirely in a single pot, which cuts down considerably on what I consider the monstrous chore of having to clean up after cooking dinner.

Cooking whole carrots requires only a tiny bit of prep (just peel and go!), but they take longer to cook through than smaller chopped carrots, especially on their thicker ends.

Come autumn, we happily embrace their harder-shelled, densely-fleshed, sweet-tasting brethren. Like summer squash, mild-tasting winter squash welcomes bold flavor additions.

Meatballs are a comfort food around the globe.

Because of chicken thighs’ inherent moistness and rich flavor, they are nearly impossible to overcook. Pair the meat with bold flavors, spicy sauces or sweet barbecue. Chicken thighs are incredibly versatile, as these four very different recipes prove.

The chain has tested a plant-based nugget from Beyond Meat, but so far hasn’t taken it nationwide. And its ambitions are now bigger than that, pushing to bring a faux option that replicates a piece of fried chicken.

The Vermont Country Store catalog. It is full of nostalgic, old-timey things that you can’t find anywhere else.

With the coming Jewish High Holy Days, starting with Rosh Hashanah at sundown on Sept. 6 and ending Sept. 29 with the conclusion of Simchat Torah, I am immersed in the small trove of recipes that I have curated especially for this time of year. Many of them come from now-tattered cookbooks that fill my bookshelves.

You can make this up to three days ahead so the flavors can develop. Taste the sauce before you serve it to make sure to brighten the flavor, if need be. I like to serve this with sautéed green beans and noodle kugel or simple noodles.

The tangy cream cheese glaze perfectly complements the sweet waffles — drizzle it on top, or dunk the waffles in like donuts.

After cutting most food service during the pandemic, airlines are once again offering premium dishes such as miso-marinated cod, Greek chicken salad and braised short ribs to entice the big spenders who buy first- and business-class seats.

You might like pickles even more if you knew how easy they are to make with just a few simple ingredients you might already have in your pantry.

We are in that delirious moment of summer when you can’t make a wrong move at the farmers market. Tomatoes in all sizes lie next to piles of corn and fields of berries in cartons. It’s a grown-up version of the cliche about the kid in a candy store.

One of summer’s greatest pleasures is grilled corn.

As hotter and drier weather drains reservoirs and withers crops, the fight is growing even more fierce, underscoring how climate change is pitting multibillion-dollar industries around the world against one another in a battle for increasingly scarce resources.

Traditional elotes, grilled Mexican street corn, is coated with a thin layer of garlic mayonnaise and rolled in a salty, dry Mexican cheese. There are many versions of this sweet and salty classic. Some add a few tablespoons of Mexican crema to the mayonnaise mixture, while others add chopped cilantro or scallions as a finishing touch.