Greetings eaters and readers! So much to get to this morning, so I’ll be quick with my wind-up. Let’s start with priorities: Congratulations to my friend Adam Roberts, whose novel, Food Person is out today! 🎉 🎉 It’s about a New York food writer forced to take a cookbook ghostwriting job for a scandal-prone celebrity, whose chaotic personal life and lack of kitchen know-how proves to, er, complicate things. Can’t you just picture the movie? It’s a lot of fun and the story really moves. I’ll be interviewing Adam next week as part of my Spring Book Talk Series, so stay tuned for more details. (Or check out his book tour info and meet him IRL.) NEXT: Memorial Day Food! I’ll be trying not to lose it at my daughter’s graduation this weekend, but if you are kicking off cookout season with friends and looking for menu ideas, check out the Entertaining section of my Spring/Summer Index. Or just download My Favorite Cookout Menu and be done with it. Lastly: Thank you for all the feedback on my new workout strategy — now I guess I really have to stick with the plan. Here are your Three Things…

1. Tangy Rhubarb Turnovers

I started this recipe just after halftime during one of the Knicks-Celtics playoff games last week — not the one where the Knicks took it all (wooooooot), the one where we were down by 25 at the half, and the superstitious spectator in me decided to head to the kitchen, simmer some chopped rhubarb with sugar, and ignore the bloodbath happening on screen. Maybe if I pretend not to care, the logic went, Boston will start choking on their threes again, and we’ll come back. Shockingly, this strategy failed the Knicks, but at least at the buzzer, I had a comforting little batch of rhubarb compote waiting for me, and instead of wallowing in the loss, I got to think about my stewed fruit possibilities. I could dollop it atop French toast or pancakes or the famous waffles or my small-scale Angel Food cake, or stir into yogurt or the good skyr I brought home from Vermont last week. I could use it as the base of Michael Anthony’s Sweet and Sour Rhubarb sauce and enjoy tang of the rhubarb cut the richness of a crispy-skinned roast chicken. Maybe instead of an apple crumb cake, I’d try out a rhubarb crumb cake. That recipe got me thinking about other traditional apple desserts that could be rhubarbed — yes, it’s a verb — which is how I landed on these tangy turnovers. I had puff pastry in the freezer, and after a quick thaw and a quick bake, I finally had my victory.

Tangy Rhubarb Turnovers
Could you make these strawberry-rhubarb turnovers? Yes of course. Just go with a 1 to 1 ratio of strawberries to rhubarb (so replace half the rhubarb with strawberries here) and decease the sugar to about 1 tablespoon to account for strawberry sweetness. Makes 8.

Dals Rhubarb Turnovers

125KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

2. Cool Trick

Here’s something I find a lot of people don’t know: When you want to keep drinks cold (or accelerate their chilling) in a cooler, steel tub, or ice bucket, it is way more effective to plunge them into a mixture of ice and water, instead of only ice. This photo is from my friend Sonya’s party a few summers ago, and I think I see a shallow pool of water in there, but I’d go even further and make sure the bottles are at least halfway submerged. P.S. Since it’s apparently rhubarb week on DALS, you can find those daiquiris and other batchable drinks here. Cheers!

3. Odette’s Easy-Breezy Spaghetti Al Limone

My friend Odette Williams just launched a newsletter called Devour, devoted to, among other things, entertaining, and this makes a lot of sense because I think she might just be the best party host I know. Once, I went to her Brooklyn apartment for a casual get-together where she casually assembled a champagne tower, and we all watched her pour Prosecco into the very top glass, applauding and cheering as the Prosecco trickled its way down six levels to a fleet of vintage coupes. I know this sounds like some kind of fancy (or worse, gimmicky) party move, but somehow it was the opposite — we were literally all wearing jeans, I don’t think Odette was even wearing shoes, and yet there she was having the best time, giving her guests this little moment of surprise and delight, a moment that I’m clearly still thinking about years later. For her annual holiday party, she clears out all the furniture in her living space, and invites everyone she knows even if that means things get tight. Last year, for that party, she ordered a bunch of Sullivan Street pizzas and didn’t even take them out of their boxes. She just let her guests discover and devour them on their own. (And we did!) She did the same thing with a spiral glazed ham, skipping any fussy food spread, instead just leaving the giant ham on the stovetop, and letting guests assemble their own sandwiches with the pre-buttered (!) baguettes. There was also that time she hosted a drinks party, pulling a homemade spanikopita out of the oven as we were sipping cocktails around the kitchen counter. “Oh this beautiful thing?” is what it felt like she was saying with that power move. We all dug in, there may not have been plates or forks.

I could go on, but you get the idea. Odette is an amazing cook (you might already know this from her books, Simple Pasta or Simple Cake) but she has something else — a special combination of warmth and sparkle and unfussiness that makes people comfortable and happy. Now that she is writing a newsletter, maybe we can all figure out how to steal that from her. She’s got a lot planned for the summer, but for now, I asked Odette to share a few tips as we head into outdoor entertaining season. Here’s what she gave me:

Always have ice. Keep two glasses in freezer, at the ready, at all times. Have a few bottles of red Vermouth in the fridge chilling to make spritzes with soda water, or have on the rocks with a twist of orange after dinner for dessert. Go barefoot. It relaxes you and sets the mood for your friends. Remember, no one cares about any of the things you might be worrying about. Keep recipes and menus really simple. Klondike Bars or Mini Magnums make for an easy dessert. Chilled Mini Snickers for afternoon pick me up. And always have the ingredients for this Spaghetti al Limone on hand. It can be a stand alone quick weeknight pasta, or part of a feast, served with salad and grilled chicken or fish or shrimp. It’s the ultimate crowd-pleasing team player.

And here’s that recipe, part of a Memorial Day Menu that Odette plans to send to Devour readers later in the week. Subscribe if you don’t want to miss it.

Dals Spaghetti Al Limone

123KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

This vibe, all summer. How cute is Odette?

Have a great week!

Jenny

If you like what you read, would you take a sec to hit the ❤️ button at the top left or bottom left of this newsletter? It helps spread the word about Dinner: A Love Story and also really makes my day.

🥬 🍅 For easy, approachable vegetarian recipes, check out my New York Times bestselling book The Weekday Vegetarians and the follow-up: The Weekday Vegetarians: Get Simple. 🍳🌿