Silky Salmon at the Push of a Button

The microwave and the baby arrived roughly around the same time. I hadn’t had a microwave until then: My kitchen was small, counter space was highly coveted and I wasn’t doing enough reheating to justify it. But my husband wisely realized that we’d want to heat food for the baby and for us, the new parents, in a quick and nonfussy way. And so it happened. We bought a .

Skip forward years later and, unsurprisingly, the dowdy microwave gets a lot of love around here. It’s excellent for cooking vegetables (fresh or frozen), and brilliant for cooking corn on the cob (so succulent!). It’s amazing for steaming and . And now I’ve got something new to try: . That recipe is below, along with four other new arrivals on New York Times Cooking.

If the impending has you in more of a molten-cheese head space, then we’ve got for you. Here’s your annual reminder from me that make a great dinner. Tell me what you’re cooking at . It’s always good to hear from you.

I’m also making

, , (but with fresh gnocchi that I bought, so really it was just melting butter into a sauce and tossing it with sage and peas).

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I’m really looking forward to trying Kevin Noble Maillard’s fast method for making “buttery, flawless fish,” as he tantalizingly describes it — both for my dinner but also to give to my kids, with whom plush salmon has been a surprise hit. (They still won’t try shrimp, though.) If you’re using wild salmon, which is leaner than farmed fish, be sure to read the tip at the end of the recipe, as the cooking time and directions change slightly.