At least it’s citrus season

A dispatch from the darkness.

A look back at December and January—what I ate, made, and read.

🎄 Out and about

We stayed in New York for Christmas, and it felt right to be in the quiet, snowy city after a busy and stressful year. My gift to Skylar was a Christmas Eve stay at Hotel Chelsea, the infamous hotel known for its past artist residents, like Patti Smith, Robert Maplethorpe, and Bob Dylan.

We dined at Cafè Chelsea downstairs for dinner and ordered Christmas Day room service. Oh, to eat an omelet in a robe!

For New Year’s, the friend group (minus Meg) headed upstate to veg out. We booked a charming house near Saugerties and kept our adventuring to a minimum—much TV was watched. Aimée booked a reservation at Stissing House, the colonial-era restaurant in Pine Plains, where we went all out. I love any night that ends with a decaf coffee. On our drive back to the city, we stopped at Village Coffee and Goods in Kingston and had a round of excellent sandwiches. Would recommend!

🍊Cooking

What did I even cook? Winter is depressing, of course. My 13-year-old cat suddenly passed away at the beginning of the year. That, combined with a low-spend January challenge I embarked on and an unintentional Dry January ahead of an egg retrieval/embryo freeze… The vibes? Bleak.

I’ve been trying to stay motivated with interesting seasonal ingredients from Farm To People—bay leaf-simmered local farro, pomegranates, and as much citrus as one girl can handle.

One of my favorite meals this month was a potato leek soup I made with cooked Rancho Gordo flagoulet beans. I followed the linked recipe roughly, adding garlic, mushroom powder, and red potatoes. I thought it needed a dash of champagne vinegar, but it was so comforting, creamy, and delicious. I’m thinking I need to make it again ASAP.

I ordered Teresa Finney of

At Heart Panadería

’s self-titled recipe zine, and it was a delightful ray of sunshine to receive in January. I made the masa harina focaccia (yes) right away. What a fantastic flavor combination and a wonderfully easy-to-follow recipe, to boot! I believe you’ll be able to catch another pre-order in the coming weeks.

Ahead of Christmas, I made sourdough orange rolls for my husband. Skylar’s family had a Christmas morning tradition of Pillsbury orange rolls. I wanted to see if I could make them myself. I followed The Perfect Loaf’s sourdough cinnamon roll recipe for the dough but followed the filling and icing recipe from Joy The Baker. I brought some over to Eric before we headed to Hotel Chelsea on Christmas Eve. Reviews were positive!

🧶 ICYMI

Escaping mastery, knit socks, and sourdough loafs

💌 A (free!) printable kitchen cheat sheet just for you

How to bake bread, and the one fussy tool that changed it all for me

👩‍🌾 What I read

I read Dirt to Soil: One Family’s Journey into Regenerative Agriculture by Gabe Brown and loved every second. I have no plans or dreams to farm. Still, as a cook and consumer, I wanted to understand better what defines regenerative agriculture. I loved this memoir and how-to about converting a conventional farm/ranch operation into a regenerative farm, which Brown did in North Dakota twenty years ago.

I read Oceans of Grain: How American Wheat Remade the World by Scott Reynolds Nelson, a long and winding history of the global grain trade and a fascinating hypothesis about how it contributed to the advent of the first World War. My next obsession might need to be about how RAIL changed the world. Drop your railway favs in the comments.

And I just finished the thriller Butter by Asako Yuzuki, the best food-related novel I’ve read in a while (don’t get me started on Land of Milk and Honey). I kept finding myself so bewildered (but fascinated) by the characters’ decisions.

I also finally finished Intermezzo by Sally Rooney. I don’t know why it took me so long to finish it, considering how it may be my favorite Rooney yet. I found myself tearing up on more than one occasion.

🍅 Home Food note

I’ve been writing this newsletter for nearly two years now and would love to hear from you. I put together a short survey. Reply to this email and I’ll send you the form link, if you have time to complete it!

Thank you, as always. 🖤