It doesn’t look as if we are venturing far from home this weekend. Winter weather has finally set in, and it just seems wise to lay low. I hope you have a special stash of deelish food treats and a good long queue of movies to stream. Be careful shoveling the front walk, and check on your neighbors; the time might be ripe for a good deed or two. We will be baking, making popcorn, reading, and napping this weekend. I hope you are just as productive!

One of our favorite family memories is of the summer vacation we took in Washington, D.C. We were living in Florida then, and we were very familiar with hot weather. Still, nothing prepares a tourist for walking around D.C. in the summer. We started every morning with a big, vacation-y breakfast buffet at our hotel. I think hotels cater to eight-year-old boys. Ours delighted in making his own big, fluffy waffles every morning, which he would coat with melting pats of oozy butter and then drown in long pours of sweet syrup. It was the beginning of his culinary education. The rest of us, with our abstemious breakfasts of twigs and sticks, watched with amazement as he prepared and consumed daily raft-sized waffles. He, alone, had the energy to conquer the pedestrian challenges of summertime D.C.. No monument had too many steps; no Mall, no museum, was too far, or too large for him.

Whenever we make waffles we remember that summer. This will be a good waffle weekend. There is nothing like recounting a summer in Foggy Bottom to warm up a cold January morning. Waffles take a smidge more work than pancakes, but if you make extras, they will freeze nicely, and when gelid February rolls on in, you will have a stash that you can warm easily in the oven (10 minutes at 350°F) , or in the toaster.

We do not have a waffle station with a never-ending supply of waffle batter, or a fancy Belgian waffle iron that spins, like the Marriott hotels do, but we aren’t trying to make an impression on an eight-year-old, either. We have a humble, perfectly serviceable wedding present waffle iron. And a killer recipe. And a few slices of freshly cooked bacon, and hot, buttery real-life maple syrup*. We are not off to conquer the East Building of the National Gallery this weekend, but we will be energized, and just in time to scrub that grout in the shower.

This is our recipe, from the New York Times, so their pay wall may come clanging down: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017409-waffles. In that case, we also happily use the Kodiak pancake mix, and cannot praise the Bisquick recipe enough:

Bisquick Waffles

2 cups Bisquick mix

1 1/3 cups milk

1 egg 

2 tablespoons vegetable oil


1. Heat waffle iron; grease with vegetable oil or shortening. 

2. Stir ingredients until blended. Pour onto center of hot waffle iron. Close lid of waffle iron. 

3. Allow to bake about 5 minutes or until steaming stops. Carefully remove waffle. Repeat

Add butter and maple syrup to your heart’s content. Top with some health fruit. You are stoking your snow-shoveling-doing-good furnace, after all.

I’m going to bake a double batch chocolate chip cookies on Sunday. We have a new neighbor across the street, and I figure that fresh, homemade cookies might be appreciated on a gloomy, cold weekend. This is our go-to recipe for chocolate chip cookies: https://food52.com/recipes/78188-chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies
I usually only bake a dozen cookies at a time. I scoop the left-over dough into balls with an ice cream scoop, and freeze them. Then it is easy to pop another dozen onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes at 375°F. Hot and cold running cookies: a little self-reliance and insurance when the weather is dicey, or the baker is lazy.

*We like Grade B maple syrup best – it is darker and more flavorful, and less sweet. But if you have an eight-year-old, you can probably stick with Log Cabin syrup or Aunt Jemima. https://www.delish.com/food-news/g25577695/best-maple-syrup-brands/

“I went to a restaurant that serves “breakfast at any time” so I ordered French toast during the Renaissance.”
― Steven Wright

“I came down as soon as I thought there was a prospect of breakfast.”
― Charlotte Brontë

It’s finally feeling like January. We’ve had a couple of snow days, the bird bath has frozen over, and the foolish daffodils have reconsidered their early entrée into society. The drafty kitchen is a good place to while away an afternoon, particularly if there is a bubbling vat of spaghetti sauce on the back burner, one that needs a stir every so often. This sauce is my ticket to a creative life – as long as there is sauce I don’t have to think much about dinner.

I tend to worry about details. The more mundane, the more I can make of them at 3:00 in the morning. I lie in the dark, trying not to wake Mr. Sanders with my many anxieties. After balancing the checkbook, and rearranging the living room furniture, I tend to think about dinner menus. Do I need to go to the store? (I don’t know how it is in your neighborhood, but mine is pretty lax about mask wearing, which just throws me over the edge. I had an insurance sales person knock on our door yesterday. She was terrified by Luke the wonder dog doing his job and barking at her from behind closed French doors. I was terrified by her complete lack of awareness, arriving uninvited on my doorstep, maskless, and expecting to come inside.) So you can see that I’d rather not go to the store if I can avoid it. I like the insurance coverage provided by a good supply of homemade spaghetti sauce.

Not that Rao’s marinara sauce doesn’t occupy a prominent space in the pantry, but that is more for emergencies or night of existential despair. There is nothing like a quick chicken parm to warm up a cold Wednesday night. Or if dining alone, and somehow popcorn doesn’t seem like a mature dinner choice, a bowl of ziti covered with a blanket of Rao’s is a good, grown-up meal. With a green salad on the side, of course. (No wine, please, this is January.)

Homemade spaghetti sauce means lots o’meals. Fresh, leftovers for lunch, and derivations: lasagne, real chicken parmesan, Friday night pizza sauce, baked ziti (which all beget more lunch leftovers) provide a host of meal solutions, which is what we are all about here at the Spy Test Kitchens. Cook once, and eat like a nice middle-class family without nearby relatives, for at least a week and a half.

Mr. Sanders chafes at the repetition, but I find it comforting. Sometimes I’ll take pity on him during a spaghetti marathon and send a ham sandwich with him for lunch. But he is missing out on one of the best remembered treats from childhood: leftover spaghetti, slightly burnt in the re-heating process. That’s fine. He doesn’t wake up at night.

The best perk of our spaghetti production is that I will do the shopping, and Mr. Sanders does the cooking. I’ll sit at the kitchen counter and chat amiably, but otherwise, except for putting tomato cans into the recycling bin, I am off the cooking hook. It’s like watching an episode of the Great British Bakeoff, without the editing, or the cute British accents. Mr. Sanders channels his inner Antonio Carlucci, and I get to sleep through the night. https://www.antonio-carluccio.com/antonio-carluccios-ragu-bolognese-recipe/

Mr. Sanders is from the New Jersey school of Italian red sauce cooking that believes in a slow, all-day simmer for the spaghetti sauce. We start these projects before noon on Sunday, and by six or seven that evening the sauce is almost ready. It will be better the next time, after it has had a chance to rest in the vat in the fridge for 18 hours, and then sits on a low burner for all of Monday afternoon. It also helps to have a cooking assistant who works from home.

This is close to Mr. Sanders’ recipe. He browns the meatballs in a frying pan (when I dare make my own Fairfield County version, I bake the meatballs). He uses lots more garlic, and no onion or sugar. https://www.thespruceeats.com/italian-sausage-and-meatball-sauce-for-pasta-3061156

Spaghetti sauce is a visit home, to the before times, when we wish we had paid more attention to how our parents cooked. We are always trying to replicate those tastes and have another visit in the family kitchen. It’s going to be a long winter, so stock up on some cans of tomatoes, and join me at the kitchen counter. Smell that garlic!

There are lots of grandmother-y recipes are out there on the internets. Find one that seems to be what you remember, and make it your own. You’ll sleep better.
https://www.mantitlement.com/grandmas-sunday-meatballs-and-sauce/

https://food52.com/recipes/81663-sunday-sauce-recipe

https://www.cookingwithnonna.com/italian-cuisine/spaghetti-with-sausage-meatballs.html

“Bubble, bubble, pasta pot,
Boil me some pasta, nice and hot,
I’m hungry and it’s time to sup,
Boil enough pasta to fill me up.”
-Tomie DePaola, Strega Nona

Happy 2022! Congratulations, we have survived the holidays, the virtual celebrations, the Zoom group chats, the driveway Yankee swaps, The Christmas Story movie marathon and getting countless COVID tests. 2022 is going to be great, once we shovel off the sidewalk again. In 2022 our resolutions are to learn to relax, and to be patient, kind and forgiving.

Christmas baking can be very stressful. I did not bake one single batch of presentable Spritz cookies this year. Please keep in mind that Spritz cookies are considered an easy peasy bake. They are the stuff of elementary school bake sales. Mine were disgraceful. One batch melted into golden puddles. Another refused to be extruded from the press. The last ordeal was a long ribbon, that I cut with a knife and covered with gobbets of hot chocolate ganache. Yet, all the cookies were gobbled up. Every one. But I was mortified that I could not bake a single, photogenic, Martha-staff-perfect, little butter cookie mouthful of sugar and butter. My intended audience didn’t seem to mind. They chuckled at the failures, and Hoovered them up with indiscriminate, ravenous abandon. Fee, fie, fo, fum. They didn’t seem to mind the imperfections one bit. The crumbs they left behind were too tiny for any little Who mouses.

Fine baking is a science, as we are often reminded. We must weigh and measure carefully. We must roll layers gently. Don’t forget to chill the dough. Conversely, let some dough rise in a warm corner of the kitchen. Personally, I don’t have a non-drafty kitchen corner. I let the Friday night pizza dough rise in the microwave – it is protected from drafts there, and it is out of my way, under the counter. Sometimes dinner prep is hurried, and the conditions are less than ideal. Sometimes I am not ready to devote the time necessary to magically manipulate a nicely fluted pie crust. And in 2022 I will no longer apologize for the lack of perfection in my baking. Because I have discovered galettes.

Polymorphous and free-form, as many of my Christmas cookies turned out to be, galettes make for a transformative evening meal. Savory galettes are delightful for supper, with lots of leftovers for lunch, which is always our aim at the Spy Test Kitchens: cook once, eat twice. It leaves lots of time for reading books, walking the dog, and listening to podcasts. Fruit galettes are excellent for dessert, and breakfast – what a charming way to start the new year!

Galettes are as easy and inviting, as warm and filling, as any perfectly fashioned little pot pie. And no one needs to bring a T-square or a pie crimper or a camera to the galette prep counter – we will eyeball measurements, fold and pinch with glee, and will have a nice warm, winter meal. (Sadly, in our house we are experiencing Dry January, so you have the cheap white wine without us.)

I love a nice, piping hot leek and potato galette. Bon Appétit makes it fancy by adding raw pistachios to the dough, but if you don’t want to mask up to go back out in the snow, a regular, store-bought, in-the-freezer pie crust will also do. The filling is still heavenly: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/goat-cheese-leek-and-potato-galette-with-pistachio-crust Bon Appétit specializes in fast and delicious galettes: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/slideshow/galette-recipes

And here are other veggie ideas: https://www.seriouseats.com/how-to-make-savory-vegetable-galettes

Fruit galettes, especially with puff pastry, will seem very festive and fancy: https://yogaofcooking.co/easy-puff-pastry-apple-galette/

Our friends at Food52 know that we are rushed off our feet, and barely have time to crack open the Internet for a recipe, so they suggest recipe-free galettes, using what’s on hand: vegetables, eggs, cheese. If you root around your fridge, I bet you will find a lot of interesting items. I just found a baggie of Parmesan that I grated for spaghetti last night, a leek, a chunk of Jarlsberg, a cooked boneless chicken breast, 2 rashers of thick bacon, and in the pantry, a few little new potatoes. Yumsters! Dinner is almost ready. https://food52.com/blog/11538-how-to-make-any-savory-galette-without-a-recipe

2021 was a tough year, so let’s put it behind us. As charity begins at home, it can start off in that drafty kitchen. Try to have something nice for dinner tonight. And it will taste just as wonderful for lunch tomorrow. Take good care of yourself!

“A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.”
― Graham Greene

This is a slightly updated rehash of a column I wrote a couple of years ago for New Year’s Eve. This year we are hanging around the house, reading our Christmas books and watching movies and thinking lazily about New Year’s resolutions. I think we will approach 2022 with modest expectations and goals, and hope for the best. Wear your masks, wash your hands, socially distance, get your boosters and have a very Happy New Year, Gentle Readers!

This New Year’s Eve I am kicking back with gin and Champagne (probably Prosecco because we are starting a New Year’s Resolution Budget).

Prosecco or Champagne? It’s a personal choice. I am hugely impressed by a stately bottle of Veuve Clicquot, and would probably serve it to Mr. Hudson, the butler from Upstairs, Downstairs, if he ever came to call. But I find a pretty orange label on a bottle of Mionetto Prosecco just as appealing.

Recently we found the most delightful Mumm Napa Brut Rosé, on sale. There is nothing so frivolous as a glass full of bubbling pink fizz. So keep your eyes peeled for a sale. You’ll thank me.

The Christmas cookies are almost gone. In the meantime, it is Friday night, and it has been a long week. It’s the last time to indulge in 2021. Instead pouring a glass of my usual cheap winter plonk, I thought I should test some seasonal, perhaps New Year’s Eve-ish cocktail recipes, to get back into the holiday spirit. These are crowd pleasers, but they require a little planning.

“The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roast beef; love is like being enlivened with Champagne.”
– Samuel Johnson

French 75s
This is my go-to cocktail. Finally, I can sound adult and have a drink at a bar (when we aren’t staying home because of COVID) that isn’t too giggly-sounding. Cosmos are deelish, but they don’t sound sophisticated. French 75s are essentially cool and adult.

“Hits with remarkable precision.”
-Harry Craddock, The Savoy Cocktail Book

2 ounces gin
1 ounce lemon juice
1 spoonful extra fine sugar
Champagne
Shake the gin, lemon juice and sugar in a cocktail shaker filled with cracked ice until chilled and well-mixed and then pour into tall glass containing cracked ice and fill up the glass with Champagne.

This clever cocktail was said to have been devised during WWI, the kick from the alcohol combo being described as powerful as the French 75mm howitzer gun.

“Meeting Franklin Roosevelt was like opening your first bottle of Champagne; knowing him was like drinking it.”
-Winston Churchill

Champagne Cocktail
In a Champagne glass add a teaspoon of sugar and enough Angostura bitters to melt the sugar.
Add a tablespoon of Grand Marnier or cognac and mix in with the sugar, bitters mix.
Add a “fine” quality Champagne and stir. Float a slice of thin orange on top.
This is what Ilsa and Victor Laszlo sipped in Casablanca.

“Too much of anything is bad, but too much Champagne is just right.”
-Mark Twain

As always, our festive friends at Food52 have some delightful ideas for nibbles to help soak up some of the bubbly we are sure to be drinking on New Year’s Eve. http://www.food52.com/blog/2807

On a pre-COVID trip to food-forward-thinking-Charleston, friends ordered the Aperol and Prosecco cocktail, because they are oh, so trendy. I did not realize that this is the most popular cocktail in Italy. And now it can be one of yours, too!

Aperol and Prosecco
3 parts chilled, dry Prosecco
2 parts Aperol
1 splash soda
Serve with on the rocks in wine glass or rocks glass
Garnish with a slice of orange (this makes it practically health food!)
http://www.eater.com/2014/10/21/7020183/the-story-of-the-aperol-spritz-a-classic-italian-cocktail

This is very pretty, and so seasonal: Pomegranate Mimosas.
Yumsters. http://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/a46968/pomegranate-mimosas-recipe/

“My only regret in life is that I didn’t drink enough Champagne”
-John Maynard Keynes

And the best of both worlds: a Black Velvet! Champagne and Guinness.
This drink is simply equal parts stout and sparkling wine, and to be honest, there are some who will never understand its appeal. But to fans, this is a perfect special-occasion drink, particularly suited to mornings and late afternoons. I had my first on a gelid night in London, at Rules, in Covent Garden. Divine.

Black Velvet
4 ounces (1/2 cup) chilled Champagne or Prosecco
4 ounces (1/2 cup) chilled Guinness Extra Stout
Pour the Champagne into a tall glass. We first had ours served in heavy pewter tankards, but at home we eschew the delicate flutes for a sturdy rocks glass. This is not an effete drink. It is robust, and fills your hand with determination. Be sure to pour the Guinness on top. (This is important: Guinness is heavier. If you pour the sparkling wine second, it won’t combine evenly, and will need to be stirred. I shudder at the thought!)

Enjoy yourself this weekend. Happy New Year! And let the games begin, again, on Monday.

“Why do I drink Champagne for breakfast? Doesn’t everyone?”
-Noel Coward