NYT Cooking

Healing stew (hopefully)

~ MaryG ~ 5 Comments

The healing process for my husband’s knee replacement is ongoing. Sadly, we had to cancel dinner with our son for his 25th birthday tonight, because my husband just isn’t ready for restaurants yet. There’s still a ton of pain, swelling, and stiffness, which apparently is normal at this stage (3 weeks post-op), but he’s never dealt with anything like this, so it’s pretty hard.

I decided to try a recipe I saw on NYT Cooking “most popular recipes of 2025” list—Slow Cooker Garlic Butter Chicken. It looked easy and it was. My husband loved it. He said the flavor was great and it really was. I even made my own croutons, which soaked up the delicious sauce perfectly.

New England is experiencing real “depths of winter” cold right now. (It’s giving late January vibes.) Given the very cold weather and the knee, I think this was a success. And so easy.

Next time I’ll put the croutons in the dish first to absorb as much sauce as possible 😋

Here’s the recipe:

Slow Cooker Garlic Butter Chicken .pdfDownload

Slow cookers (aka crockpots) are the best, right?

The Daily Prompt and Joe Biden

~ MaryG ~ 7 Comments

According to WordPress, I’ve already answered today’s daily prompt, so I guess I’ve lapped myself. I’ve been posting regularly for about a year now. Here was my answer from last time this prompt came up:

Yeah, no, I don’t think so

Regarding Joe Biden, I’m getting more and more fearful that he’s just totally going to F*** us all by not dropping out. This article by Mark Leibovich is pretty harsh, but I tend to agree.

“It is now obvious that Biden has in no way internalized the disaster toward which he is defiantly ambling—or, more to the point, toward which he is leading his party and his country (and, for that matter, NATO, Ukraine, thousands of as-yet-not-deported immigrants, and unprosecuted Trump “enemies”). He seems fully indifferent to any consideration beyond his own withered pride and raging ego.”

I’m trying not to care about politics as much, because it’s just so damn depressing right now. I’m spending a lot of time trying chicken salad recipes and rearranging furniture. I’m trying to take heart in the fact that I (and most everyone I love) live in Massachusetts and perhaps we will be relatively insulated from Trump 2.0, but I know in my heart that nobody will escape it.

Complicated recipe, but very good in the end, especially on Day 2. The flavors really seemed to ripen.

Cold Rice Noodles with Grilled Chicken and Peanut Sauce

Cold Rice Noodles With Grilled Chicken and Peanut Sauce RecipeDownload

Weird food combos

~ MaryG ~ 4 Comments

What could you let go of, for the sake of harmony?

Sometimes you should let go of preconceived ideas of which foods go together and try things that sound weird.

For example, my husband makes (and claims to have invented) peanut butter and salsa sandwiches. I won’t eat those, but I do love cheddar cheese in apple pie. And have you seen Episode 1 of Season 3 of The Bear on Hulu yet? Was that a blood orange reduction and a large potato chip on a seared scallop?!? It looked pretty darn good.

You don’t think of peanut butter and pasta as being a good combo, but this recipe from NYT Cooking is a winner. It’s called “Cold Noodles with Sesame Sauce, Chicken and Cucumbers.” I didn’t have sesame paste (tahini) so I substituted natural peanut butter (as the recipe suggests) and it was good! I will try it again with tahini at some point.

I used a whole package (16 ounces) of linguine, rather than 12 oz like the recipe says, and it was fine.

Recipe attached as a PDF:

Cold Noodles With Sesame Sauce, Chicken And Cucumbers RecipeDownload

Recipe substitutions

~ MaryG ~ 6 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What are you good at?
View all responses

I’m pretty good at making recipe substitutions, based on what I have on hand.

I tried this NYT Cooking recipe for “Lemony Orzo with Asparagus and Garlic Bread Crumbs” a couple of weeks ago. (I’ve actually made it twice now.) It first caught my eye on Instagram. It’s meatless, tasty and light. It could be a nice side dish, but we had it as the main course. Two thumbs up!

I didn’t have any orzo, so I substituted another small pasta (elbows). I had no fresh mint, parsley or dill, so I used basil.

Recipe attached as PDF
lemony-orzo-with-asparagus-and-garlic-bread-crumbs-recipeDownload