There was a brief phase—sometime in middle school—when it was extremely cool to go to the Cheesecake Factory. If you had parents who took you and your friends there for dinner, you had real currency. Everyone wanted to have sleepovers with the girls whose houses held Cheesecake Factory potential. (If you’ve read this site at all, you’ll likely guess that my household was very much not a Cheesecake Factory household. In fact, we didn’t even have fun breakfast cereal, like Cinnamon Toast Crunch—our pantry housed the wholesome trio of Shredded Wheat and Cheerios and Grape-Nuts. The injustice of it all still stings! It’s only in my wise old age that I appreciate deeply having been raised on good, nourishing, homemade food by an exceptional cook and baker. Hi mom!)

I’ve done remarkably little cooking over the holidays, and even less baking. This is simply a consequence of the happy busyness of the season—and because luckily other people are baking and cooking for me. But there are so many excellent holiday traditions that revolve around recipes. And I do seize the chance, when I have it, to make old favorites (cinnamon rolls and sugar cookies) and attempt new, festive-sounding ones (gingerbread brioche and miniature peppermint chocolate layer cakes).