Every family celebrates Christmas differently. Some hold a big Christmas Eve dinner, others do a brunch with family on Christmas Day, and some (enviably) order Chinese food. Historically, my family has fallen in the first camp, with a more intimate dinner as we hang around the tree and open small presents. Last year, however we tried something different: small plates.
I think if you were to rank foods in order of how intimidating they are to cook, at the bottom of the list would be stuff you throw together any night of the week without a recipe, the top would be basically anything Grant Achatz has ever made and then maybe, just barely a notch below would be a dish that someone you love and respect makes so perfectly that you consider it to be “their” recipe. It feels almost wrong to make someone else’s signature dish, to meddle. It’s their thing, not yours, thus there’s clearly no way you could do it justice. I mean, sure there’s something else you could contribute to the holiday baking curriculum, maybe one of your favorites instead?
And this has been my feeling about linzer torte for all of the years since we first met at this url in 2006. I am lucky enough to join a high school friend for Christmas Eve dinner every year, and her mom always includes squares of incredible linzer torte in her array of Holiday Baking Wonders. Her mother is an excellent cook and baker, and the one that introduced me to Maida Heatter, from whom you should buy every book, immediately, without questioning me because her recipes are detailed without being irritatingly so, charmingly written*, and will never lead you astray. Truly. I mean, remember when she showed us how easy Dobos Torte could be to make? Dobos Torte. Imagine what she could do with a black truffle explosion!
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Q: The family is converging on my house for Christmas dinner. We have one vegan and one gluten-free eater. The other six of us are omnivores. Making things more difficult: the vegan doesn’t eat mushrooms or peppers, and the gluten-free eater also doesn’t like mushrooms. Help!
4.32 / 5 Stars | 30 Reviews
by CKLEWIS
“This is a quick and easy way to prepare snow peas and carrots with an Asian flavor.”
One of my favorite moments from my Holiday Potluck Party was getting to share a taste of Utopias from Sam Adams. I am the resident beer geek among my friends, and after I first tasted this beer over the summer, they cheerfully tolerated my effusive gibbering. Here, finally, was my chance to show them what all the fuss was about. I can really think of no better context for this beer: a midwinter night, good friends, a cozy moment by the fire.
If you’d told me ten years ago that sticky toffee pudding was made with dates of all things, I would have told you I didn’t like sticky toffee pudding, take it away. It took a few more years to figure out that toffee pudding doesn’t actually taste like dates and even if it did, that dates are, in fact, quite amazing. Thank goodness my eyes (and stomach) saw the light: now the over-the-top English dessert remains at the top of my hedonistic hall of fame.