Good morning. I once had a job at a posh little deli attached to a restaurant in a charming part of town. I’d arrive before dawn and heat a huge vat of water on the stove, perfume it with peppercorns, then slide five or six chickens into it to poach. I’d make mayonnaise while the chicken simmered, toast pecans, slice celery and grapes. When the chickens were done, cooked to softness, moist and fragrant, I’d allow them to cool, then shred them into a wide, wide bowl. Mixed with my mayonnaise, a whisper of mustard, some lemon juice, a little yogurt, a pillow of tarragon, the nuts and the grapes, it became a salad of uncommon luxury, the filling for sandwiches I’d sell for lunch and the center of cold prepared meals I’d offer for dinner after that.

I learned the recipe at the elbow of my boss, the deli’s chef, and never wrote it down. For a long time I could cook it from memory, scaling back the proportions to feed four or five instead of 30 or more. There were times when all I wanted to do was make that chicken salad.

But it got less good over time. I overcooked the chicken, bungled the ratios of lemon to mayonnaise, substituted walnuts for the pecans, lost the grapes. I fell out of love. The salad seemed old-fashioned, country-clubby, like something you’d get in a little cup at the airport. I put it aside.

Julia Moskin got me back on track. Her recipe for chicken salad (above), which she brought to The Times in 2016, restored the dignity of chicken salad for me, employing a gentle poaching technique that guarantees perfection in the meat and a dressing that gives the salad a velvety texture against the crunch of nuts and celery. You can make it in one fell swoop, if you like, but I’ve taken to making the chicken on one evening, then letting it cool and refrigerating it overnight, so I can shred it the following night and dress it for dinner in under 30 minutes.

Will you get started on that tonight, or real soon?

I think you might like to make this vegan Thai curry sometime this week as well, even if you’re not vegan, because it tastes so good. Also, this slow cooker butter chicken. And beef stroganoff. And garlic soup.

One night soon, you should set yourself up to bake Melissa Clark’s holiday stollen the following night, so you can bring it into your place of work or the place you hang out during the day while others are at work, in a fit of seasonal cheer. When you hear the accolades you’ll resolve to cook it again on the weekend, for deployment on Christmas Day. (Maybe you’ll want to give it as a gift. We have loads of other recipes for gifts you can cook and bake.)

There are many thousands more recipes to cook right now waiting for you on NYT Cooking. (You’ll need a subscription to access them, thanks.) You can visit us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter for more inspiration, and you can visit me personally on those platforms as well. I’m @samsifton.

Do write for help, if anything goes awry along the way. We’re at [email protected], semper vigiles.

Now, it’s a long way from sauté pans and knives that need sharpening, but you should read William Finnegan’s reporting in The New Yorker, on the surfer Kelly Slater’s wave machine, an invention that might allow a lot more people to surf, and might at the same time make the sport less special. Want more? Here’s a “Back Story” video about the article, from my pal Soo-Jeong Kang.

Speaking of video, here’s Lin-Manuel Miranda teaching Broadway slang, on Vanity Fair. Money notes!

Popular Mechanics drew up a list of 70 tools everyone should own, and if I have quibbles (that’s a lot of shovels), it’s still a good list to read against whatever your loved one’s got in the shop or packed in a closet, if you’re still looking for gifts.

Finally, here are the Replacements, “Bastards of Young,” live at Maxwell’s in 1986. Have a great week.

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