'Tis the Season

A lot's been going on, peeps! There's a new administration in town, the holidays are upon us, people are getting married, things are in the oven (ha!), and my friend Marisa just informed me that New Haven has its very own traveling cupcake truck - brilliant! Such excitement! On top of all that, I think I've convinced a certain someone that we should put up a Christmas tree!

The weekend before Thanksgiving was something of a baking frenzy compared to how things have been around here. We *finally* used the stash of fresh Cape Cod cranberries had been waiting ever so patiently in my refrigerator for their moment to come. And it did, in the form of a Meyer lemon and cranberry scone recipe from Smitten Kitchen. We basically followed the recipe except that I skimped a bit on the lemon zest and used a regular lemon instead of a Meyer lemon - and they were delicious! We cut them into scone shapes and baked half, then froze the other half for those days when you want to walk out the door with a fresh, hot baked good in your hand (wait, that's every day...)

Then we made these chocolate toffee cookies. MMMMMMMmmmmm. All I can say is, there is a LOT of chocolate in these guys. They are practically all chocolate. Which means that they are extremely rich and extremely scrumptious. The only change I would recommend is adding more toffee - yes, that's right: more toffee. I have been on a bit of a toffee kick lately, and it adds such a great twist to the cookie - a bit of crunch, a bit of nutty caramel with a hint of saltiness - that underscoring that flavor could only heighten the cookie experience, if you know what I'm saying. I highly recommend them.

The days before Thanksgiving were also noteworthy for the consumption of a delightfully easy and warming potato leek soup, a soothing and earthy butternut squash and mushroom soup from Judies, and lots of wine. Thanksgiving itself was a feast for another post, featuring a delectable turkey, braised onions, Mom's kicky horseradish cranberry sauce, seared green beans, stuffing, creamy mashed potatoes, and more. Hopefully this week will mean a curry squash soup and a chocolate caramel cheesecake... and The Office! Stay tuned!