Along came Sam Sifton’s new cookbook last week, and I spent a happy few minutes dreaming of quick and easy dinners as I breezed through it outside the post office. A book like this is just what I need, I thought – inspiration for simple dinners. Because I have a tendency to complicate things: Chopped ginger and chopped garlic. Soy sauce and oyster sauce. Basil and mint. If one flavor is good, two is better. Or three!

But The New York Times Cooking No-Recipe Recipes is not fancy-pants. It’s essentially about using your pantry creatively to lift up whatever protein (or other item) you’ve hauled in from the grocery. The “recipes” offer ingredients and directions, but no specific amounts. There are tips and modifications suggested, but the real purpose of the book is to get your mojo going for cooking dinner (again!) or fixing lunch at home (again!). There's a photo with every dish (hurrah!). In fact the straightforward format reminds me of some of my favorite British cooks’ books: Nigel Slater’s Eat or Skye Gyngell’s A Year in My Kitchen.

What caught my eye? Pan-Roasted Chicken with Chiles, Broccoli with Ham and Melted Cheese, Brown Butter Tomato Salad, Speedy Fish Chowder, Pot Stickers with Tomato Sauce. And these Miso-Glazed Scallops (here with permission from Ten Speed Press).

The scallops reminded me that I’ve been meaning to offer you a quick primer on miso. I got friendly with miso when I was a full-time vegetarian (lapsed now, but still veggie-centric!), but I’ve since learned how versatile that sweet-salty-funky flavor can be in all sorts of dishes.