The writing prompts invite postcrossers to write about a different topic on their postcards’ messages every month. These are just suggestions though — if you already know what you want to write about, or the recipient gives you some pointers, that’s great too!
February already! I hope 2026 has been treating people well, and that you have all been getting some really fun mail. Not many postcards so far for me, but plenty of books, so I’m happy…
Anyway, looking at my calendar, it turns out that Pancake Day (as we call it in the UK—also known as Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, etc) is in February, and that brought this prompt to mind for reasons that will become clear fairly quickly: what dishes are you great at cooking?!
Okay. Confession time it is: I can’t really cook. When fending for myself, I usually put pre-made things in the oven, like a pie or pizza or something. However, the one thing I taught myself from a student cookbook has fairly reliably been a hit, when I actually achieve it: pancakes! Specifically the thin type, as in this photo I found (not my pancakes, alas), which can be rolled up and eaten with a filling. (Nutella, how I love you! Though I also like maple syrup or lemon and sugar with them.)
I don’t have a special recipe or anything like that, so I have to conclude that part of the great reception is actually surprise that I’ve actually bestirred myself and made something from scratch… and the pancakes my dad and my wife make are both better, in my humble opinion. Still, it’s proof that possibly with the guidance of a cookbook and a quiet kitchen, maybe I’m not unteachable!
Alright, now it’s your turn! What are your go-to meals, your signature dishes? Feel free to share the recipes and make us all feel hungry. You can let us know in the comments here, and use this as a prompt when writing postcards this month!
49 comments so far
Mine is Schnitzel, Pommes Frittes und Salat. It is easy to make. And also Kartoffelsalat - potato salad, like my mother made it. With vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, onions and some drops Maggi or soy sausage.
Hatte den Kommentar englisch geschrieben, wurde automatisch ins Deutsche übersetzt 🤔
My favourite dish among many others is waterzooi. It originates from Ghent in Belgium. It’s a kind of broth with chicken, celery, carrots and cream. You eat it with steamed potatoes.
I love Potato noodles with mushrooms, carrots and spinach in a cream sauce. Served with mixed salad and vanilla pudding for dessert.
Hi everyone! I live in Tatarstan. I love balish, a traditional Tatar dish. It's baked in the oven for 3-4 hours. It's a dough pie with a filling of potatoes and meat (beef). After 2 hours, pour the meat broth into a hole made in the center. Enjoy the juicy filling with crispy, golden-brown crust. Delicious!
I made a Shepards Pie last night! A great dish to warm the soul on these long cold Vermont nights! My breakfast favorite this time of the year is homemade blueberry scones! The Best! I use 2 cups of blueberries instead of 1 that the recipe calls for.
I don't cook at all, but my best friend made a recipe for a delicious blended dessert that tastes like ice cream. It is made of pecans, banana, vanilla, agave sweetener, and ice. This is all blended together in a blender. It tastes so good!
Tomatos with sour cream, lots of salt and black pepper. As taught by my mom :) & Turkish menemen (fried onion, pepper, tomatoes, and eggs), with some toasted bread on the side!
Kimchi!
I love making homemade soups-mixing in new ingredients and discovering fresh flavors with every pot!
Macaroni & cheese! Mmmmm. I live in Wisconsin - I have to use cheese.
I would love to be able to make pancakes that thin!! Beautiful.
Food is a wonderful uniting tool.
I love making lasagna for my partner, his favorite dish. I don't follow a recipe, just use my memory the way my Mom made it. Always a hit with family gatherings too!
Pan seared fresh salmon with lemon and Italian season on a fresh salad. Simple and tasty.
My favorite dishes are breakfast foods. I love cooking breakfast and trying new recipes.
Because I’ve been trying to please my Greek husband for almost 60 years(yikes!) my specialties are Greek dishes ( uvalakia, spanakopita, Imam baldi, etc.), but many times I just pull out what’s in the fridge and create a dish.
Applesauce is so easy to make--- you can adjust the level of spice and sweetness to anyone's liking. It's something I made for my mother-in-law when she was in hospice here at our house. You fill the kitchen with aroma that comes before the taste and soothing mouthfeel of this triumphal comfort food.
My favorite easy breakfast is natto on top of rice, drizzled with ponzu sauce, and topped with melted cheese. I like natto doria, which I then microwave until the cheese is melted. However, the synergistic effect of the natto and cheese creates an insanely strong smell that fills the air. I encourage all you brave souls to try it. I eat it often. If you don't have ponzu sauce, the sauce that comes with the natto or noodle soup base are also delicious.
I just made Borscht. It turned out great. I make it every time I feel the need to connective with my childhood. It also lasted me for 3 days. Saved time on cooking lunches.
My winter staple is uzbek lamb pilaf made with rice, lamb, carrots, garlic, raisins and spices.
I love pancakes aswel but the Dutch style pancakes. What they ate for a meal, big, full of toppings with fruit or beacon...mmmmm
You can wake me up for tomato soup and strawberries aswel...mmmmm
Mercimek çorbası and other soups
Simple food is my favorite and that is why I do not spend long hours in the kitchen. It is okay to cook for me and sometimes for my family, when they visit, but I do not enjoy cooking and looking at new recipes like I know some people do. My signature dish is lentil soup and everybody likes it. Red lentils, onion, garlic, carrots, vegetable bouillon cube, mustard and honey.
I can make delicious borscht. It takes several hours to prepare because I enjoy the process and take my time. The borscht tastes better the next day. I also make beef stroganoff. I use sour cream for the sauce, although it doesn't match the classic recipe. But I like it with sour cream. Beef stroganoff goes well with mashed potatoes.
I like eating wontons, and now I feel like having wonton noodles again.
My favorite dish is a spinach lasagna, I like to add onions and vegetable broth.
I am Filipino-American and I grew up with a mom who is an excellent cook. I can make traditional Filipino dishes like chicken adobo, picadillo, pancit, lumpia. These recipes are a taste of home.
In Indiana, we prep & cook days in advance for Thanksgiving, which is my very favorite holiday. For the past several years, I have always made my Pumpkin Delight....and I will add - its a DELIGHT 🎃
As a boy I enjoyed observing my mother doing the cooking but never was I invited by her to join. Unmanly!
15 years ago I was over 70 and my wife told me that I would have to participate doning the cooking, especially if she did not feel well what happened quite often. Now I am the only person of us 2 still preparing the meals. My and also my wife´s specialty is Kaiserschmarr(e)n which we eat with cooked apples.
Lohikeitto: hauduttelen sipuli- ja porkkanakuutioita vähässä vedessä. Lisään kukkakaalin puolikkaan pienittynä ja perunakuutiot. Koskenlaskijakin sopii hyvin. Viimeksi lohisiivut, tilliä ja kermaa. Lopuksi suola.
You can always wake me up for a classic Bucatini all’Amatriciana or Cacio e Pepe Spaghetti. I must have had Italian ancestors…
Saint Pancake Day is a tradition that originated in Rotterdam and is celebrated annually throughout the country on November 29th. You place a pancake on your head and say, "We wish you a happy and blessed Saint Pancake!"
Molly: My go-to impressive dish is homemade tamales. It is easier than you would think, but it requires a big mixing bowl and a big steamer. Very fun to get together with everyone to make a factory line of tamale makers!
My favorite things to cook are bakery items. And at the top of that list is chocolate cake from scratch made with cocoa and chocolate frosting. I don’t drink milk any more but as a young person nothing could beat a piece of chocolate cake with a tall glass of milk. Delicious!!
Ich mag am allerliebsten Sauerkraut.....
Könnte ich zu jedem Braten essen.☺️
Aber es muss mit geriebener Kartoffel angedickt sein und viel gebratene Speckwürfel sollten darin sein
For Thanksgiving/Christmas, I introduced my in-laws to pumpkin pecan pie (that I learned from my mom) and now it's requested by them. Otherwise, I would say a kind of tomato mozzarella bean pasta salad (tomatoes, black olives, cannellini beans, mozzarella pearls, rotini/elbow pasta, basil, balsamic glaze, olive oil, splash of wine). I always eat too much at once. Sometimes I'll heat up pita bread to eat with it.
I like to make a sea bass marinated in white wine and olive oil, then baked in the oven, stuffed with walnuts, pomegranate seeds, green peppers, and onions (the peppers and onions are first roasted in a pan). I like to combine fruit and fish, seafood, or meat.
I've been making this dish for quite a while, and while at the market the other day, I got the idea to make it again, because there's a fishmonger there (not always easy to find!). You have to use wild sea bass; it's better, but it's a bit pricey. It should weigh about 1.5 kilos, but 1 kilo is enough. Not all the stuffing goes inside the fish; it cooks alongside it, at the bottom of the dish.
May I suggest a roast dinner, meat, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, Yorkshire pudding and three vegetables with the appropriate gravy, depending on the chosen meat.
Side sauce; apple with pork; horseradish with beef; cranberry with turkey; mint with lamb.
Does Ben & Jerry's Strawberry Cheesecake count as a dish ?
No ??? Well, then I will visit one of the good Indian restaurants in town and order a Veggie Tikka Masala.
My favorite dish is the one I don't have to cook!! :)
Ever since mom's first tuna casserole I have made it my mission to throw together the best casserole ever and after 20 years of messing around we have my Southwest Tuna Casserole... spoiler alert...I use a variety of peppers.....
I love soups! Hungarian mushroom, roasted cauliflower, African peanut.
Roasted Sweet Potatoes! 焼き芋！
These days sweet potateos have been getting much sweeter and really delicious!
It is also reasonable and if you have an opportunity to come to Japan, just try to get one at any supermarket or Don Quijote!
I eat one everyday and currently I love it much more than any cake!
In the winter season I especially enjoy taking out vegetables that I froze during the summer and adding them to main dishes:)
I also like buying blueberries and adding them to sweet breakfasts, such as cottage cheese or pancakes. I’m looking forward to spring, when we can go to the summer house and start harvesting our own food.
My favorite dish is red rice with coconut sambol and malu Ambulthiyal. Both are traditional, iconic Sri Lankan foods. But I can't prepare both properly as my mother does.
One of the listed items on my bucket list is to try and enjoy as much of the flatbreads of the world, as listed in this site - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatbread
And I had the opportunity to try Khanom buang (Thailand) recently, and it was an acquired taste. :-) I am not a big fun of coconuts.
Do you have a suggested flatbread you have tasted?
My specialty is Chicken Nanban, a uniquely Japanese dish. I'm confident that it tastes better than what you'd get at a restaurant. I'm terrible at other dishes, lol.
I personally enjoy flower pastry (in Chinese we call them 鲜花饼), a flour and also flower made snack. It's a great option for sharing with friends or a quick breakfast (as a bakery lover often my choice for a snap-meal).
I love cooking Gulasch although it isnt as traditional as the version my Oma makes in germany, it still always manages to warm my spirits on a cold day. I also love how it brings my roommates together as we all come from different cultural backgrounds and use food as a way to bond with eachother.
We LOVE to cook! When my husband and I were dating, we had many 'cooking' dates where we would go to the store and buy the ingredients for a fancy meal, like sweet potato encrusted salmon with a special sauce. We even started growing garlic, rosemary, and hot peppers and making our own designer sea salts for our dishes. After so many family and friends started wanting our sea salts, we started a little company and we are now in several stores! So this is a great prompt for me. Thank you!
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