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 moreSEEDED GOUGERES
They do say a watched pot never boils, I know. But I still like to stand near the oven door in the winter, warming myself in the gentle heat it throws off. And unlike water boiling, lots of recipes require a little more TLC. A check-in, if you will. You have to glance at your bread now and again to see if it’s browning, or lightly touch the surface of your cakes to see if they spring back or not. As precise as baking is, baking times can often be treated as mere guidelines; instead, you learn the visual clues and signposts that indicate proper doneness.
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 moreCHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER PIE
There’s talk of gift guides everywhere these days. Beyond the practical aspect of these, I’m drawn to reading them for the peek they offer into other lives. I could read them all year round—just as I like reading the New York Times’ Sunday Routine column or stories of people’s morning rituals or the Grub Street Diet every Friday.
Read moreGINGER MUFFINS
The holiday season is here, cozily tiptoeing its way into my days. One minute I was crunching on a carpet of rustling fallen leaves in the park, feeling all pumpkin-y and eager for the dark nights that herald the coming of Halloween. And the next moment, I blink, and the grocery store checkout aisle is lined with foil-wrapped chocolate Santas. My Pandora station plays Charlie Brown Christmas songs. Our mantlepiece is strung up with twinkly tea lights. Last night I lit a fire and set some red tapered candles out on the dinner table—how’s that for ambiance?
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