Stephen and Evie Colbert invite you to pull up a chair as they share their favourite recipes from family and friends and offer a glimpse of food and fun in their South Carolina home.

“Hopefully reading this book and cooking these recipes will feel like hanging out with us at home. We basically live in the kitchen anyway.” —Evie and Stephen Colbert

As Evie and Stephen explain it, Does This Taste Funny? had its beginnings in the Covid lockdown. “We were all stuck together and couldn’t go out, so we cooked. We had all three kids back under one roof for the first time in a long time, and we had dinner each night as a family. Cooking together became a major source of entertainment.”

Now, the Colberts invite us into their kitchen and around their dining room table. Sharing Stephen and Evie’s favourite recipes, as well as those of their family and friends, this book offers everything from Party Food (called “party food” because “appetizers” implies something to follow when we all know that, often, this is the only course), to Seafood, to Poultry and Meat (“Evie and I have different relationships to meat. I like it. Evie can take it or leave it, and mostly she leaves it.”), to Desserts (“This is one of the largest sections of the book. Evie always reminds me that desserts are a great way to postpone clearing up.”), to Drinks (“I love cocktail hour. It feels like a reward for having gone so long without a cocktail”), all tied together with playful dialogue between Stephen and Evie and gorgeous shots of their food, family, and home.

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Salt-and-Pepper Wings

STEPHEN • These are my attempt to re-create the fantastic salt-and-pepper wings from a local NYC kitchen called La Poulette. I order them when I need something to pick up my spirits. They are very simple to make, and as my version is baked, not fried, I tell myself they are healthy.

EVIE • There are several things that Stephen turns to for comfort. Lord of the Rings is, of course, top of the list, and then old episodes of Veep, but these delicious yet easy chicken wings also are a go-to for calming the brain and restoring the spirit.

Makes 6 appetizer servings

2 pounds chicken wings (the kind that are already cut into “half-wings”)

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

Vegetable oil for the wire rack

2 teaspoons finely ground pepper

You’ll need a wire rack to get the skin nice and crisp.

An ordinary cooling rack will work beautifully.

Wash the wings and pat them as dry as possible. Place them on a paper towel-lined plate and refrigerate, uncovered, for an hour or two. The drier the skin, the crispier the wings will cook up.

Heat the oven to 250°F with a rack in the center position.

While that’s happening, toss the wings in a mixture of 1 teaspoon of the salt and the baking powder. Use your hands to make sure the mixture is rubbed over all the wings. Lightly oil a cooling rack and set it over a baking sheet. Lay the wings out on it, with enough room between them for air to circulate.

Bake for 30 minutes. (The low oven temp helps with the skin drying/crisping.) Turn the oven up to 425°F and continue baking until the skin is browned and crisp, about 45 minutes. You may want to flip the wings for the last 15 minutes to even out the browning.

Remove the wings to a bowl and toss with the remaining 1 teaspoon salt and the pepper. Enjoy the fatty, salty, crispy, happy.

NOTE

If you want a wing dip, try the Mango-Cilantro Sauce (page 86) or the Green Goddess Dip (page 40).

Recipe published with permission from Celadon Books.