Cozy weekends feel even more so in the winter. The rain-soaked streets are dark tonight, lit up in spots by the amber glow of street lamps. I’m sitting at a cafe on the corner of Amsterdam Avenue —I’m at a window seat watching people duck into restaurants. The ramen shop across the street has a sleek wooden bar in the front, illuminated by dozens of hanging pendant lamps. Further up, a dive bar beckons with multicolored Christmas lights and neon signs for 2-for-1 happy hour drinks and holiday-themed shots (yuck! Can it be true that once upon a time I happily threw back shots on a Saturday night? Between you and me, my shot of choice was the ‘springbok shot’—a lethally delicious combination of creme de menthe and Amarula liqueur discovered while studying abroad in South Africa).
Read moreCHOCOLATE MINI LAYER CAKE WITH MILK CHOCOLATE FROSTING
I come from very emotionally demonstrative family. We say “love you” in place of “goodbye” on the telephone. We compliment each other; we rarely go upstairs to bed without a hug; we hold hands in public (let’s just say it’s a good thing my brown-haired, blue-eyed sisters and I all look very much like sisters). We dash off silly notes to each other. We throw out affection casually, without effort, like breathing. (With a dad who happily dresses in a Santa hat and Carhartts to take Christmas pictures with all the animals, how could you not?)
Read moreSALTY-SWEET PUMPKIN OLIVE OIL LOAF
“Wait, but Po, didn’t you just give us a recipe for a pumpkin loaf? Topped with pumpkin seeds? That you promised us was the absolute best?” Why yes. Yes I did. Thank you for paying attention! But see, you really can’t have too many excellent pumpkin loaf recipes. That would be like having too many pairs of cozy pajamas or too much Champagne. Wait, strike that, you absolutely can have too much Champagne—you heard it here.
Read moreDOUBLE CHOCOLATE PUMPKIN LOAF
A few questions for you to mull over today:
Why use one kind of chocolate when you could use two?
What the heck should you do with that half can of leftover pumpkin puree?
Is there a nicer feeling on a cold night than putting on clean pajamas after a hot shower?
APPLE SPICE BUNDT CAKE
The leaves are slowly turning color. I drove up to Vermont last week and woke up to a 40-degree day: bright and crisp and cold. The air stung my lungs as I walked to my car, breathing in the smell of fall.
Tomorrow is Halloween, and is forecast to be 70 degrees in New York, so maybe I’ll dress up as a very pale person trying to get a tiny late season suntan HA. I like the changing of the seasons so much. It makes my heart swell every time, every year. As soon as I sense the bellwether of seasonal shifts—a whiff of woodsmoke drifting lazily through the breeze, the sign saying “hot apple cider” at the coffee shop, the feel of a flannel shirt—and all the accumulated memories of that season rush back to me.
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