Toluu

Smitten Kitchen

brown butter brown sugar shortiesDecember 2

There are cookies, and there are cookies. There are melted toffee bits and pound-of-chocolate brownie-like discs that require half a glass of milk for a single bite and there are snappy little sables called Punitions. There are peanut butter cookies with chocolate pieces, peanut butter pieces and tiny chunks of peanuts in them and there are toasty little twice-baked shortbreads with scraped vanilla beans inside. There are pecan squares on shortbread bases boasting nine sticks of butter and two pounds of pecans and there are these: brown butter, brown sugar shorties.

veselka’s cabbage soupNovember 30

Shuna introduced me to this soup. I think it was July 2007 and she’d gathered a bunch of food bloggers at Veselka, a Ukranian diner in the East Village famous for serving awesome beer-blotting food like borsht, stuffed cabbage and pierogis around the clock. It was hot and humid out, however, so the thought of anything besides a grilled kielbasa, pickles and a cold beer seemed insane, and yet there was our host, ordering cabbage soup.

I thought this Eggbeater was insane. Who eats soup in the summer? But Shuna insisted I try at least a spoonful, and that sip did me in. I spent the rest of July craving move and finally caved in August, sitting in that cafe eating steaming hot soup on a steaming hot day because it was the best thing, ever.

dark chocolate tart with gingersnap crustNovember 29

I know that a lot of you think that I break my back in the kitchen each week, slaving over the most exacting steps in this recipe or that. But the fact is, I get more lax every year. I don’t feel as badly when things don’t go perfectly and I don’t feel any need to prove my cooking prowess by making my own pâte feuilletée when it will probably keep me cooking until midnight.

cabbage, apple and walnut saladNovember 28

Today might have started off as Pie for Breakfast Day but I think we all know that the day after Thanksgiving is all about detox. Away with the heavy cream! Begone, you cheesy gratins! Skedaddle, you deep, gooey casseroles, sticky-sweet yams topped with charred marshmallows and green beans with fried onions. Please, don’t make me eat that butter and drippings-laden gravy again… at least until tomorrow.

Detox Day deserves its own dish, and though it is a tad late to get this one in for dinner tonight, I would like to offer up this cabbage, apple and walnut salad as the antidote to a meal that sent us back to the store for more butter and heavy cream not once but three times. (Gasp! My arteries!) This salad is perfect–it has all of the flavors of the season, but also a crunchy healthfulness so missing from the week’s main event, oh and also that slice of pie we know you’re having for dessert anyway.

Cabbage Salad with Apples and Walnuts
Adapted

scenes from the sk dessert factoryNovember 27