Risotto is a dish best made at home. Restaurant versions often rely on rich and creamy additions like heavy cream or mascarpone to finish par-cooked rice, to better control the vagaries of cooking food to order for the masses. I wrote about the fine art of cooking risotto in an early edition of Susanality that you most likely missed. I highly recommend reading it if it’s your first, or even your 100th time making this dish.

I’m not going to tell you that you can put some stock and rice in a baking dish in the oven and that you’ll end up with creamy risotto. No, not me. I am still going to ask you to cook a beautiful, creamy risotto, and then put it into a baking dish and bake it when you’re ready to serve. Still creamy, but with a crunchy top and no last-minute fussing when it’s time to get the meal on the table. And you can do this up to one day ahead of time.

Risotto is a creamy delight, but making it for a group can be daunting, especially if you are cooking or serving multiple courses. This method takes the pressure off a bit and still results in something impressively delicious. You can serve it as a meat-free primi, as any Italian cooking purist will tell you it should be (and that’s me most of the time), but it also works well as a side with your favorite meatballs or sweet Italian sausage. Or roast chicken! Or (gasp) as a Thanksgiving side dish. Skip the stuffing and have risotto instead!

Simmering cubed squash along with the stock you’ll be adding to the rice gives it a head start on cooking, and adds creaminess and color to the rice as it cooks. I also give you permission to use pre-peeled squash here if you need to take a shortcut. Just make sure you cut the large cubes into smaller pieces.

Are you ready to cook some risotto?

On to Cookie Queen news!

I am getting ready to do live national TV tomorrow (by the time you read this, it will have been yesterday!). Yes, I should have given you a heads up on that last week, but I am juggling a lot right now, and I forgot! But I will post a link to my TWO appearances on Good Morning America in next week’s newsletter so you can see how I did. After that’s out of the way, I’m heading down to Philly to participate in a panel discussion on Monday evening, 11/2, with Leah Koenig and moderated by Kae Lani Palmisano at the Weitzman Museum. We’ll be on stage to chat, and then we will be signing books and having a cookie party with tastes from both of our books baked by Whipped Bakeshop. I can’t wait, and hope to see you there in my hometown!

Tickets Here!

This is your last chance to preorder Cookie Queen! After my pub day, which is Tuesday, Nov 3 (also election day!), it’s out in the world. This is my final plea for preordering, which at this point is just ordering. You’ll have it in your hands on pub day, and it’s your last chance to get the preorder bonus of FOUR additional recipes. If you’ve already preordered, consider ordering a few more for gifts. Believe me, no cookie baker will want to be without it this holiday season. These preorder numbers really matter!

And don’t forget: if you want to preorder a SIGNED copy, you will want to do that RIGHT NOW. I will be at Kitchen Arts and Letters in NYC on Saturday signing the preorders, so there’s still time. They are exclusively selling signed preorders. The link below will take you to the right place to preorder from the bookseller of your choice, submit your receipt for the bonus, and view my tour schedule with ticket and info links. I’ve also left a separate link below for preordering a signed copy.

Preorder a Signed Copy!

Creamy Baked Risotto with Butternut Squash and Fried Sage Leaves

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You might know Kay Chun’s name if you are a user of NYT Cooking, as she is a frequent contributor there. Her recipes are known for their simplicity, flavor, and mashup of inspirations, which I think is one of the most interesting things about Kay’s food. Her seemingly effortless ability to mix flavors and influences while finding joy in simple cooking shines through on every page of her (long overdue!) debut cookbook, Gather Around My Table, and I immediately bookmarked many recipes as I thumbed through. This is not “fusion” cooking, which often feels forced or contrived. No, this is one person’s life story told through her cooking style.

I just booked a seat at Kay’s dinner at High Street in Philly, which is part of the Cookbooks and Convos event series, because I will be there the next night for my own event at The Weitzman Museum, where I’ll be in conversation with Leah Koenig.

Kay and I are definitely in the mutual admiration society. I was listening to her interview on The Dinner Plan podcast, hosted by Maggie Hoffman, and towards the end, when Maggie asked her which other recipe developers she admires, she mentioned me. How nice! And she goes into a bit of detail about why. Give it a listen while you run to the store to get ingredients for any of Kay’s new recipes. You won’t be sorry!

Some of the recipes I can’t wait to cook:

• Sauerkraut and Caraway Pork Belly Rolls

• Crispy Dumpling Pancake (the Cover Star!)

• Grilled Tofu Ssam Tacos

• Fava Bean and Sweet Pea Caesar

• Risi e Bisi Juk

• Spicy Pork and Bean Tacos

Let’s hear from Kay herself in the Q and A below!

Q and A with Kay Chun

SUSAN SPUNGEN: How would you describe your style of cooking? A friend of mine who was trying to help me articulate my own style for a previous book intro called me a “jazz cook.” Kind of abstract, but I think that applies to you too.

KAY CHUN: Jazz cook, that’s so fun! It’s always been difficult for me to define my cooking style because it’s so closely tied to my identity. I’m a native New Yorker with a Korean heritage and classic French training—for a long time, I didn’t know how to reconcile all those different parts. Through cooking, I realized that they’re all connected and deeply ingrained and have a huge impact on the way I see food.

At its heart, my cooking is rooted in technique but simple in that I don’t use a ton of ingredients. Rather, I try to focus on choosing the right ingredients and combinations that will make the dish most interesting and satisfying. Definitely inspired by all the mixed flavors of my childhood.

SS: What your jacket copy says about where you get inspiration very much resonates with me. Can you talk a little about what inspires you, and how you keep track of these flashes of inspiration, and eventually manifest your ideas in the kitchen?

KC: Inspiration can come at any time, especially walking around a city like New York. Oftentimes it happens during a run in Central Park, when my mind is free to dream. I love reading restaurant menus, and the city is full of them. It’s like peering into the mind of a chef and their heritage. I learn a lot about new flavor combinations this way.

I make notes all the time. New ingredients I need to look into or a flavor combination that’s inspired by something I taste. A cool spice that I see in the store. I take many photos of things like beautiful pastries, art pieces, or stunning colors in nature. I write everything down and dissect it later. My phone carries many lists and somehow it’s a puzzle that I can piece together during development.

Walking through the greenmarket is always inspiring. I inevitably want to cook everything I see while it’s at its seasonal high—but I limit myself to a few vegetables and try working with them in a different way, whether it’s applying an unusual cooking technique or trying it out with a new spice. The only way to really know if your idea has legs is to cook it.

SS: You talk about how growing up in New York City has shaped who you are as a cook. I’m curious to know what neighborhood(s) you grew up in, and how it has influenced you.

KC: I grew up on the Upper East Side. At that time, there were blocks filled with incredible German butcher shops and bakeries as well as Hungarian meat markets and neighborhood Italian-American red sauce joints. The local diner served fantastic American cheeseburgers, pastrami on rye, and buckets of half-sour pickles. We often found uni at a small Asian market and it was so cheap because no one knew about this delicacy yet. I really was surrounded by a diverse food playground and my childhood dinner table reflected that—one night, dinner could be bratwurst, dumplings, and kimchi stew. The next would find spaghetti in marinara alongside garlic bread and Korean braised short ribs. Eating this way really engaged my palate and taught me from a young age how to marry flavors across cultures.

SS: You also pursued a traditional French culinary education, followed by stints cooking in French restaurants. You talk about how being steeped in martial arts helped you to get through the tough times in restaurant kitchens. Tell us more about how these experiences shaped you.

KC: A martial arts studio and restaurant kitchen have a lot in common. They are both places of high intensity that require great focus, discipline, and physical/mental stamina to thrive. Training in Taekwondo was a huge part of my childhood: year after year, we practiced kicks and punches by the hundreds, until they were muscle memory. The goal was to perform each task better every time, in the pursuit of mastery. Oftentimes you’d stumble and fall in class, but you learned to get over it quick and try again. This taught me that failure is a part of the journey and temporary. If you keep going and try your best, you can reach success. Cooking in restaurant kitchens is daunting in the same way and all the same rules apply. In both scenarios (martial arts studio and restaurant kitchen), you think you’re competing with those around you to be the best, but you’re really just competing with yourself.

SS: Which recipes in the book best represent this mashup of influences, which is so unique to you? Which are the recipes that you come back to again and again?

KC: Butter and Parm Shrimp Dumplings: Inspired by the classic dim sum shrimp dumplings called Har Gow, these are simply seasoned with ginger, sesame oil, and chives but have so much flavor. They always reminded me of filled pasta, which is what led to this recipe. The dumplings are finished like pasta, with nutty Parm and creamy butter that creates a silky sauce and tames the aggressive sesame oil and ginger. The perfect marriage of two classic foods, Asian dumplings and Italian pasta.

Fresh Kimchi Greens: I adore greens and salads and this one combines crunchy romaine with the personality of kimchi. Kimchi was always on the table to accompany meals. Normally fermented and funky, here kimchi is reimagined as a bright and fresh salad. It’s a great (approachable) way to experience kimchi if you’ve never tried it.

Citrus Doenjang Carnitas: Carnitas is one of my all-time favorite foods. Earthy doenjang has a way of infusing pork with nutty richness, which is why pork and doenjang is such a popular combination in Korean cooking. Aggressive doenjang mellows and sweetens as it caramelizes in fat/oil and really adds extra savory depth to these carnitas. It also partners really well with all the bright citrus juices. Doenjang is one of the most common Korean pantry staples but not used much outside of the Korean kitchen. I think it’s a really versatile ingredient and love incorporating it into non-Korean dishes.

Mushroom and Swiss Chard Galette

From Gather Around My Table: Simple, Flavorful Recipes from My Global Pantry. © 2026 by Kay Chun. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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My book comes out in less than three weeks (eek), so now is the time to get yourself set up in the kitchen. If you’re already a cookie baker, you probably have at least some of the equipment you will need to get started baking out of Cookie Queen, but I want you to be ready, so I am sharing some of my favorite and most essential tools with you this week.

If you want to become a cookie queen, you’re going to have to get yourself set up! I developed all my recipes using a stand mixer, but of course, you can always use a hand-held mixer. I finally caved and got one, and it’s beautiful and works really well, but it’s harder than letting a stand mixer do all the work for you. And for people with mobility issues, a stand mixer is the way to go!

Just a quick note: This post may get truncated as it’s too long for email. If it’s cut off, you can click the post title or any of the photos to read it in your browser instead!

My top 10 essential tools for cookie-baking:

There are so many cookie recipes that require no special equipment whatsoever, not even a mixer. Any recipe that starts with melted butter, brown butter, or oil can be mixed easily by hand. All you need for those is a bowl, a rubber spatula, and a rimmed baking sheet. However, if you want to up your cookie game, your baking endeavors will be greatly enhanced by adding some items you might not already have. These tools will not only make things faster, easier, and smoother for you in the kitchen, they will make it simpler to follow my recipes and, ultimately, your cookies will work better and look better. The following equipment is listed roughly in order of importance ranging from must-haves to nice-to-haves.

An electric mixer

A stand mixer is an investment, but you can choose a smaller one or buy a used one, and it will change the way you bake. This workhorse can also make pasta, spin ice cream, and do a multitude of other things.

If you don’t have the space or the money for one of these machines, a hand mixer can be used instead—in fact, I just welcomed this beautiful hand mixer into my home. That said, one of the advantages of a stand mixer is the fact that it is hands-off, allowing you to prepare the next ingredient to go into the bowl instead of having to hold the hand mixer. Another is that the paddle and whip attachments are more specialized and do a better job of creaming or whipping, respectively. Whenever you read a cookie recipe, remember that you can make adjustments for the equipment you have. Even recipes that call for creaming butter and sugar together as a first step can be done without an electric mixer at all, using just a bowl and a spoon, but you’ll have to make sure your butter is a bit softer, and be prepared to use some elbow grease!

A digital scale

This is an absolute must as far as I’m concerned. I know many of you have already been persuaded by the authors and recipe developers you trust to give up your measuring cups and start weighing your ingredients, but if you still haven’t, maybe I can convince you. Depending on whether you fluff up your flour before measuring or not—whether you scoop and level or gently spoon the flour into the cup—will greatly affect the measurement of flour especially. A little more or a little less flour can really throw off the texture and the spread of your cookies. There are so many variables that can change the outcome of a recipe, so why not take control of this one when it’s so easy? It really cuts down on cleanup too.

This digital scale is the one I use. I traded in a very sleek one that stored on a shelf like a book, but it ran out of batteries constantly. I think I’ve changed the batteries on this one once since I got it almost 10 years ago, and I use it all the time! But that’s not all I love about it. The digital panel can be pulled out for easy viewing, so you can even put a sheet pan on it and still be able to read it.

Rimmed baking sheets

I use standard-issue restaurant-quality rimmed aluminum half sheet pans (13 by 18 inches) for most cookie baking. I also use quarter sheet pans (9½ by 13 inches), aka small rimmed baking sheets, for many other jobs, like toasting nuts or seeds, using as leverage when making cookie logs, chilling scooped cookie dough, chilling cookie logs, or baking just a few cookies. You’ll want at least two rimmed half baking sheets, but four is better if you plan on baking a lot of cookies so you can always have two in the oven and two more free for chilling doughs, or just to have a cool rimmed baking sheet for subsequent batches.

Adjustable rolling pin

This tool was a total game changer for me, and I’m pretty good at rolling dough. Short of a commercial sheeter, this is the next best thing. A series of plastic rings screw onto the end of the pin, letting you adjust for the desired thickness of the dough. It takes the guesswork out of rolling out cookies. Because there are no thin spots, your cookies bake very evenly, resulting in satisfyingly professional-looking and uniformly golden cookies. You can also get spacers, which are like thick rubber bands, to use with your existing cylindrical (not tapered) rolling pin.

Flat parchment paper

There is nothing more annoying when baking cookies than curly parchment. If you get it on a roll at the supermarket, it will be curly, and usually the cutters on the box don’t work well either. I find it so much easier and quicker to use boxes of flat parchment that I order online. I keep the box stored on its side, vertically, in a cabinet, so it takes up less than 1 inch of space. I often reuse the paper at least once. Not only does parchment keep your baking sheets cleaner—usually you can wipe them with a dry paper towel if necessary and just wash them every so often—it also insulates the cookies slightly from the direct heat of the baking sheet. It makes it a snap to return dough from your rolling surface to the fridge or freezer if necessary as well.

Spice grinder

This little workhorse of a machine has a small capacity but can do things a food processor can’t, like grind cardamom seeds, sesame seeds, and poppy seeds. They are inexpensive and small but kind of essential.

Cookie cutter set

Unless you want to make cookies in themed shapes, all you really need is a set or two of graduated cutters. They come in a tin, nesting inside one another. They have plain or fluted edges (if you’re only getting one set, go for fluted) and come in plastic or metal. These will provide you with the exact size you need, and they are essential for cookies like linzers where you will need a smaller cutter to create a window in the top cookie of the sandwich. I like to have a square set and a round set, both fluted and plain, but you can also get smaller sets of hearts, stars, diamonds, and so on.

Brown sugar canisters

When I began my year of making cookies for the book, I knew I needed a solution for brown sugar storage. After a thorough search, I found containers that were purpose-built for brown sugar. They are just the right size for a 2-pound bag of sugar, and they have a lid that is truly airtight but still easy to open and close. Best of all, there is a compartment in the lid that holds a terracotta disc that can be soaked in water to keep the sugar soft and fresh. I found these on King Arthur Baking’s website, and I love them. They are called ProKeepers.

Microplane grater

A must for grating citrus zest, whole nutmeg, fresh ginger, and, yes, even Parmesan cheese!

Cookie stamps (to bake the cover!)

Cookie stamps come in a wide variety of designs and make it fun and easy to add some pizzazz to your cookies. I find the easiest way to use them is to roll your dough into a ball and press down with the stamp, flattening it and imprinting it at the same time. You can roll the ball in flour or sugar to keep the dough from sticking to the stamp.

Now that you’ve got all the tools, I’ll leave you with a cookie recipe to bake this weekend!

If you want a signed copy of Cookie Queen, please preorder through Kitchen Arts & Letters!

Preorder a Signed Copy

Cashew Cardamom Rugelach Buns

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Yup, it’s officially feeling like fall! Although there are still peaches, tomatoes, and corn at the farmstand, they are giving way to squash, broccoli, cauliflower, apples, and all their fall friends. I love fall, except for the part where winter comes next. I love a crisp day and wearing a sweater for the first time, but I’m praying we don’t get as much snow as last year, which made things a little difficult (if beautiful!).

But for now, I am embracing fall produce and also trying to eat healthy as I prepare for my book launch and tour. This dish is simple to put together and makes a fine vegetarian dinner (with leftovers for lunch the next day). If you wanted to up the protein, you could add some crispy tofu to keep it vegetarian, or any other protein you like.

If you want a signed copy of Cookie Queen, please preorder through Kitchen Arts & Letters!

Preorder a Signed Copy

For years, I’ve been roasting cauliflower in florets, usually with a flat side down, but one day I thought, Why not just slice it really thin if it’s caramelization I’m after? That turns out to be a superior way to cook it. The skinny slices get crisp and brown all over, especially at the edges. The chickpeas join them on the sheet pan and get crispy too. You don’t have to use purple cauliflower here, but if you can find it, it adds some pizzazz to the dish. Yellow cauliflower, or a combo, works too.

I love freekeh, with its subtle smokiness, but you can use any grain you like here. My top choices for a swap would be bulgur, farro, quinoa, or even brown rice.

My Green Tahini-Yogurt “Everything Sauce” brings everything together. You’ll find yourself using the leftovers on, well, everything!

I’m so excited to finally be able to share the details of my book tour! I hope I get to meet some of you on the road in just about a month! Click through to my mini-site or susanspungen.com for more details, tickets, and reservations!

Shaved Cauliflower with Chickpeas, Freekeh, and Green Tahini Sauce

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Things are starting to get a little crazy around here! My time is being pulled in every direction. It’s not easy to do all of the things that are asked of you in order to properly promote a book when you are a team of one. Luckily, I do have a little help, both with getting this newsletter out to you each week and with creating videos for social media. But still, it’s a lot!

This past week, I didn’t even have a MOMENT to think about creating something new to share with you here, so instead, I will give you a little BTS of my Monday morning. One of the things that publishers (specifically the marketing department) suggest you do is to shoot “collab” videos with people you like and admire—and who also have bigger and different audiences than you do—to share on social media, in order to reach people you might not otherwise. I’m excited for you to see these videos, which will be rolling out around my publication date, November 3rd. It was so much fun to shoot each and every one of them, because let’s face it, baking cookies is fun!

My wish list of people to collab with was short, but scheduling with these people, as you can imagine, was not easy! I started the process in May. I was a little nervous leading up to my shoot day with Martha, because a Nor’easter blew into town, and it didn’t let up all weekend, not even on Monday morning. But Martha is not afraid of a little rain, and arrived at the appointed time.

I decided to do a little cookie decorating because I know Martha really enjoys that, and it was one of the first things we ever did together back in 1990 for the premiere issue of Martha Stewart Living. I brought a copy of that issue with me and we had a nostalgic moment looking through it. The children that were photographed in that cookie story are parents now. And we look exactly the same haha!

The cookies we played with were from the “My Kid Could Do That” chapter of Cookie Queen. Most cookie books don’t cover cookie decorating, but I decided to include a chapter with base recipes for sugar cookies and a variety of icings and glazes, because I know people enjoy this activity, especially around the holidays. There are a variety of decorating techniques, each simple enough for anyone to do, even kids! Both techniques we used are well-suited for a cookie-decorating party, because all of the work aside from the final decorating can be done in advance.

If you want a signed copy of Cookie Queen, please preorder through Kitchen Arts & Letters!

Preorder a Signed Copy

Fall recipes to make this weekend

I’ll leave you with a few suggestions for what to cook this weekend as we shift fully into the new season!

Baked Farro with Cauliflower, Sausage, and Kale

This one-pot meal is truly easy. There’s minimal knife work, and then the rest of the time it’s a pretty hands-off affair—and the result is way tastier than it has any right to be considering the rather short ingredient list. It’s perfect for a family dinner but fancy enough for a casual dinner party!

Roasted Squash Salad with Burrata and Quinoa Crunch

The star of this recipe is the quinoa crunch, which elevates simple roasted squash to a whole new level. The salad is lovely with burrata, but you could also use stracciatella, fresh goat cheese, or buffalo mozzarella.

Zuni Café Roast Chicken

There’s nothing cozier than a roast chicken dinner, and this adaptation of the iconic dish from San Francisco’s Zuni Café is a forever favorite in our house. The best part of this dish is the bread salad that comes with the chicken and mops up all the juices.

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Hello readers! Thanks as always for being here!

I’m back with another cake this week. It’s not too sweet and perfectly seasonal. Plums are one of the last of the stone fruits to do their little cancan, and as always I’m happy to see them. Though you might still find regular black plums (which are perfectly fine to use here), prune plums, with their almond shape, are widely available and suited more to baking than eating, and there are oh-so-many ways to bake them! They can vary quite a bit in size depending on variety, so use the weight given in the recipe as your guide when buying. I always buy a little extra when making an upside-down cake to make sure I have enough to cover the whole surface. Any leftover fruit can be eaten as is or cooked into a quick compote to add to yogurt or serve with pork.

This tender cake has a subtle nutty crunch from cornmeal, and enhanced flavor from freeze-dried corn powder. If you bought it for my Ultimate Corn Muffins, here’s another chance to use it! If you don’t have it, you can still make the recipe. Leaving it out won’t affect the chemistry much. This is the one I buy, and then I grind it to a fine powder in my spice grinder, but a food processor works too. I highly recommend adding this ingredient to your pantry if you love the flavor of corn. It improves the flavor of anything “corny,” and you might need it for one of my favorite recipes in Cookie Queen.

I don’t always think upside-down cake needs a glaze, but this one was greatly enhanced in both looks and flavor by a last-minute brushing with a warmed-up and slightly thinned coating of red currant jelly I had in my fridge. When I realized the cake needed it, I rushed to the fridge door to see what I had. This jelly has a bright, fresh flavor and beautiful color, and best of all, no straining required since it’s already clear. That said, you can use any flavor of red jam or preserves. Bonne Maman plum preserves would also be a good choice, as would raspberry. Just warm up the preserves (about ½ cup) in a small saucepan, adding a tablespoon or two of water. If there are seeds or chunks, you’ll want to strain it before serving. Brush it onto the top of the cake while both are still warm.

If you want a signed copy of Cookie Queen, please preorder through Kitchen Arts & Letters!

Preorder a Signed Copy

I’m keeping it short this week, as I am in New York City with a busy lineup! I’m recording a podcast for She’s My Cherry Pie with Jessie Sheehan later today, and I have a few other fun things to record this week that you’ll be hearing about soon. Things are ramping up on Cookie Queen publicity, as it’s just six weeks out from pub day! I’ll be sharing my book tour lineup very soon, and I hope I will get to meet some of you along the way. Wherever I am, know that there WILL be cookies to sweeten the deal.

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Here are some other plum recipes to sweeten these first days of fall:

Marian Burros’s Plum Torte, My Way

Marian Burros’s classic Plum Torte recipe is the best way to use the delicious little Italian prune plums that are abundant this time of year. It’s one of those super-easy, impossible-to-mess-up, and open-to-interpretation cakes, and over the years, I’ve incorporated a few changes that I think make it even better.

Spiced Plum Crisp

This fruit crumble is a great recipe to have in your back pocket this stone fruit season. I’ve added cardamom, which counters the dish’s traditional sweetness with an unexpected pop of savory. It’s a delicious combination that keeps you coming back for more!

Plum Buckwheat Bars

These fruity, nubby, grainy bars can be made almost any time of year with grocery store plums, but they’re especially delicious made with in-season fruit. They can easily be made gluten-free—just swap the all-purpose flour with your favorite gluten-free flour blend!

Plum Cornmeal Upside-Down Cake

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Despite the fact that I photographed my last book, Veg Forward, all by my lonesome on my iPhone, using my own props, over a period of several months, that is not how it is usually done. It was a very different approach than the typical one, which involves a full team of people who come together for ten jam-packed days to create a cookbook.

Although there was something nice about that solo approach, I missed the fun and collaborative nature of working with a group of people with just one mission in mind. Just like a sports team, all of the players need to work together in order to win the game. Things can go very wrong if you don’t have a good combination of people and just the right energy on set. We had very good vibes on ours, and I think it comes through in the finished product.

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If you want a signed copy of Cookie Queen, please preorder through Kitchen Arts & Letters!

Preorder a Signed Copy

Today’s newsletter is really a gratitude post for all of the people who worked so hard to help me realize my vision for Cookie Queen. It wasn’t always called Cookie Queen, by the way—if I were to show you some of the alternative covers with the working title, you would see what my original title was. I was quite committed to it and had created a designed proposal to secure this book deal. But things don’t always go as planned, do they? After we had finished shooting the book, and I had also finished writing it, it became known to me, my agent, and my editor that there was another book coming out in the same season as mine with the same title. Thank goodness I got a heads-up on that and had time to pivot, and as it turns out, I love the title we landed on. Keep in mind, it’s a little bit tongue-in-cheek! I think it’s fun and very true to the spirit of the book.

The shoot took place almost exactly one year ago (how time flies!), and luckily the weather was beautiful and we were able to eat lunch outside every day. I’m not sure where we would have eaten otherwise! My house is on the small side, and my dining room table was command central. On my previous cookbook shoots, there was always lots of food that ended up being lunch. We couldn’t have cookies for lunch, though, so I had to think of how we were going to handle it. I made some big batches of soup in advance, including the tomato soup that’s at the bottom of this post. Boxes of plum tomatoes were cheap and abundant, and it was easy to make in a big batch and freeze for later.

I thought I could handle feeding everyone through some mix of cooking, takeout, and soup, but I soon realized that I needed a little more help. So I hired Juliana White, a local private chef, to make lunch for us on some of the days. Usually, she brought such copious amounts of food that we were able to spin it into leftovers for the second day. She’s incredibly creative. Her food was delicious, and everyone felt well taken care of. She even whipped up a batch of comforting chicken soup for our photographer Anna Williams one day when she wasn’t feeling so well like it was nothing.

Speaking of Anna, she is an old friend who I worked with many times at Martha Stewart Living both when she was a young assistant and later when she started shooting on her own. Several years before I proposed this book, we worked together on another cookie story for the New York Times where I was the food stylist. I realized on that shoot that I really wanted to work with Anna if I ever did the cookie book of my dreams. When this project started coming together, she was my very first call. Luckily, she agreed to do it, and I couldn’t be happier with the results.

Her assistant, a.k.a. digital tech, Alec Holst, did the very important job of keeping track of all the technical parts of the photography and organizing the files. He even filled in one day when Anna was under the weather and couldn’t be on set.

I mistakenly thought that because I have such a vast prop collection, I could save some money and not have a prop stylist on set for the entire shoot. I did think it would be nice, though, to have someone there for part of the time, and at Anna’s suggestion, hired another old colleague of ours named Pam Morris. She’s a wonderful prop stylist as well as a wonderful person whose calming presence was more than welcome. I only had her booked on some of the days, but I soon realized that we really needed her input, and so I begged her to come back after her return to the city and she did, thank goodness.

Every person on the team has their own function, and prop styling is an important one. Not only does the prop stylist bring props (although in this case it was more about curating from my own collection), but they also help conceptualize each shot, working with the photographer to figure out what is needed, from surface to linen to plate to color palette. They also have to be thinking about the next shot (or two or three) while one is on set. I was really much too busy making cookies to be as involved in that as I thought I might be. Pam is also just way better at it than I am.

Laurie Ellen Pellicano is a wonderful baker who used to work at Tartine Bakery in San Francisco and now has her own company called Laurie Ellen that produces cookies and savory treats. She was the person who cross-tested my recipes when I did the New York Times cookie feature in 2019. That’s how we met, even though it was only digitally at first. I had recommended her to work on my good friend Claudia Fleming’s book, Delectable, a few years prior, and I wanted her to help me with my book. The conversation started many months in advance, and I was so grateful to have her on board. She’s incredibly organized, and her baking skills are top-notch. I literally could not have done it without her.

Many people think that once you’ve completed writing and photographing a cookbook, you’re just sitting around for a year or so waiting for pub day. Not so! The first few months are filled with editing deadlines, and lots of very careful reading of the words—and numbers!—on every page. Over and over again. For me, avoiding errors and creating consistency are so important. I spend a lot of time and attention on this phase. No skimming! All the while, you’re ramping up to promote the book you just spent the last two years on, and maybe doing things like creating a brand new website and ramping up your social media efforts. Being a good cookbook author and being a good self-promoter don’t always go hand in hand. It’s a difficult part of the job for many of us! And yet we must do it if we want people to buy and read our books.

A quick shout-out to everyone else who helped in this process from beginning to end: My agent, David Black, and his assistant, Nell Beck at DBA; my editor, Dervla Kelly, for acquiring and believing in my book; art director Jenny Davis; marketing lead Elizabeth Groening; in-house publicist Hannah Dirgins; and my publicist Shara Alexander.

The day that Cookie Queen is finally out in the world is fast approaching, and I can’t wait for you to see it, and more importantly, bake from it. I am more convinced than ever that cookies spread joy and foster connection. No other food has the power to do that!

If you’ve read this far and still haven’t preordered my book, now is the time to do so! Order a few extra as gifts for the bakers you love! And if you’re finally in the mood to turn on the oven, a reminder that when you preorder you’ll have access to four delicious recipes instantly. It’s all at the same link: just submit your order details in the provided form, and you’ll instantly receive a beautiful PDF as a thank you.

THANK YOU!

Slow-Roasted Tomato Soup

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Before we get into today’s post, a reminder that I’m still running a 20% off sale on first-time annual subscriptions. Subscribing grants you access to every newsletter and every recipe in the vast archive, and supports me in producing this newsletter for you all!

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Leah Koenig, who is the authority on Jewish cooking, has written a beautiful and joyful new book about Jewish desserts. As Leah writes in the introduction, the dessert table is a ubiquitous feature of Jewish events, whether in the temple after services or in the home. Even when we are grieving, there is a table absolutely groaning with cookies and coffee cakes at every shiva. Are these desserts the best you ever had? Maybe not, but somehow the sheer volume and variety becomes something to drool over. I still get excited if I attend a Bat or Bar mitzvah—which is usually in the morning—knowing my patience will be rewarded with coffee and a dessert spread afterwards

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One thing I am loving about this book is that there are lists of suggested recipes for each holiday, so you can easily skim each section when the time of year comes. I often bring desserts to my brother’s house for holidays, and I look forward to trying more of the recipes as they roll around. Some desserts that caught my eye: Citrusy Cookie Twists, Lemon Curd Macaroon Thumbprints, the cover star, Apple Sharlotka, Triple Pomegranate Cake, and especially the Chocolate-Frosted Poppy Seed Cake. And that’s just up to page 141!

To celebrate Rosh Hashanah, which begins tonight, I decided to try Leah’s Honey Cake with Apple Butter Frosting. Honey cake is the traditional dessert of choice for this holiday, but the honey cakes I have eaten never lived up to my idea of them. Leah has solved that problem so deliciously. Frosting is a great idea here, but this cake, scented with warm spices, would be great even without the embellishment. In any case, Steve pronounced that it was “the best honey cake he’s ever had, and not too sweet,” and that is high praise coming from him!

This cake is very quick to get in the oven. It’s just a dry mixture and a wet mixture, whisked together. I love the addition of apple butter in the frosting, and the symbolism of apples and honey is perfect.

Just a quick note: This post may get truncated as it’s too long for email. If it’s cut off, you can click the post title or any of the photos to read it in your browser instead!

If you want a signed copy of Cookie Queen, please preorder through Kitchen Arts & Letters!

If you haven’t already, a reminder to try out this fun little quiz to find out which cookie from Cookie Queen you are—and if you preorder the book at the link above, you’ll get a preview of that recipe (plus FOUR other bonus recipes) so you can start baking right away. You can take the quiz just for fun too!

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Q and A with Leah Koenig

SUSAN SPUNGEN: What made you want to write this book?

LEAH KOENIG: I live for that moment after a festive holiday meal when the dinner dishes get cleared and the crumbs are brushed away, and then a feast of sweets—plush apple cake, cinnamon-rippled babka, crackly cocoa meringues, honey-drenched baklava, bowls of dried fruit and pistachios in the shell—gets arranged on the table. I love how the dessert course conveys warmth, abundance, and joy, encouraging your guests to sit together at the table just a bit longer and enjoy something sweet. Writing The Dessert Table allowed me to explore how this moment manifests in Jewish communities around the world.

SS: I chose to make your Honey Cake with Apple Butter Frosting, since Rosh Hashanah starts TONIGHT. For those who may not know, tell us why honey and apples are important at this particular holiday.

LK: Dipping apples in honey on Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) is an edible expression of people’s hopes for a sweet and round/full year ahead. But of course there is no such thing as sweetness in life without a bit of something sharp to counteract it. That’s why I love that you chose the Honey Cake with Apple Butter Frosting. The cake itself is pretty classic, sticky and moist from the honey and flavored with warm spices. But the rich, gently tart apple butter frosting is my way of updating the tradition and incorporating a hint of tang to the mix. Rather than take away from the cake’s sweetness, the tartness elevates and balances things out. And ultimately, isn’t balance what we’re really looking for in our year ahead?

SS: Sometimes Jewish sweets leave something to be desired, starting with the typical Rosh Hashanah honey cake or spongy Passover cake. How and when did you decide to elevate, or stray from tradition when approaching these recipes?

LK: The Dessert Table includes recipes from across the globe—everything from the creamy (and more importantly crustless, since flour is off-limits) flan that Jews in Mexico City serve for Passover and cardamom-scented Persian rice pudding, to a rich, raisin and almond-studded semolina cake enjoyed by Indian Jews on Rosh Hashanah. I tried to keep newer-to-me recipes fairly traditional in the hopes of introducing them and their corresponding history and customs to readers.

When it came to the Eastern European Jewish dessert recipes, like the ones I (and the significant majority of American Jews) grew up with, I felt much more comfortable pushing the boundaries. It’s just like music—once you master the fundamentals, you feel more free to play. One of my favorite recipes in the book is my White Chocolate and Lime Babka. The babka dough is straightforward, but the mix of caramelized white chocolate and bright lime syrup is extraordinary.

SS: Did you collect old family recipes from your own family or others’?

LK: My mom is an incredible baker. She really has “the touch,” and most everything she slides into the oven comes out wonderful. Several of the recipes in The Dessert Table can be traced directly back to her, including the Back Pocket Apple Cake, the Chocolate Layer Cake with Advieh Buttercream, and the Whole Wheat Hanukkah Sugar Cookies, which are an updated take on the cookies she, my brother, and I would stamp out and bake up together throughout my childhood.

Beyond my mom’s recipe box, I also reached out to a handful of professional Jewish bakers and pastry chefs to see if they might share a dessert recipe and its story with me. My hands-down favorite cookie in The Dessert Table—the White Chocolate Tahini Cookie (I’m noticing a white chocolate pattern here...)—originally hails from the Jewishly-inspired Oak Bakeshop in Providence, Rhode Island.

More apple recipes from the archive

Need more apple ideas for the holiday, or just because fall is coming? Here are some of my favorites.

Apple Gâteau Breton

This cake is everything I want an apple cake to be, including easy to make. With an irresistible crunchy topping and a filling of caramelized apples, it would make for a perfect Rosh Hashanah dessert, but is also a great treat to leave on the counter and slice away at throughout the week.

Stuffed Baked Apples with Toasted Meringue

I have always loved baked apples, but they are usually a homey, if not homely, dessert —not usually the type of thing you’d serve to company. But pile them with glossy, fluffy meringue, and they become quite showstopping!

Caramel Apple Brown Butter Buckle

If you just want a delightful apple cake that you can easily make when you get home from apple picking, or maybe just from the grocery store, this is the one for you. It can be eaten for breakfast, with afternoon tea or coffee, or dressed up with ice cream or whipped cream for dessert.

Honey Cake with Apple Butter Frosting

Excerpted from The Dessert Table: 100 Joyful Jewish Sweets. Copyright ©2026 by Leah Koenig. Used with permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Hello to everyone on this last official summer Friday (or is it unofficial?)! Thanks, as always, for being here. Before I share some vintage links from the archives that will keep you well fed over Labor Day Weekend, some housekeeping!

I’m not sure if you noticed it last week, since the information was buried in the preamble, but Substack has started something new that we are getting to try in beta: a “metered paywall.” This means that, as a free subscriber to this newsletter, you’ll now be able to bypass that pesky paywall when you see a recipe or post you want to access. So, if you are a free subscriber, in addition to your once-a-month free newsletter, you can choose another one to access for free. I am happy to welcome this new feature, and I’d love to hear what you think about it too. Did any of you try it last week? You’ll need to be logged in to view paywalled posts, and there will be a countdown telling you how many free posts you have left.

Now, I know two out of four posts ain’t bad, but I’d like to tempt you further to become a paid subscriber by offering 20% off an annual subscription. That’s $40 instead of $50 annually, and you’ll have access to every newsletter and every recipe in the vast archive. This applies only to new subscribers, and only for annual subscriptions. While I really value ALL of my subscribers, and there are way more of you who are free than paid, paid subscriptions are the lifeblood of this newsletter. I devote a considerable amount of time and resources towards producing it, and I love doing it, but to keep the lights on, I rely on my paid subscribers. Thanks to all of you who have a paid subscription for your support!

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Cookie Queen is almost here!

In other news, the countdown begins for the release of Cookie Queen! In less than two months, my book will be out in the world. You can’t imagine the suspense and anticipation that comes with putting everything you’ve got into a book, and not knowing how it will be received. One has to be hopeful, but you don’t want to be so hopeful that you’ll be disappointed if it’s not as successful as you imagine. I try to manage my expectations, but I really want everyone to have this book. I can tell you that the recipes in the book are truly special, and I am sure you’ll enjoy baking from it and sharing treats with those you love. Over the past two years, I realized that cookies are the most shareable food there is—and believe me, there have been plenty of them to share! I have probably baked thousands of cookies in the process of writing this book. During the development process, we made weekly drop-offs at our local food pantry, which spread so much joy. They went mostly to the families with children who use the pantry, but the volunteers tasted plenty too, judging from their familiarity with the recipes. It brought me so much joy to be able to share in this way, and also to see the excitement that the recipes generated.

Now I have something to share with you! Take this fun little quiz to find out which cookie you are, and if you preorder the book, you’ll get a preview of that recipe so you can start baking right away. You can take the quiz just for fun too!

Take the Quiz!

In addition to this recipe, preordering will also give you access to FOUR other bonus recipes that didn’t make it into the book—just submit your order info at the link above (the same one that you use for preordering). I probably sound like a broken record (remember those?), but preorders are incredibly important to a book’s ultimate success, so I urge you once again to consider placing an order now for Cookie Queen so you’ll have it in your hands on pub day. With the cooler weather approaching, now is the time to turn on the oven and start baking!

Back to summer cooking before it’s over!

I’ve gathered some of my favorite recipes for this time of year from the archives. This is hands-down the best time to cook since summer produce is still going strong, and fall is creeping in over the next few weeks. I made an effort to include plenty of recipes that don’t have a paywall, but use the new feature to unlock the paid recipe of your choice. Have a great weekend!

Saving Summer: A highly opinionated guide to preserving

If you’re sad to see summer produce go, you should know that there’s an easier way to preserve the season’s bounty than canning or pickling: just use your freezer! This is my guide to all of my favorite ways to freeze summer, for when you tire of winter squash and citrus in a few months’ time.

Sheet-Pan Roasted Ratatouille with Socca

This lighter, fresher take on ratatouille comes together pretty quickly and can then be kept on hand for a few days and incorporated into other dishes like pasta, eggs, etc., or served atop a delightful pizza-like socca, or chickpea pancake, as I’ve done here. It’s the perfect thing to make right now, when you can find all of the vegetables at the farmers market.

Shoulder-Season Minestrone with Mini Gnocchi

This cozy soup is a great thing to make right now, when the weather is starting to cool ever so slightly, but the farmers markets and farm stands are overflowing with what seems like produce from every season of the year.

Grilled Caprese Salad

Some of the best ways to enjoy peak-season tomatoes require very little work at all: Slice them, put them on a plate, sprinkle with salt, add a drizzle of olive oil, and eat them straight-up. If you’re looking to elevate them a bit more, throw them on the grill for just a few minutes to make this twist on a caprese salad—just make sure to serve with bread for mopping up all those juices!

Greek-ish Sheet Pan Chicken

This recipe is incredibly delicious, and it makes its own sauce on the sheet pan when you add the tomatoes and feta, bringing all the flavors together. It’s absolutely yummy and kind of amazing that so few ingredients can add up to this much FLAVOR!

Peanut Butter and Grape Galettes

These cute galettes taste like the childhood favorite, all grown up. Look for Thomcord grapes if you can find them (a cross between Thompson seedless grapes and Concord grapes that are pretty widely available in supermarkets this time of year), but any red or purple seedless grape will work just fine!

Desserts for stone fruit season

We’re entering peak stone fruit season, which means it’s the perfect time to make some favorite desserts from the archive, like the Peach and Almond Galette pictured above. For something simpler that’s a true celebration of summer peaches, try my Caramelized Peach Melba. Or, make this Spiced Plum Crisp, which is easy to throw together for a crowd.

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Hello from sunny (but sometimes foggy) Calistoga! I’m technically on vacation right now—we rent our house each August (if we can), which makes it a good time to go somewhere. The three weeks pass much faster if we spend at least a week away.

Despite having been to Napa and Sonoma many times before, especially in the Martha years, when we often traveled here for photo shoots, I have never come as far as Calistoga nor even been in the area strictly for leisure, so this is a real treat. Calistoga is famous for its natural hot springs, and there are innumerable resorts of all sizes and price points, each with its own pools and baths and spa. It’s also famous for its mud baths, of which we partook this morning. I was a little trepidatious before stepping into a deep tub of hot, steaming volcanic ash, but I’m glad I did. After following up with a massage, I must admit, my muscles feel great, and I’m very relaxed.

Legend has it that Samuel Brannan, one of the early developers here, gave the town its name when he drunkenly (maybe) misspoke, saying he was going to turn the place into a spa town that would be like the “Saratoga of California,” but it came out as “Calistoga of Sarafornia.” Not sure if it’s true, but it’s a good story, and a good name! After being here for just a day, I can see why many people return here year after year. Like Ojai, “there’s nothing to do, and not enough time to do it.” My kind of place.

Did I mention that today is my 19th wedding anniversary? Well, it is, and this has been a great way to celebrate. And did I mention we were originally planning to visit Carmel Valley and Big Sur after a few days in San Francisco? At the last minute, we pivoted because of the unfortunate Timber Fire, which is burning in and threatening Big Sur. I spent quite a bit of time planning that trip, and it all came undone rather quickly, and this immediately popped into my head as a great alternative.

Today I’m sharing a recipe from Giulia Scarpaleggia’s new book, Vegetables the Italian Way: Orzotto with Roasted Tomatoes. I’m also including Giulia’s recipe for the roasted tomatoes therein, which is exactly what I’d like to be eating right now. The name refers to the barley that is the basis of the dish, not orzo. Read on to understand the difference. I interviewed Giulia, also the author of Letters from Tuscany on Substack, about her new book. Please read our Q and A below!

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A quick note: I’ll be taking a break from the newsletter next week, but will be back the following week with another recipe for you!

If you want a signed copy of Cookie Queen, please preorder through Kitchen Arts & Letters!

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Q and A with Giulia Scarpaleggia

SUSAN SPUNGEN: Tell us a little bit about your new book and why you wanted to write it

GIULIA SCARPALEGGIA: This is a book about the way we cook vegetables in Italy, especially at home. During my cooking classes, my students often tell me that they have wonderful food when dining out at local restaurants and trattorias (think pappardelle with wild boar ragù, or pici with duck sauce, not to mention the ubiquitous Florentine T-bone steak) but that they miss vegetables.

And yet, when we shop at the market, the vegetable stalls are always bountiful, bursting with colors, textures, and varieties. Then we come back to the studio, and often our whole menu revolves around vegetables: from appetizers to pasta sauces, side dishes, and sometimes even desserts.

They are always surprised, and realize that they have been missing a whole layer of Italian cuisine. So, to cut a long story short, I wanted to write a book about all those vegetable-packed recipes that we often cook at home in Italy, but that people rarely come across on a restaurant menu.

SS: How do Italians do vegetables traditionally, and what modern twists do you employ, if any?

GS: We approach vegetables in a simple way, coaxing out their flavor, keeping the preparations straightforward, and letting the vegetables themselves shine.
One of the most typical ways of cooking vegetables the Italian way is to cook them until they are buttery soft, and then cook them again with plenty of extra virgin olive oil, often with garlic, a touch of chili pepper, maybe a little anchovy... We basically bring them back to life and unlock a whole new range of flavors: sometimes nutty, sometimes sweet. We rarely cook vegetables al dente!

Over the years, though, in some recipes I’ve learned to cook them a little less. I might grill asparagus, for example (I know, groundbreaking...), instead of boiling or steaming it until soft. And in the book there’s a recipe for grilled asparagus frittata which I love!

SS: Do you keep a garden? Tell us about it and/or your local market. I imagine that is a big source of inspiration.

GS: I grow three pots of wild strawberries and lots of fresh herbs (one of my desert island ingredients), and every year I plant fava beans and peas for the sheer joy of watching my six-year-old daughter eat them straight from the pod while standing in the garden.

Since I live next door to my parents, I also take full advantage of my mum’s garden. She learned to garden when she retired, even though she has always considered herself a “city girl” (she was born in San Gimignano, but has been living in the countryside since she got married 45 years ago!). She keeps a summer garden with tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, eggplants, green beans, and lettuce, and she’s slowly adding winter vegetables to her raised beds too, such as broccoli, Tuscan lacinato kale, and radicchio.

Along with what I can get from our garden, I shop every week at the local market. I share that ritual with my cooking class students, and I love guiding them through the stalls and showing them how to choose the best produce.

Getting fresh vegetables from my mum’s garden, or picking whatever looks best at the market and chatting with the vendors, who have slowly become friends, is indeed one of my main sources of inspiration when I develop new recipes. The other is eavesdropping on what people around me—especially those pugnacious old women trying to overtake you in the queue—plan to do with those vegetables.

My motto is: what grows together goes together. Along with: there’s never enough olive oil!

SS: Tell us about your cooking classes and what the experience is like for your guests. It sounds like a dream to me. Where do guests stay? I hope to visit you someday!

GS: I’ve been teaching cooking classes at my family home in the countryside between Siena and Florence for 15 years now. On Wednesdays, we host a Market-to-Table cooking class: we begin with breakfast at a local café, take some time to chat and get to know each other, and define a menu that suits everyone’s expectations and preferences. Then we shop at the market and at the butcher’s.

After that, we drive back to my studio and start cooking a feast. Nine times out of ten, we also make fresh pasta, and we prepare countless dishes packed with vegetables. Eventually, we sit down around the table to enjoy the meal we’ve cooked together.

Along with the Market-to-Table class, we also offer a Vegetable-Forward cooking class, where I try to include a little foraging, especially in spring, and a Three-Day Masterclass for those who want to stay longer and cook more.

My groups are small, usually no more than eight or nine people, and we cook family-style around a big table, sharing tasks and contributing to the final meal. Most of my guests choose to stay at local agriturismi to get the full countryside experience, although some drive all the way from Florence, Siena, San Gimignano, Montalcino, or Pisa to attend the classes.

And I also have a little preview for you! Starting next year, we’ll be renting out a small apartment right next door to our studio, downstairs from us, for those who would love to stay close to the cooking school. It was my grandma’s home, and since she passed away last year at the age of 97, we’ve been thinking about how to give it a new life and open its doors again, so that more people can experience our hospitality.

So now you know you have to come and visit soon!

SS: What are some of your other favorite dishes from the book that use the abundance of fresh produce as summer eases into fall?

GS: Something I’ve been cooking a lot recently is the Squash and Eggplant Pizzette Capricciosa from the Baked & Roasted chapter: they’re fun to make, and I love eating them even at room temperature the next day, should there be any leftovers. Another dish you’ll want to make right now is fried green (unripe) tomatoes with grapes. It’s such an unusual combination of flavors, yet it’s something I look forward to every year.
And I’m still cooking a lot of peppers. I roast them to make the roasted pepper pasta salad with almonds, olives, and capers, or I stew them into peperonata, a silky, sweet-and-sour dish that works as a side, an appetizer, a pasta sauce, or even as a base for poaching an egg.

And, of course, I roast plenty of tomatoes. Toward the end of the season, when they need a little help to bring out their best flavor, roasting makes them sweeter, richer, and more concentrated. Once roasted, you can serve them as a side dish, turn them into soup, use them for a pasta sauce, or stir them into a risotto (or orzotto!)

Orzotto ai Pomodori Arrosto (Roasted Tomato Orzotto)

Excerpted from Vegetables the Italian Way: Turning Simple and Fresh into Extraordinary. © 2026 Giulia Scarpaleggia. Photograph ©Tommaso Galli. Reproduced with permission of Artisan Books. All rights reserved. Photography by Tommaso Galli.

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My husband, Steve, and I have been making this chicken together for years now. It’s one of our go-tos for summer entertaining, because, well, roast chicken. Everyone seems to love it, and it goes with everything. We buy local farm-raised chickens from a wonderful farm called Iacono in East Hampton. I swear these chickens are juicier and tastier than all others. Seek out an organic free-range chicken from your butcher or supermarket, because it really does make a difference!

I season the chickens (sometimes a day ahead of time, but usually right before cooking), and Steve cooks them on the grill while I get the rest of the dinner together. It takes less than an hour and a half to cook and is almost entirely hands-off. The resulting birds are a deep mahogany color, lightly smoked, and very juicy. Any leftovers are great in salads and sandwiches the next day. Eaten cold, the smoky flavor is more pronounced.

The best way to turn your kettle-style grill into an oven/smoker is to use briquette holders (an inexpensive accessory), which hold the charcoal well off to the side of your grill in a compact, slow-burning pile. If you don’t have them, you can bank the coals steeply to either side of the grill, which will achieve a similar effect. Light one chimney full of coals and divide between the two briquette holders. Add a handful of soaked wood chips to the top of each briquette holder. Place the chickens in between the coals, side by side in the center of the grill so they are getting only indirect heat. Open the top and bottom dampers just a bit and cover the grill. Adjust the dampers (open for hotter, closed for cooler) as needed to maintain a temperature of about 300°F. The chickens will turn a beautiful mahogany color early on, so don’t be alarmed or think they are done. They will take anywhere from one to one and a half hours, until the legs move easily when wiggled or an instant-read thermometer reads 165°F when inserted into the thigh joint. Resist the temptation to open the grill frequently. Don’t even look until an hour has passed. This is the way we cook house chicken, but the recipe can also be used to season chickens cooked in a wood pellet smoker or even the oven. Either way, this chicken is destined to be a house favorite.

Just a quick note: This post may get truncated as it’s too long for email. If it’s cut off, you can click the post title or any of the photos to read it in your browser instead!

If you want a signed copy of Cookie Queen, please preorder through Kitchen Arts & Letters!

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Tools for making House Chicken

If you have a Weber kettle-style grill, you can easily turn it into a smoker. This can be done simply by banking the coals to one side and cooking on the other side, but using these baskets makes it much easier. The coals burn more slowly and evenly, and it’s easy to add wood chips on top to create a smoky flavor.

Weber Char-Baskets

Steve, who is the grillmaster for this particular product, likes a combo of cherry and apple chips for smoking

Apple Wood Chips

Cherry Wood Chips

To make the rest of the meal, I have grown very dependent on this carbon steel grill frying pan. If you already have the grill going, this is a great way to cook your veggies, or even potatoes alongside your main.

Misen Carbon Steel Grill Frying Pan

A sturdy pair of long metal tongs makes easy work of removing the chicken from the grill once it’s done.

OXO GoodGrips 12" Tongs

This is my favorite trencher board for carving the chicken and serving too. All the juice runs to one side, making it easy to spoon some of the jus over top. I also like to move the chicken to the juicy side of the board as I carve it, so it stays, well, juicy.

Wood Trencher Board

House Chicken

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Fresh corn is one of the distinct pleasures of summer, and unlike some of the other treats we enjoy this time of year, it’s not quite as ephemeral. It’s in season for a good long time, from about July 4th straight through Halloween (at least around here). It is also thankfully easy to preserve, i.e., freeze, to be used in the cooler months.

The recipe I made for you today stars the aforementioned corn and the other mainstay of summer farmstands: zucchini. They work great together in these yummy fritters. If you grow zucchini, it’s very likely you’ll have too much of it. It’s also abundantly available everywhere else, and is a great way to get more veggies into an otherwise slightly indulgent dish. I like these as a side dish or for lunch, but you could also make mini ones to serve as an hors d’oeuvre with a creamy yogurt or sour cream dip of your choice.

How to buy corn:

Corn is kind of a no-brainer, but I want to walk you through some tips and tricks that will help you enjoy it even more. It pains me when I see people buying corn in the supermarket when you can get same-day picked from the farmstand down the road. Buy local if you can!

• Look for very fresh green husks. They shouldn’t be dry at all.

• Don’t peel the corn at the farmstand. Farmers hate when you do this, because if you put it back, it gets thrown away. The husk is nature’s packaging, keeping the corn fresh, moist, and clean. If you’re worried about worms or anything else, just buy an extra ear or two. It won’t go to waste. I love having some extra to add to a salad or pasta the next day.

• Look for large ears that feel heavy for their size.

• Try to buy corn on the same day you’re going to eat it, and keep it refrigerated until you do so. Keeping it for a day or two is fine.

How to cook corn:

So many ways, and so little time!

• You can microwave an ear of corn right in the husk. This is best if you’re just cooking for one or two. Cook one ear at a time over high heat for 4 minutes, then let it steam for 2 more. The bonus of cooking this way is that all the silk comes off easily with the husk.

• Here’s one from my mom, who was an early adopter of the microwave: Wrap a peeled ear of corn with 2 layers of wet (not dripping) paper towel and microwave on high for 3 to 4 minutes, turning once. Let steam for a few minutes longer without unwrapping. It steams the corn perfectly.

• Throw them on the grill, husk and all. They will mostly steam, but the grill adds a little smoky flavor and some of the kernels will caramelize as the husks dry out and shrink.

• For truly charred corn, make sure you start with very fresh corn and a fairly aggressive heat on the grill. Brush the husked ears with butter, which will help them brown. If you cook them too slowly, the kernels will dry out and shrink.

• If you just want simple corn (and who doesn’t?), I steam instead of boil. Instead of waiting for a giant pot of water to come to a boil, I place my metal steamer basket and a couple inches of water in the bottom of my pasta pot, and stack the ears log cabin-style.

To cut corn off the cob to use now, or freeze for later:

After husking, rinsing, and removing as much silk as possible, I trim the larger end so it’s flat, and stand it up in a wide wooden salad bowl. You can also just stand it up on your cutting board, but be prepared to chase after bouncing corn kernels. Holding the cob firmly at the top, use your chef’s knife to cut straight down, shaving as close to the cob as possible. You can also lay the cob down horizontally and cut straight down. I don’t like this method as much because I think it’s harder to cut close to the cob. Simply transfer to a zip-top bag and freeze for up to 6 months.

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More recipes for corn season

There’s plenty of inspiration in the Susanality archives for when you tire of plain ol’ corn on the cob (as good as it is!). Here are some favorite recipes worth making this season:

Grilled Corn Salad

This corn salad is zingy and fresh-tasting, perfect for this time of year when we don’t want to do too much cooking, and the abundance and quality of fresh produce doesn’t warrant it!

Blueberry Corn Buckle

Next time you find yourself with an extra ear of corn, use it to enrich this simple, easy-to-make, and fruit-packed skillet cake. The corn imparts its subtle flavor and adds moistness, producing a cake that’s just as much at home on the breakfast or brunch table as it is with an afternoon coffee.

Creamiest Creamed Corn

In this lighter take on creamed corn, I purée a portion of the corn and add it back to the pan. Combined with a pat or two of butter and some grated parm, the corn purée creates a luxurious texture—all without the need for any cream.

Fire Island Clam Chowder

This chowder is a great clean-out-the-fridge meal because of how flexible it is. You can easily halve it, use less corn or more corn, add an extra potato, or use a few fewer clams; it won't really change the outcome dramatically. Plus, it features a clever trick for adding extra body to the soup.

Farmstand Fritters

I added a whole jalapeño, finely diced, but it had absolutely NO heat. I still like the flavor, but if you do want a little heat, add finely diced Fresno or serrano chile (not too much!).

Makes 14

• 2 medium zucchini, grated on the large holes of a box grater (about 2 cups)

• 2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided

• 3 large eggs

• ¾ cup/96 g all-purpose flour

• ¼ cup/38 g cornmeal

• ¼ cup milk or buttermilk

• ½ teaspoon baking powder

• ½ teaspoon smoked paprika

• Freshly ground pepper

• 2 cups corn kernels (from 2 large ears)

• ½ cup thinly sliced scallions (about 5)

• ½ cup chopped mixed herbs, like basil, chives, parsley, etc.

• 1 cup/3 ounces grated cheddar or aged gouda

• Vegetable oil, for cooking

1. Place the zucchini in a mesh colander or strainer set over a bowl, and sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt. Let sit while you do the rest of the prep, tossing with your hands a few times. Squeeze down with a paper towel to release the liquid.

2. Combine eggs, flour, cornmeal, buttermilk, baking powder, smoked paprika, remaining 1½ teaspoons salt, and pepper in a large bowl.

3. Add the zucchini, corn, scallions, herbs, and cheese and fold in using a rubber spatula.

4. Heat ¼ inch of oil in a medium nonstick pan over medium-high heat. Use a ¼ cup measure to dollop the batter into the pan. You should be able to fit 3 or 4 at a time.

5. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes on the first side, until the edges look nice and brown and set near the edges. Carefully flip (away from you so the oil doesn’t splash) and cook on the other side for 2 to 3 minutes. Make sure the heat is high enough to form a nice crust, or they will take longer and be harder to flip. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate as you cook them. Add more oil as needed for cooking.

Farmstand Fritters

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I am not normally one to celebrate National (fill in the blank) Days, but I am making an exception for National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day (August 4th). That is really something to celebrate! Since cookies have been topmost on my mind for the past two years (have you preordered my new book yet?), I seized the opportunity to create a brand new recipe just for you, my dear readers.

Let’s face it, there are a million CCC cookie recipes out there, and many of them are just subtly different from each other, including this one. I wrote about this in the headnote for my “Yet Another CCC” in my book:

This version uses brown butter as a base too, but instead of mixing by hand (meaning with a bowl and spoon), you will whip the butter/sugar/egg mixture in a stand mixer or with a hand-held mixer to help dissolve the sugar. This same step is an essential part of creating brownies with a shiny top. It’s all about dissolving the sugar to create a bit of a crust. If you’re thinking, “But Susan, I hate pulling out my mixer. Do I have to?” The answer is no, you don’t have to! I just can’t promise they will be exactly the same as these.

The other beautiful part of this recipe is that just like the recipe in my book, which is in the “Instant Gratification” chapter, there is absolutely no waiting involved in the making of these cookies. I have seen many a recipe that requires a 24- or even 48-hour chill time before baking, promising that this will result in a superior cookie. I am going to go out on a limb and say that any difference will be subtle, and I wonder if people could really tell in a blind taste test.

While many doughs for all kinds of cookie recipes DO require chilling, this one does not. If you do chill this dough, the main difference is that the flour will become more hydrated, resulting in a slightly different texture. It all gets very scientific, but you don’t need to concern yourself with that—leave that to me! These are at their very best when you scoop them out and bake them immediately after mixing. In addition to the brown butter, these also have nonfat dry milk powder, which you toast along with the butter. This not only deepens the already caramelly and toasty flavor but also contributes to the chewy texture. This is my new favorite CCC, and everyone who has tried them agrees. So, get into the kitchen and make these ASAP!

If you’ve read this far, I would like to urge you once again to please preorder Cookie Queen! I am so proud of this book, and I just got my first advance copy. It is truly beautiful, and I am in love. You will want to have this in your hands on pub day (November 3rd) so you can start planning your holiday cookie baking. And as a reminder, there are four BONUS recipes, including a chewy poppyseed cookie sandwiched with lemon curd, a matcha thumbprint with fresh mint and creamy chocolate ganache, a melt-in-your-mouth cutout cookie to decorate, and yet another chocolate chunk cookie, this one with chopped Medjool dates, that you will get instant access to as soon as you preorder. Just fill out the form at the preorder link to get your recipes.

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Chewy Crackly Crinkly Chocolate Chunk Cookies

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To me, a cold noodle salad is one of the best summertime foods. It’s a blank canvas for whatever you have in your crisper. I am the first to admit that I scroll on Instagram way too much, and I have a number of folders where I save things. Most of them I never revisit, but the biggest one, and the one I do return to now and then, is one called “Recipes to Try.” When I saw Nick Curtola, the chef of the Michelin-starred and impossible-to-get-into restaurant, The Four Horsemen, in Brooklyn, throw together the salad that inspired this one in his laid-back and deft way, I knew I’d be making it ASAP. He posted it during a heat wave, and he called it a soup, finishing it off with lots of crushed ice, which would presumably melt and transform the salad into a cold noodle soup.

First, I should tell you that I have not (yet) been able to snag a reservation at The Four Horsemen, but I have tried, and will try again someday. In the meantime, I will continue to follow Nick on Instagram for a dose of inspiration. His cooking style and skill level are something I aspire to, and I hope to someday taste his food IRL. If any of you have an “IN,” please let me know!

Since Nick didn’t actually share a recipe, I watched the video several times until I was ready to reverse-engineer it into something both you and I could make. One of the clever things about the recipe that caught my eye was that he cooked the cabbage along with the shrimp. They cook in about the same amount of time, and if you buy cleaned shrimp, the whole process is really easy.

I love adding napa cabbage to a noodle salad, as it bulks it up and adds flavor and texture (and vegetables!), but I usually add it raw and let it wilt, which could lead to a watery salad. Blanching it eliminated that possibility. Although Chef Nick was trying to add water to make a soup, I decided I was more into a salad, without the extra water. That said, I do love the idea of adding crushed ice to serve this on a very hot day.

I also took the liberty of adding some peanut butter to the dressing for extra flavor and to thicken it a bit, and to echo that, garnished the dish with crushed peanuts. This is the kind of dish where you can do YOU.

If you want a personally signed (not a bookplate) copy of Cookie Queen, please preorder through Kitchen Arts & Letters!

And in case you missed it, I’m giving away an e-book with four new cookie recipes you won’t find anywhere else. Just fill out this form to submit your proof of purchase, and you’ll instantly receive the e-book so you can start baking today!

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More hot weather recipes

Sesame Soba Salad with Toasted Buckwheat

This is another craveable cold noodle salad, this time inspired by my love of buckwheat. I love using crisp sugar snap peas here (cut lengthwise, which helps them soak up the dressing), but this is a great canvas for any green vegetable you have on hand.

Pan Bagnat

Pan Bagnat (pā ba’na) has been a longtime favorite of mine. Imagine allll of the Mediterranean flavors packed into a single baguette or a roll and then left to marinate until you’re ready to eat it at home or take it along wherever you’re going.

Vietnamese-Inspired Watermelon and Tomato Salad

We’re entering peak watermelon and tomato season, and while both are perfect eaten on their own, sometimes you want something a little more elevated that still takes advantage of the juicy, fresh, luscious qualities that these two symbols of summer embody. If that’s the case, this salad fits the bill!

Cold Noodle Salad à la The Four Horsemen

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Hi everybody! Hope you’re having a lovely Sunday. I know you’re not used to me popping in on the weekend, but I have something special to share with you.

As you know, my new book, Cookie Queen, comes out on November 3rd. I am so proud of this book, and I am pretty sure you’re going to love it if you love cookies. And if you don’t love cookies, who are you even? Of all the books I’ve written, this one is the most personal to me. Somehow, baking cookies has always been a thread in my life since the time I was very young, and the recipes in this book are all delicious and unique—and as Martha says, “the recipes really work.”

I know it gets tiring hearing every cookbook author pleading with you to preorder their books, and believe me, it’s hard to keep pleading! BUT, I can’t stress how important it is to a book’s success to have strong preorder sales numbers. It shows the publisher and booksellers how much interest there is in the book, which in turn gets more people interested in selling it. I know many of you would rather wait until the book is out to buy it, but if you have any interest in it, I am practically begging you to order it now. And while you’re at it, buy a few extra for the bakers in your life, because it makes a great gift too! Don’t forget, if you hate it (you won’t) you can return it! If you order it now, you’ll have it on pub day, just in time to plan your holiday cookie baking.

Preorder Cookie Queen

If you like my work (and I know you do, because you are here), this is the best way to support me, so I can keep bringing you fresh ideas and great recipes.

When putting together a book like Cookie Queen, I tend to end up with more recipes than I need. A few fall out for one reason or another. Here are FOUR fantastic recipes that did not make the first cut. One of them was developed especially for you, the Matcha Mint Thumbprints with Chocolate Ganache. You won’t find these recipes anywhere else, and we’ve put them together in a pretty e-book, so you can start baking right away. This will give you a feel for what Cookie Queen is all about, and you’ll have cookies!

Your support means the world to me. Thanks for being here!

The preorder link below will take you to the site where you can choose your preferred bookseller to order the book. Then, just fill out the form to submit your proof of purchase. You will instantly receive the e-book so you can start baking today. If you’ve already preordered, thank you! Just fill out the form at the link. One stop shopping!

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I first met Grace Elkus in 2021, when she was working for The Kitchn. I had been hired to do a recipe for them, and when it came time to test it, I had the pleasure of working with Grace. I had to look back to remember the recipe I had created for them, and it was a large-format grain bowl, which is right up Grace’s vegetarian alley. Add some tofu, and you’d have this version that I made several times last summer, which is even more up her alley! I had forgotten about that particular assignment, but not about Grace.

When I found her on Instagram, I followed her immediately. I’m not sure if that was before, during, or after she blew up on social media. Grace realized that there was a lack of high-protein vegetarian recipes online, so she started sharing the food she ate to fuel her strength workouts. Getting enough protein (but not too much) is crucial for everyone, and especially challenging for vegetarians. Clearly, there were a lot of people (more than 500k!) who wanted what Grace had to offer, which is delicious, nutritious, and easy food. She wrote this book with a newborn on her hip, so you know it has to be pretty easy!

The recipe I chose to share with you all today is the Veggie Crunch Hummus Sandwich, which is a genre I have always loved. I’m sort of a part-time vegetarian, just because I like eating that way, and a big fat veggie sandwich always hits the spot for me. Grace has some tips on engineering to keep everything from sliding around. It may still be a five-napkin sandwich, but that’s OK!

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I asked Grace a few questions about her new book in the Q & A below. We are giving away a copy, so let me know in the comments why you want to win. I’ll choose a winner at random on Monday, June 20th, so keep an eye on your inbox! You must be a U.S. resident age 18 or over to enter. See the bottom of this post for the giveaway fine print1 and click the button below to leave your note.

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Q and A with Grace Elkus

SUSAN SPUNGEN: Tell us a little bit about your journey as a vegetarian. When did you start and why? How has your eating changed over the years?

GRACE ELKUS: I became a vegetarian in the sixth grade after watching an episode of Braceface in which the main character visits a meatpacking farm. At the time, I definitely didn’t see it as a lifelong decision, but I’ve never really had a desire to reintroduce meat into my diet.

At first, I was focused solely on what I wasn’t eating, instead of thinking about the nutritional makeup of what I was eating. Over the years, as I’ve become more in tune with how different foods make me feel and how they fuel me for busy days and tough workouts, I’ve started paying closer attention to macronutrients. Today, I prioritize getting enough protein and fiber because they help keep me energized and satiated.

SS: Did you love vegetables at first? Or did you just dislike meat?

GE: I’ve always liked vegetables, but I didn’t really get creative with them until I started cooking for myself. My dad used to pack me pita sandwiches with hummus, cheese, cucumber, bell pepper, and tomato for school lunch, and I loved them. At holiday dinners, I’d happily fill my plate with green beans almondine and sweet potato casserole. But I wasn’t exactly blitzing edamame into falafel patties the way I am now.

SS: What are some of the less obvious protein sources that vegetarians can take advantage of, and how can all of us make sure we’re getting enough protein without going overboard? Tell us what’s in the book to help people understand this all better.

GE: In the book, I encourage readers to find a few protein sources they genuinely enjoy, keep them stocked, and then start to explore all the different ways they can use them. I think that’s less overwhelming than trying to learn how to cook a dozen new things at once.

For example: shelled edamame can be mixed into pasta salads or grain bowls, or blended into a creamy sauce. French green lentils are great in make-ahead salads, stirred into “bolognese,” or crisped up and sprinkled over roasted veggies. Hemp seeds can be added to oatmeal, whisked into muffin batter, or blended into smoothies. Small upgrades like these make it much easier to hit your protein goals without overthinking it. And it’s all just so delicious!

SS: Cottage cheese is having a moment, and I think a lot of that is due to your viral cottage cheese recipes! What are some dos and don’ts for cooking with cottage cheese, and why do you love it so much?

GE: Don’t say that—I’m already getting blamed for the shortage in stores!

When I’m snacking on it, I’ll usually choose 2%. But if I’m heating it up, I always reach for 4%. I also let it come to room temperature before cooking and keep the heat low to help prevent it from separating.

I love cottage cheese because of its versatility. I can spread it onto toast or stir it into pancake batter for breakfast, then blend it into pasta sauce or layer it into sheet pan lasagna for dinner, and I’ve knocked out 20% of my daily protein goal without feeling like I ate the same thing all day. It’s also lower in fat than many cheeses and has a milder flavor than plain yogurt, which makes it easy to work into both sweet and savory recipes.

SS: On the subject of today’s recipe, give us your best tips for engineering this sandwich and boosting the flavor and nutrition.

GE: To start, I like to use a soft but sturdy whole wheat or multi-grain sandwich bread that I slice myself, which ensures the slices are thick enough to hold all the fillings without falling apart. I also like to quick-pickle the veggies to add complexity with barely any extra work. Instead of slicing the cheese, I grate it so it acts as a binder rather than letting everything slide off — and we’re using the grater for the carrots anyways! Finally, I stir hemp seeds into the hummus for an easy protein boost.

If you want a signed copy of Cookie Queen, please preorder through Kitchen Arts & Letters!

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Veggie Crunch Hummus Sandwiches

Reprinted with permission from Protein-Packed Vegetarian: Easy, Nourishing Recipes to Fuel Your Day: A High-Protein Cookbook. Copyright © 2026 by Grace Elkus. Photographs copyright © 2026 by Linda Pugliese. Published by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

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Summer cooking is stunningly simple. Just go to the farmer’s market or farm stand, grab whatever looks freshest and most tempting, and do as little as possible to it.

The same goes for proteins, whether it’s fish, chicken, shrimp, or the occasional steak. I marinate briefly or not, so it’s ready when I am, then turn on the grill, and the meal lands on the table with a minimum of fuss and mess. Leaving the kitchen nice and cool (and clean) is a bonus.

To bring everything up a notch (or two), it helps to have an arsenal of cold sauces and dressings at the ready to drizzle or slather onto all this simple food. The best part is that most of these sauces keep well for at least a week, so they can be used multiple times in multiple ways, bringing dishes together quickly and deliciously.

Below, you’ll find some highlights from the archives as well as three new recipes to try out this summer. Make a few of them at once to have on hand for the lazy days ahead. You won’t regret it!

Just a quick note: This post may get truncated as it’s too long for email. If it’s cut off, you can click the post title or any of the photos to read it in your browser instead!

If you want a signed copy of Cookie Queen, please preorder through Kitchen Arts & Letters!

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Sauces and dressings from the archive

Before we get into today’s recipes, here are some favorite sauces and dressings from the Susanality archives.

Garlic Scape Pesto

This garlic scape pesto is a handy condiment that can be swirled into hot or cold soup or heaped onto a sandwich. Adding a spoonful at the end of cooking just about anything (pasta, risotto) adds flavor and a verdant green color, and it’s also great as a quick marinade for fish or chicken or whisked into a vinaigrette (or even green goddess!).

Salsa Macha

This rich, oily condiment made from dried chilis, peanuts, and sesame seeds adds heat and smoky savoriness to everything it touches. I love it on scrambled eggs, roasted vegetables, or in a bowl of soup or my grain bowl du jour, and much more.

Green Goddess Dressing

This riffable recipe is the perfect thing to make if you have an herb garden, which, as you probably know, is something I highly recommend if you have the space. However you tweak it, it can be used as a crudité dip, a sauce for grilled fish or chilled seafood, to make chicken salad, as a sandwich spread, mixed with canned tuna, etc. etc.

Buttermilk-Feta Dressing

This dressing is creamy and a little rich with plenty of tanginess thanks to a combination of buttermilk, feta, lemon, and garlic. You can use it on almost anything, including this little gem salad studded with colorful radishes.

Miso Maple Dressing

White miso’s mild sweetness and slight saltiness make it a wonderful secret weapon in a salad dressing. In this recipe, it’s whisked into an earthy dressing with maple syrup, tahini, lemon juice, and microplaned garlic, resulting in a dressing that’s sturdy enough to stand up to the fibrous nature of kale salad. It would also be excellent drizzled on roasted vegetables or pork tenderloin.

Pickled Shallot Vinaigrette

This is an almost classic vinaigrette, the key difference being that the shallots are lightly pickled by being briefly heated in the vinegar base, which helps to take the raw edge off. This recipe makes a big batch, which can happily live in your fridge (preferably in a glass jar) for a week or so, ready to dress just about anything.

3 new recipes for your repertoire

Tonnato Sauce

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I have to admit that until I read Kendra Vaculin’s treatise on the Hugo Spritz in last week’s New York Times, I was blissfully unaware of its charms. It’s true that I don’t spend much time in bars, or even drink very much, but I do enjoy a spritz in the summertime (or anytime?). I will often order an Aperol spritz, but they are almost always a bit cloying for me unless made at home with proportions I choose, which always include less Aperol and more spritz.

Anyway, the timing was perfect for this awakening, as I had penciled in “Batched Cocktail” in my editorial planning calendar. I thought we could all use a drink and might need a last-minute cocktail for the long weekend, which is also predicted to be VERY HOT here on the East Coast. We’ve been lucky so far, but here comes the sun!

I’ve made a few tweaks to the classic—which is maybe not that classic since the drink is just about 20 years old, widely attributed to an Alpine bartender named Roland Gruber. Since my herb garden is absolutely bursting, I wanted to include not just the typical mint but also shiso and basil. The flavor is subtle, so use what you have, but I had fun garnishing the drinks with different sprigs. I also found especially beautiful and juicy limes at the store yesterday, when I tested this out on my apparently spritz-loving family who had gathered for a little burger bash at our house.

I decided to try topping off the drink with Fever-Tree elderflower tonic water, which they sell at my supermarket, rather than plain sparkling water. I thought the extra sweetness might be too much, but it wasn’t. Use this delicious alternative if you can find it to up the elderflower taste and aroma. I’ve also added a little bit of gin, which is totally optional, but we loved it!

Finally, the big twist here is that I’m giving you a batch recipe, because who has time to make individual drinks when guests descend? This recipe makes one pitcher to serve eight at a time. When it’s time for refills, it’s quicker and easier to make a second batch than eight more drinks. The prosecco will keep its fizz nicely for at least an hour, so you can mix up a pitcher and keep it chilled while you wait for your friends to arrive.

Just a quick note: This post may get truncated as it’s too long for email. If it’s cut off, you can click the post title or any of the photos to read it in your browser instead!

If you want a signed copy of Cookie Queen, please preorder through Kitchen Arts & Letters!

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My summer hosting essentials

Marta Double Old-Fashioned Glasses

The Marta Double Old-Fashioned glass is perfect for this kind of informal summer drink. These thin glasses are not as fragile as they look and are a delight to drink from. Yes, occasionally they break, but at these prices, it’s OK. And they are on sale for an even better price right now! The sage green variation would be beautiful for this drink.

CB2 Trap Pitcher

This elegant pitcher is made from durable borosilicate glass and would be the perfect vessel for any batched cocktail—Hugo Spritzes included! Like the glasses, it’s also on sale for a great price right now.

Magisso Cooling Ceramics Ice Bucket

Here’s the sleek and functional ice bucket we’ve used for years. Soaking the bucket in cold water before filling it with ice keeps it cold for hours as the water evaporates. The tongs fit neatly into a slot on the lid.

Farmhouse Pottery Craft Muddler

If you don’t have a muddler among your bar supplies, you’re missing out. I love this white wood version from Farmhouse Pottery, a favorite brand of mine.

Oxo Steel Angled Jigger

I am lost without my 2-ounce plastic Oxo measuring cups, but this stainless version looks right at home on the bar and is just as easy to use.

Serena & Lily Spinnaker Tray

This summery tray is as functional as it is beautiful. The high sides and large handles wrapped in rattan will help you avoid mishaps when carrying drinks.

Meri Meri x Molly Mahon Small Napkins

I always have an assortment of napkins from Meri Meri on hand for casual gatherings. They come in the cutest patterns—plus the brand makes matching plates, cups, and decor if you want to deck out your whole table.

Small Multicolor Compostable Plates

These compostable plates are perfect for snacks and desserts, and the pastel colors look right at home on a summer tablescape.

Big Batch Hugo Spritz

Serves 8

St-Germain, the delicate and floral elderflower liqueur, is at the heart of this refreshing spritz. Gin is a great addition because the flavor pairs so well, but I add just a little bit to keep the alcohol content light.

• 4 ounces St-Germain (elderflower liqueur)

• 2 ounces gin

• A few sprigs of basil, mint, or shiso, or a combination, plus more for garnish

• 1 750 ml bottle dry prosecco

• About 8 ounces elderflower tonic water or sparkling water

• 8 lime slices

1. Combine the gin and St-Germain in a medium pitcher. Add a generous handful of herbs, and use the muddler to crush the leaves a bit to release their flavor. Add the prosecco (you’ll need to add it in increments to let the bubbles die down).

2. Fill 8 glasses with ice and pour the mixture into the glasses, dividing it evenly. Top each glass with some tonic or soda, and garnish with more herbs and a slice of lime.

Big Batch Hugo Spritz

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Tres leches has a long origin story that many Latin American countries claim as their own. It has become ubiquitous worldwide, with popularity in places as far-flung as Turkey and the Balkans.

Its popularity as a celebration cake is well-earned; it’s very easy to put together, it’s delicious, especially on a hot summer day, and it can feed a lot of people. Baked in its usual pan (a 9-by-13-inch Pyrex), it’s very portable, too, making it perfect for picnics and potlucks. Some of its other attributes are that it can be—no, must be—made ahead, and can sit happily in your fridge for up to two days before finishing and serving. If you’re pressed for time, you could get away with a few hours, giving the cake enough time to soak in the triple-milk mixture and get nice and cold.

A few weeks ago, when I was workshopping this recipe for publication here, it also happened to be my niece’s 25th birthday, and she was paying us a visit at the end of a very long bike ride. Always one to kill two birds with one stone, I decided to make the cake smaller for the occasion for two reasons: number one, I wanted it to look more like a birthday cake, i.e., round, and number two, I didn’t want to have so much leftover cake. Sadly, this is one that I don’t think would fare so well in the freezer (but you never know!).

So, I cut the recipe in half and made a few other tweaks to a recipe I had developed a few years ago (always tweaking) and found it worked best in an 8-inch round (or square) cake pan. You can use a springform too (you won’t be soaking the cake in the pan, so there’s no risk of leaking), but don’t use a 9-inch pan because that would make the cake too thin and shallow.

This cake is very fast and easy to put together, and it can sit in the fridge until almost serving time. If you don’t want to make the meringue icing, which I think looks and tastes amazing, you can simply top it with whipped cream, serving the berries right on top or on the side. If using meringue, you can use an offset spatula to give the cake the traditional swoopy decoration, and it can be returned to the refrigerator for many hours or even a whole day before serving. The meringue won’t slide off, despite being on a wet cake!

I’ve been wanting to join in on the fun of using a giant basketweave tip (Ateco #789) for a while now. Though this tip was designed to make a very large cake look like a basket, it’s way more fun to go freeform with it. The soft and flowing texture of the meringue makes it easy to pipe the mixture through the decorative tube. And just look at it! Best $8.59 I’ve ever spent!

Add some mixed berries on the side, and it’s perfect for the Fourth of July!

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More recipes for the Fourth:

Raspberry-Pomegranate Cheesecake Bars

These bars are easy, delicious, and quite beautiful, with their gorgeous red and glossy glaze. They are perfect for an outdoor gathering because they transport well and are easy to eat out of hand on a napkin. Add blueberries for an even more festive look!

Strawberry Pie Crumble Bars

These bars are the perfect thing to serve at a Fourth of July party, or any other backyard soirées you have planned this summer. Fully cool them and cut into squares for bars you can eat on a napkin, or make them a few hours before you want to serve so that they are cool but still squidgy and soft for more of a pie experience.

Zucchini Baba Ganoush

Homemade is almost always better when it comes to dips, and they are easy to make. This one in particular is a great option if you have a vegetable garden or belong to a CSA and have found yourself swimming in zucchini—plus it’s a crowd pleaser!

Tips for Pie Dough and Galette Success

If you’re planning on making a pie or galette for the Fourth, this post will set you up for success. In it, I go over all of my tips for making the flakiest crust, as well as some pointers for baking galettes. Wondering which galette to make? This Peach and Almond one would be welcome at any party.

Little Tres Leches with Meringue and Berries

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As I was giving a lot of thought to what kind of recipe to share with you this week, I considered a lot of meaty dishes—mostly cooked on the grill—that seemed like they would be appropriate for Father’s Day. I even got so far down the road with a pork souvlaki idea (with all the trimmings) that I made it and served it to my husband and niece a few weeks ago. It was a very good feast, but also not quite there recipe-wise, so I ultimately shelved it (for now). I guess I was using my husband, who is also a father, as a muse, which suggested BBQ ribs, pulled pork, or something in that porky vein.

But then I thought about my own dad. When he was diagnosed very late in the game of pancreatic cancer in 2010, I was doing everything I could to make his last days better. When he got the bad news about his condition, his instinct was to fight, but he never even got the chance to try. It was only six short weeks from the time of diagnosis until he passed. He was in and out of the hospital during that time, and ultimately died at home over July 4th weekend while in hospice care. As anyone who has ever cared for a dying person knows, food becomes less and less important until it’s not needed at all.

Before that day came, though, my father told me what he really wanted (when I asked him) was Manhattan clam chowder. So I went shopping for the ingredients on my way home and delivered the soup the very next day. I knew we didn’t have much time, and I was trying to comfort him in the way that I knew best: by cooking, feeding, and nurturing. I heated the soup for him and he took a few bites, but he didn’t enjoy it with the gusto I was hoping for. After that, he stopped eating altogether. So yes, this clam chowder was his last meal.

I froze the rest of the soup and continued helping to take care of my dad. When it was all over, the soup was still in the freezer, where it remained for quite a while. Whenever I opened the freezer and saw it there, it was hard not to think about how the soup had outlived him. I did eventually defrost and eat the soup, and it felt especially poignant knowing that I had made it for him, and it was all I had left of him.

If you want a signed copy of Cookie Queen, please preorder through Kitchen Arts & Letters!

Preorder a Signed Copy

Some other Dad-friendly recipes to consider for the weekend:

Fire-Pit Steak and Potatoes

I first made this recipe while styling it for Michael Symon’s latest cookbook, but it’s since become one of Steve’s (and my) favorites. It features a fun twist on reverse searing, plus some delicious white wine-steamed potatoes to serve along with the steak.

Pomegranate-Glazed Kofta Kebabs

These flavorful kofta kebabs are so easy to cook on the grill, and are even better prepared completely ahead of time—which means you can get them mixed, threaded onto skewers, and ready to go up to a day ahead of your Father’s Day get-together.

Za’atar Yogurt Chicken

A yogurt marinade is the path to juicy, tender, and flavorful chicken, and this za’atar-crusted bird is a great example. After a long soak in the marinade, the chicken gets a thick coating of spices that transforms the skin into a crispy, flavorful layer that seals in all those juices, whether you choose to grill or roast your bird.

Blueberry Corn Buckle

This simple, easy-to-make, and fruit-packed skillet cake would be the perfect treat for a Father’s Day celebration. The corn imparts its subtle flavor and adds moistness to the cake. Some vanilla ice cream or a dollop of crème fraîche on the side makes for an ideal dessert, but it’s just as much at home on the breakfast or brunch table.

Manhattan Clam Chowder

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