Good morning! Today we have for you:
This Easy Pumpkin Cake Is Perfect for Sweater Weather
I gave a talk at the University of North Carolina on Tuesday. The daughter of a minister (and no, this isn’t the start of a joke) gave me a jar of water-blanched, blister-fried peanuts cooked up by the people who attend Winstead United Methodist Church in Wilson, N.C. Church nuts are the best nuts. Several times a year, in the part of eastern North Carolina where they grow bright-leaf tobacco and cook whole hogs over wood, churchgoers fry local peanuts to raise money for people in the community. To make them, you soak Virginia variety peanuts in water. Then, while they’re still wet, put them in the fryer basket and drop them into hot peanut oil. A shower of salt finishes the job. The tradition started back in the 1950s, and it reminded me that this is the time of year when bake sales, fish fries and pancake breakfasts are on the calendar in many parts of the United States. I go to as many as I can. I hope you do, too. If you happen to be asked to contribute to a cake walk or a bake sale, I got you. This sturdy, cardamom-scented pumpkin crumb cake from Yossy Arefi is a winning entry. We’ve got a bunch more in this collection of easy bake-sale recipes. Featured Recipe Pumpkin Crumb CakeMondayOK, let’s get to the rest of our week, shall we? I am declaring it Mazemen Monday, because who’s going to stop me? And also because I love the light but satisfying nature of Kay Chun’s recipe for chicken mazemen. It’s one of those recipes with a deceptively long ingredient list that is really pretty simple. The hardest thing is chopping a cup of scallions, which you can welcome as a meditative exercise.
TuesdayWhen I was growing up, midweek was meat-and-potatoes territory. Ali Slagle’s pork tenderloin with chickpeas, tomatoes and oregano vinaigrette hits that nostalgic note, but provides a dish more in line with how I like to eat now. She suggests serving it with grains or orzo, but I like a couple of boiled, buttered new potatoes. That’s Tuesday.
WednesdayThere’s no easy way to say this: I struggle with tofu. More often than not, it doesn’t turn out the way I envisioned. I blame myself, but Nisha Vora’s recipe for crispy tofu shawarma has lifted my veil of shame. She has this genius method (which I learned by watching her video) to turn thin slices of extra-firm tofu into crispy, chewy bites. On Wednesday, you can make them the star of a rice bowl, or put the marinated onions, tahini sauce and maybe some chopped cucumber and cherry tomatoes on the table with warm pita, and let people have at it.
ThursdayA baked salmon recipe for Thursday? Why not. We can all use a little reminder of how dead simple it is to roast fish in a hot oven and make it delicious with garlic and brown sugar.
FridaySince I know you are still thinking about peanuts, here’s a recipe for my favorite peanut butter cookies. I pulled it out of Christopher Kimball, the persnickety mastermind who helped dream up Cook’s Illustrated and now works his craft at Milk Street.
That’s it for the week. You can find a ginormous pile of additional well-tested recipes at New York Times Cooking. If you want help with your account, remember that I still keep my passwords under my keyboard. The fine people at cookingcare@nytimes.com are a much better option. Your sweet, and sometimes tart, emails have been a lot of fun. Send more to severson@nytimes.com. See you next Sunday. For a limited time, you can enjoy free access to the recipes in this newsletter in our app. Download it on your iOS or Android device and create a free account to get started.
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