Christmas
A Christmas dinner is a spectrum of wonderful possibility. It can be as joyous as Buddy the elf eating spaghetti and crushed-up Pop Tarts. Or it can be the "Fishes" episode of "The Bear". (I think we've all had both those Christmases, am I right?) Wherever you are and whoever you spend it with, we'd love to be at your table. And here, we brought food. Merry Christmas!
Chocolate Frangelico Mousse
Fluffy chocolate mousse, flavored with nutty Frangelico liquor, and topped with whipped cream, toasted hazelnuts and chocolate flakes? It must be Christmas.
Ultimate English Toffee
It’s Christmas, so it’s time for toffee! English toffee, that is, made the proper, scientific way, and coated with either milk chocolate and almonds, or white chocolate and pistachios. Or both! A double-whammy of sweet holiday delight.
Real, Homemade Egg Nog
Rich, creamy, and unapologetically boozy, this is an egg nog whose virtues are sung by poets. Probably. Once they’ve had a few.
Spiced Rosemary Old-Fashioned
As the weather turns chilly, we want a cocktail that will warm our cockles, and this Spiced Rosemary Old Fashioned is the perfect drink to take us straight through the holiday season. Heritage Distilling has us covered.
Three-Layer Whipped Peanut Butter Bars
Three layers of delicious: these ultra-decadent peanut butter bars are a guaranteed crowd pleaser. The base is a crunchy, buttery graham cracker cookie, the middle is a generous layer of creamy whipped peanut butter and the top is silky chocolate ganache sprinkled with chopped roasted peanuts. Get ready to perform some crowd control.
Easy Baked Brie With Honey And Pistachios
Offering maximum impact with minimal effort, a baked Brie turns a mild-mannered cheese into the superhero of a gathering: a warm, gooey communal comfort food. This version keeps things easy and delicious—it’s baked simply, then topped with pistachios and honey. Serve it with crackers, sliced apples or good bread.
Baked Brie en Croûte With Apple and Pear Compote
Offering maximum impact with minimal effort, a baked Brie turns a mild-mannered cheese into the superhero of a gathering: a warm, gooey communal comfort food. This version wraps the cheese in a shell of flaky puff pastry, along with two sweet-tart layers of apple-pear compote.
Baked Brie en Croûte With Thyme and Fig Jam
A warm, gooey wheel of brie or camembert cheese, topped with sweet fig jam and wrapped in golden brown, flaky puff pastry.
Baked Brie – A Primer
For maximum impact with minimal effort, a baked brie turns a mild-mannered cheese into the superhero of a gathering: a warm, gooey communal comfort food.
Garlic and Herb Roasted Pork Loin with Crackling (and Apple Chutney)
A hearty family roast, done right, is a cause for celebration – and a great reason to know your local butcher! This pork loin is flavored with herbs and served with spiced apple chutney.
Red Cabbage Salad with Roasted Cipollini Onions
When the weather turns cold, you want a salad that brightens your table and can stand up to all those stews and roasts you’ll be serving.
Shredded Brussels Sprout and Red Cabbage Salad with Walnuts and Pecorino
A beautiful, healthy salad that combines thinly shredded brussels sprouts and red cabbage with toasted walnuts and Pecorino cheese. Simple but so delicious. In the midst of all the joyous holiday feasting, it’s easy to forget the pleasures of a simple, really good salad. Don’t get me wrong, one glance at our Instagram feed tells you that we’re chock ……
Easy Candied Pecans
We made these candied pecans to top our Bourbon-Pumpkin Mousse Pie but luckily I made double the recipe because they are delicious. They’d be great in a fall salad, or sprinkled over Butterscotch Pudding, or just as a snack. They’d be delicious served with blue cheese along with sliced apples and pears. You could flavor these candied ……
Thanksgiving Recipes Round-Up!
Cooking for a big holiday is hard enough without having to search for and keep track of a million recipes. It’s hard to organize all that stuff! Believe me, I struggle with that too (which is why I have a “Thanksgiving Timing Spreadsheet” that has events on it like, ‘dog probably needs to pee’ and ‘remind Matt that he ……
Sweet and Spicy Candied Peanuts
Ah, nuts! These Sweet and Spicy Candied Peanuts strike the perfect balance of sweet and heat. They’re great for snacking or for adding a special touch to soups or salads. I initially made these candied peanuts because I wanted something extra fancy to top our Thai Coconut Curry Butternut Squash Soup. While I love croutons, they didn’t seem quite right for ……
Thai Coconut Curry Butternut Squash Soup
Butternut squash soup kicked up with Thai curry flavor and served with sweet and spicy candied peanuts. Want a soup that’ll warm you up? This is it.
Toffee-Apple Sour Cream Cake (with a Salted Caramel Drizzle)
It’s a shame about toffee apples, it really is. In theory, I ought to love them. There’s the toffee, which, as our Ultimate English Toffee recipe proves, we’re all about. I have no problem with the toffee. There are the apples – and who doesn’t like apples? Your basic apple is basically the perfect snack – you ……
Five-Layer Magic Bars
Five-layer magic bars made with coconut, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and toasted pecans held together by condensed milk on a graham cracker crust. I sometimes have a tricky time starting these posts, and true to form, for this recipe I got stuck on the very first word of the post title. FIVE-layer magic bars. Is it ……
Three Layer Chocolate Cake with Salted Caramel Buttercream
When you love someone enough to make a cake with not just TWO layers, but THREE, and slather it with salted caramel buttercream. Lucky devil!
Buckwheat Blinis with Salmon Roe and Crème Fraîche
These buckwheat blinis have become our go-to new year’s eve appetizer – topped with creme fraiche and salmon roe, they taste as fancy as they look. I’m sorry, did you not know that we Nerds (with Knives) are not only skilled in the art of playing video games and discussing whether the 10th Doctor was ……
Mini Phyllo Cups with Cappuccino Cream
Crunchy, buttery phyllo shells filled with rich, smooth cappuccino cream. Make lots of these bite-sized lovelies because they will go quickly (if they even make it out of the kitchen). I don’t know if it’s a weird inverted class thing, but I’m always hesitant to make and promote a recipe that sounds – let’s say a ……
Curried Butternut Squash and Apple Soup with Maple Cream
This Curried Butternut Squash and Apple Soup is silky and luscious, with the perfect balance of sweet and spice. A little swirl of maple-sweetened sour cream takes it over the top. I feel like it was only a few weeks ago that every post I wrote seemed to start with me whining and complaining about how cold it ……
Shredded Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Pecans
This version of shredded brussels sprouts with bacon and pecans might be the perfect Thanksgiving side dish, and can be made ahead to save you T-day stress.
Rosemary, Baby! (Bourbon & Aperol Punch with Rosemary & Grapefruit)
The rosemary cocktail doesn’t come any more Hallowe’eny than this: “Rosemary, Baby!” – a little sweet, a little bitter, with just enough herbal and citrus flavor to balance it out. Oh, and it’s blood red. Good for individual cocktails or a party punch! It should come as a shock to absolutely no one (who either ……
Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies
Our recipe for chocolate chip cookies comes with a bit of history, a Cookie Monster / Tom Waits mashup, and our usual nerdy tips for the tastiest cookies.
Brownie Bites with Vanilla Mascarpone Filling
Brownie bites? Oh, they’re just delightfully cute bite-size versions of brownies, in sandwich form, with a vanilla mascarpone cream filling. Why do you ask? Why is a teeny-tiny version of just about anything so much more fun than a regular-sized version of that same thing? For instance; regular wool hat? Mmm, nice. Ridiculously tiny hat that ……
Sea Salt, Oatmeal and White Chocolate Cookies
I don’t remember having cookies when I was growing up in Britain in the 1970s. I don’t mean to say that they didn’t exist; in all probability they were around, but in the country’s crowded biscuit industry, with its Bourbons, its Garibaldis, and Custard Creams, its Jammie Dodgers and digestives of both plain and chocolate ……
Our winter warmer — Maple-syrup Old Fashioned
An Old Fashioned loosely constructed with maple syrup. Just right to warm up those chilly winter evenings.
Oatmeal Lace Cookies
Oatmeal Lace Cookies. So pretty. So crispy. They get their name from the fact that they are so delicate, you can almost see through them – like lace. Fancy! These oatmeal lace cookies have always had a hallowed place in our holiday gift-bag lineup, along with pecan crescents and English toffee with chocolate. They’re a lot of ……
Pecan Crescent Cookies
We make these pecan crescent cookies every year as a Christmas treat – the melt-in-the-mouth, nutty, crumbly treats will please any crowd.
Hazelnut Praline Cheesecake
Hazelnut cheesecake with praline crust is a crowd-pleasing dessert that will make your dinner guests love you until the end of time, or until the end of the cheesecake, whichever comes first. I’m pretty sure Matt moved from London to New York mostly for the cheesecake. It is by far his favorite dessert so of ……
Creamed Pearl Onions
Creamed pearl onions is one of those holiday dishes that seems so unnecessary… until one year you don’t make it and everyone gets mad and you realize it’s a tradition for a reason, damn it. There’s something about that soft (but not too soft) texture and that simple, pale sauce that just works. It’s a ……
