Cooking

On dark and gloomy mornings this week, I’ve been cheered by the fact that Friday is Holi. Also known as the Festival of Colors, the Hindu holiday welcomes spring and emphasizes love, community and the triumph of good over evil. It’s famously marked by partygoers throwing brightly hued powder and water, but another defining aspect of the vibrant festivities is an abundance of sweet treats. So even if there are no colorful street parties in your area, you can still celebrate by preparing a batch of Coconut Burfi Truffles from food writer Varu Chilakamarri.

One of the most nourishing things about food is often overlooked in the conversation about health: the human connections it fosters.

Most of us are familiar with St. Patrick's Day and the whys and hows of its celebration, so let's not revisit them here. Instead, I'd like to mention several interesting things about the holiday's namesake and Ireland's patron saint. No, he didn't invent snake repellant.

I was hungry for an Asian-inspired quick dinner and thought of this dish. Lo Mein, which when translated means mixed noodles, is a staple of Chinese cooking. It’s served at birthday dinners, because the noodles represent long life.

If it’s true that you are what you eat, I’d guess I am about 10% peanut butter.

Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is the last day of a three-day festival (some believe longer) known as Carnival, characterized by plenty of celebration and indulgence. It precedes Lent, the Christian season leading up to Easter. Fasting during Lent is traditional, though not as widespread nowadays. Abstaining from meat, alcohol and/or dairy products is common in Lenten fasting. Feasting followed by fasting, that’s not unlike bears fattening up before hibernation.

If my 5-year-old daughter had her way, she would eat homemade pancakes every morning. But flipping a pile of from-scratch flapjacks on a busy weekday is not a reality in my home. (And try as I might, I cannot jump on the sheet pan pancake trend – rectangular pancakes just don’t compute for me.) Instead, a couple of times a week I reach for a bag of pancake mix that allows me to whip up one or two pancakes for her in about the same time it takes to toast a frozen waffle.

It’s a special treat for me today as we revisit a tribute to Dr. Seuss, published one year ago. Dr. Seuss, also known as Theodor Geisel, remains one of the most cherished and prolific children’s book authors. Two of his books are in the top 10 of Time magazine’s 100 best children’s books. Two are in the top 10 best-selling children’s books of all time, according to Statista. Green Eggs and Ham and How the Grinch Stole Christmas were among my favorite books as a youngster. Even today, copies of both are valued additions to my book collection.

Pork tenderloin is an underrated weeknight warrior.

My refrigerator is a graveyard of half-used jars. Jams, condiments, spreads, pickles – you get the idea. Even so, there’s at least one personal favorite staple I like to keep around all the time: jarred curry paste.

The first time I traveled to Spain, on a glorious two-week trip with my sister almost two decades ago, I followed an omnivorous diet, which was helpful in the land of jamón Ibérico and gambas al ajillo. The second time, I was vegetarian, so the menu was shorter – but still plenty satisfying: I enjoyed my fill of vegetable paella, escalivada, pan con tomate (sin anchoas, por favor) and, most ubiquitous of all, tortilla española.

My ideal date scenario involves a quiet, home-cooked dinner (no surprise there). The dinner is prepared by both participants and includes plenty of music and a little wine to create the right ambiance. Enya, Donovan, Roxette, and the Moody Blues are familiar sounds. Johannesburg Riesling has often been the beverage of choice. The music and food preparation is usually followed by a movie or two to accompany casual dining on the sofa. It occurs to me that this is a menu I would gladly prepare for such a special dinner, and I have, except for Cilantro-Lime Rice, a newer recipe.

Soaring egg prices are stressing out American consumers. Among the hardest hit are fitness fiends used to getting their protein from eggs, some of whom plow through half a dozen a day to hit their workout goals.

The American sports bar menu, heavy on crispy, salty and cheese-laden snacks, has not changed much since the 1980s. Chicken wings, a dip or two, nachos and at least one other fried thing – alongside a few beers – have fortified fans through countless wins and losses. But it wasn’t until the 1990s that bars across the United States regularly started offering what is arguably the ideal complement to an emotional game, a happy throuple of crunch, spice and hot cheese: the jalapeño popper.

Winter tends to draw the short stick when it comes to seasonal produce love. Though its offerings aren’t always as bright and colorful as peak spring, summer and fall fruits and vegetables, the cold months still have plenty of delicious things to offer.

Meatloaves in food photos are often seen with green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy or sauce. These are classic accompaniments to meatloaf. I didn’t include a recipe for mashed potatoes today, but the rest of the gang is here.

The Chinese New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year, is celebrated throughout Eastern Asia and much of the world, wherever large Asian populations exist. The New Year festival, signaling the end of winter and the beginning of spring, starts on the first day of the new lunar year, culminating with the Lantern Festival on the 15th day.

Americans love pasta. Per the National Pasta Association, we consume 5.95 billion pounds of it per year, with the average American enjoying about 20 pounds annually. Is that too much? Too little? Just right? People have lots of thoughts on the topic, as our readers regularly remind us – especially when it comes to the question of what constitutes a single serving of one of the Washington Post’s recipes.