If you’re like me, and you still don’t have a clue what you’re giving your family for the holidays this winter, we’ve prepared a gift guide for this winter season. Our choices are tailored to the specific interests of your loved ones, and I’m sure they’ll pass these great books on to you when they’ve finished reading!

For the Sports Enthusiast:

Cardboard Gods by Josh Wilker

Josh Wilker uses his childhood collection of baseball cards to begin each chapter of his nostalgic and heartbreakingly comic memoir. He recounts his experiences growing up in the 1970s–a time marked by Vietnam, Watergate, counterculture, sexual liberation, and stadium rock. Cardboard Gods announces the arrival of a talented new voice in the stadium of big-league memoirs.

For the Music Lover:

Little Blues Book by Brian Robertson

Little Blues Book is a funky celebration of America’s troubadours in the court of hard knocks. With everything from instructions on how to write your own blues song to a chronicle of infamous blues deaths, Little Blues Book has a rhyme, a face, and a word of advice for just about everything life has to offer.

Rock On: An Office Power Ballad by Dan Kennedy

Dan Kennedy is expecting a glamorous career in the show industry, complete with catered meals aboard a private jet, when he’s hired by a major record label in 2002. Instead, he finds himself eyeball-deep in mass layoffs, artist contract cuts, and all-time-low sales while in a workplace that embodies both This Is Spinal Tap and The Office. Kennedy’s absurdly hilarious and oddly heartbreaking account of his time in the trenches of the music industry is sure to entertain your favorite music fan.

For the Cocktail Lover/Literature Lover:

Hemingway & Bailey’s Bartending Guide to Great American Writers by Mark Bailey

“What’s the use of winning the Nobel Prize if it doesn’t even get you into speakeasies?” Sinclair Lewis’ quote begins his section of this entertaining homage to American writing. Bailey’s profiles of forty-three great American writers include a favorite cocktail, true stories of their saucy escapades, and intoxicating excerpts from their literary works. We recommend purchasing two copies–one for the bedside table and one for the bar.

For the Child at Heart/Literature Lover:

What the Dormouse Said: Lessons for Grown-Ups from Children’s Books by Amy Gash

What the Dormouse Said is a compilation of quotes drawn from both classic and lesser-known kid’s books. The book is organized into helpful sections like “Goodness” and “Eating Habits” so you can have a quote handy for every occasion. The collection ranges from the touching  (“An egg, because it contains life, is the most perfect thing there is. It is beautiful and mysterious”) to the humorous (“This sharing business is for the birds”) and will entertain a reader at any age.

For theFoodie:

52 Loaves by William Alexander

After the success of The $64 Tomato, Alexander set out on a quest to produce a perfect loaf of bread. Alexander’s journey takes him through the back alleys of Morocco, a monastery in Normandy, the famed École Ritz Escoffier in Paris, the New York State Fair, and his own backyard. An original take on the six-thousand-year-old staple of life, 52 Loaves explores the nature of obsession, the futility of trying to re-create something perfect, and the mysterious instinct that makes every person on the planet, regardless of culture or society, respond to the aroma of baking bread.

Seasoned in the South: Recipes from Crook’s Corner and from Home by Bill Smith

A favorite restaurant of many in Chapel Hill, Crook’s Corner has received national acclaim from The New York Times, Bon Appétit, Travel & Leisure, and The Washington Post since it first opened its doors in 1982. Bill Smith, the chef at Crook’s Corner for over a decade, serves up a variety of recipes from his own collection. Readers can now try to recreate the classic, up-scale Southern dishes they enjoy at Crook’s Corner from their own kitchens.

Maman’s Homesick Pie: A Persian Heart in an American Kitchen by Donia Bijan

Award-winning chef Donia Bijan begins her memoir with her childhood in the midst of the Iranian Revolution of the 1970s, as her family is forced to flee their home in Tehran. She continues her story with memories of her teenage years in America, her studies at the Cordon Bleu in Paris, and her life as a successful chef in San Francisco. Sprinkled throughout her book, Bijan shares recipes that blend her life experiences: Ratatouille with Black Olives and Fried Bread, Purple Plum Skillet Tart, Roast Duck Legs with Dates and Warm Lentil Salad, and twenty-seven other delicious dishes.

Man With a Pan: Culinary Adventures of Fathers Who Cook for Their Families by John Donohue

My dad is an excellent chef, and while I didn’t grow up like Mario Batali’s kids did, feasting on monkfish liver and foie gras, I went to bed with a full stomach and a happy heart every night. My dad would likely find community within this collection of twenty-one essays by esteemed writers and chefs including Batali, Peter Kaminsky, Mark Bittman, Stephen King, and Jim Harrison. This entertaining collection features more than sixty recipes, some mouth-watering, others titled “A Pretty Good Cake” or “Whole Roast Cow.”

For the Naturalist:

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey

With beautiful detail, Bailey recounts her experiences with a Neohelix albolabris– a common woodland snail. Sick and bedridden, Bailey observes a wild snail living on her nightstand and begins to explore the meaning of her own confined place in the world. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating examines not only human existence, but any kind of life, with grace and wit.

Wicked Bugs: The Louse that Conquered Napoleon’s Army & Other Diabolical Insects by Amy Stewart

Following her award winning Wicked Plants, Stewart profiles over one hundred of our worst insect enemies. From the world’s most painful hornet to millipedes that stop traffic, from “bookworms” that devour libraries to Japanese beetles that munch on roses, Wicked Bugs will have even your toughest cousin waking up from nightmares of six- and eight-legged creatures.

The Music of Wild Birds: An Illustrated, Annotated, and Opinionated Guide to Fifty Birds and Their Songs by Judy Pelikan

My mom’s best friend is an avid birder with a whole windowed room in her house dedicated to bird-watching. I can only differentiate between birds by taste: chicken, turkey, duck, etc. The Music of Wild Birds remarkably appeals to both the novice and experienced birder alike. Pelikan takes her readers inside the world of bird music. Learn how to identify a bid by its song–and then how to sing back to it by following musical scores.

For the Fashionista:

Love, Loss, and What I Wore by Ilene Beckerman

In her New York Times bestselling memoir, Ilene Beckerman uses her changing wardrobe to tell the story of her life in Manhattan during the 1940′s and ’50′s. She navigates marriage, divorce, and motherhood with good humor and fabulous clothes. This pithy book is packed with brightly colored illustrations and fashion-inspired anecdotes–some of them comical, and some of them poignant. Love, Loss, and What I Wore is a celebration of love, life, and womanhood.

For the Gardener:

Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln’s Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities by Amy Stewart

When I was in middle school, I watered a neighbor’s plants over winter break while they vacationed.  They paid me with a gift certificate to a local music store, which I used to purchase The Backstreet Boys’ “Millennium” album.  Had they given me this book instead, I might have developed a greater awe and appreciation for botany. Stewart, who tends a poison garden of her own, takes on a tree that sheds poison daggers; a glistening red seed that stops the heart; a shrub that causes paralysis; a vine that strangles; and a leaf that triggered a war in a book that is sure to inform and entertain.

French Dirt: The Story of a Garden in the South of France by Richard Goodman

Few would have the courage to pack up and move from New York to a small village (small = population of 211) in France for a year, but Goodman did.  He begins to work as hired hand in his neighbors’ fields in an effort to make friends, and this sparks within him a yearning for his own plot of land. French Dirt details the love story between a man and his garden, as well as the growing friendship between an American outsider and a close-knit community of French farmers.

A Rose by Any Name: The Little-Known Lore and Deep-Rooted History of Rose Names by Douglas Brenner & Stephen Scanniello

A poetry professor once instructed me never to write about flowers. He clearly never read A Rose by Any Name. Encompassing art, literature, science, technology, history, and everything in between, the stories behind rose varieties include enough curiosities, romance, tragedy, wit, mystery, scandal, and earthy delights to satisfy even the most nit-picky of critics.

For the Armchair Traveler:

Very Charleston: A Celebration of History, Culture, and Lowcountry Charm by Diana Hollingsworth Gessler

Gessler’s guide and illustrations are every bit as charming as the city of Charleston itself.  From winding cobblestone streets and lush gardens to schooners and sailboats, no page in this book disappoints.  Each of Gessler’s wonderful watercolors is accompanied by fascinating facts about Charleston.

But which recipe to make on one of the first chilly nights? One of the many things I love about Bill Smith’s Seasoned in the South is that he groups recipes by the season. And so all I had to do was flip to the Fall section and there it was, my recipe: Pork Roast with Sauerkraut (see recipe at bottom). (No, not a recipe for you vegetarians, all of whom I admire and wish I was equal to, in your ability to subsist without meat. But the fact is that I’m from German stock and I believe we are weaned on meat.)

Bill Smith has a classic recipe that, like all of his recipes, provides the most simple directions, almost like he’s standing next to you chatting. And with full respect to the season, he uses those great root vegetables that are at their height in the Fall (carrots, parsnips), and above all, the much-underappreciated sauerkraut.

But first, before I could get underway, I had to have an altercation with the produce man in Whole Foods, who refused to believe that anything called “bagged sauerkraut” existed, even though the recipe called for it. “Nope, it would never be bagged,” he said. “It comes in a jar. Sorry.” Slightly defeated, I moved onto the meat department to order my Pork Butt (always fun to say), where I saw, in the cold case right below the counter, my BAGGED SAUERKRAUT. See picture below, in case you ever have to hunt this down.

After that, though, everything was smooth sailing. This recipe practically makes itself. You salt and pepper your pork butt, sear it all over in the Dutch oven, pack some sauerkraut around it, add some parsnips and carrots cut into thick slices—

–more sauerkraut–

some chicken broth, a sprig of fresh rosemary, and then put it in the oven for two hours. And of course Bill recommends mashed potatoes on the side, because what else goes with Pork Roast?

The pork, as the recipe predicted, became soft and tender, falling away from the bone. The sauerkraut added that vinegary edge to the meat, which went perfectly with the carrots and parsnips. And afterwards, I felt like I should till the fields or split some wood or go ice-fishing. Which is to say that it feels like the kind of food that sticks with you, or that, were you have a power outage and all the local grocery stores simultaneously ran out of food, if you had just eaten this for dinner, I think you’d be fine for at least a week. Or more. Yes, it’s comfort food, but I’d also call it Survival Food. There must be a long German word for that.

Pork Roast with Sauerkraut

Serves 6 generously

1 pork roast (perhaps 3-4 pounds of Boston butt)

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons bacon grease or cooking oil

2 pounds sauerkraut (bagged, not canned), rinsed

3 large carrots, peeled and sliced thickly

3 large parsnips, peeled and sliced thickly

1 sprig fresh rosemary

2 cups chicken stock

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Rinse and pat dry the roast.  Salt and pepper the roast and brown it on all sides in the bacon grease in a Dutch oven with a tight-fitting lid.    After the roast is browned, pour off the oil and tuck in half of the rinsed sauerkraut all around the roast halfway up the Dutch oven.  Add the vegetables and rosemary and cover the rest with sauerkraut.  Add the stock.  Cover and bake for 2¼ hours until the meat is tender and easy to pull from the bones.  Serve with mashed potatoes.

I can also put away some tomatoes, especially in the summer. Especially if they’re from my grandpa’s garden. When I saw the recipe for Tomato and Watermelon Salad, it was all I could do not to eat the book.

Bill Smith, chef extraordinaire and owner of the legendary Chapel Hill restaurant Crook’s Corner, has a genius for combining things that ordinary mortals would never think to combine–honeysuckle sorbet, peach and pepper soup, figs and ham. Just flipping through his cookbook, Seasoned in the South, is a mouth-watering experience. Word of warning: don’t pick it up unless you’re within range of a kitchen. You will be immediately inspired to whip up something delicious.

We took the below dish to a family reunion on July 4th. It was a smashing success.  I’m already cooking up an excuse to make it again.

– Jordan Castelloe, Blog Intern (w/photos by May Castelloe)

Tomato and Watermelon Salad from Bill Smith’s Seasoned in the South

Serves 4-6

5 cups ripe, bite-sized watermelon chunks, seeded as best you can, but don’t go crazy

1 1/2 pounds very ripe tomatoes, finely chunked

3 teaspoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt*

1 small red onion, peeled, quartered, and thinly sliced

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

1/4 cup good, strong-flavored extra virgin olive oil

Toss the melon and tomatoes with sugar and salt. Let sit for 15 minutes. Then fold in the onions, vinegar, and oil. Serve very cold.

Aunt Kiran’s Tip: If you’re working with raw onions, let them sit in a bowl with three tablespoons of salt while you get everything else ready. It takes some of the kick out and prevents onion breath. (Don’t forget to rinse them, though.)

Over the years my love of baking and my thrifty efforts to avoid higher air-conditioning bills have found a happy medium. I still avoid baking in the summers, but as soon as I decide to turn on that oven, I make sure to get the most out of it. I strongly believe that once the oven is heated and your kitchen already too warm for a summer evening, you might as well simply forge ahead. (I should probably also mention that cleaning up has never been my strong suit, giving me another reason to group all of my kitchen projects into a single oven-using, counter-splattering, pot-dirtying marathon that requires only one cleaning.)

And that was definitely the case last night. On deck: a tomato tart, a pan of roasted vegetables for dinner, and a double batch of cookies from my favorite Manhattan bakery’s new book, Milk & Cookies (NPR posted a recipe).

Our wonderful CSA has blessed us with what will more than likely turn into an overwhelming quantity of fresh, organic, heirloom tomatoes, so I was overjoyed when I found Bill Smith’s recipe for a Fresh Tomato Tart in his essential cookbook, Seasoned in the South. Corn meal, eggs, cheese, and herbs form the crust for the tart, which is then topped with sliced fresh tomatoes. The tart is baked for half an hour, then topped with some cheese, (The recipe called for grated parmesan; I had to make do with what I had, which was more sharp cheddar.) The result is a gluten-free vegetarian dish that makes for a perfect summer dinner paired with a side salad. (It’s also great for potlucks or picnics.) Plus, if you’re like me, it offers a creative solution to summer’s eternal question: “What am I going to do with all of these tomatoes!?”

–Katie Ford, Assistant Marketing Manager

Fresh Tomato Tart from Seasoned in the South

This recipe, like so many others, was born of the constant torment provided by being forced to come up with vegetarian main courses on an otherwise sensible menu. I have to admit that this is very good, especially when the tomatoes are ripe and you have all kinds of colors. It is very important to have all the ingredients assembled and prepared before you start to cook the cornmeal. It will set up quickly once you begin and you will not have time to stop and prepare more of anything.

serves 4-6

4-6 ripe tomatoes, sliced as for a sandwich, salted and drained in a colander
1/2 cup rinsed, large-curd whole-fat cottage cheese, drained
2 large eggs, beaten
3 tablespoons chopped fresh summer herbs (such as basil or marjoram)
3 cups water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 cup plain yellow or white cornmeal
2 tablespoons softened unsalted butter
1/2 cup grated Cheddar cheese
1 small red onion, peeled and diced
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup sour cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter an 11-inch tart pan with a removable bottom and set aside. Make sure you have enough tomatoes to completely cover the top like the rings of fruit on a French dessert tart.

Place the cottage cheese in a fine sieve and gently rinse under cool water. Set aside to drain. Whisk the eggs and 2 tablespoons of the herbs together well in a bowl and set aside.

Bring 1 1/2 cups of the water to a boil in a large heavy-bottomed pot. Add 1/s teaspoon of the salt. Once boiling, quickly whisk the cornmeal and remaining 1 1/2 cups of water together, then into the boiling pot. Stir without ceasing with a wooden spoon until the cornmeal pulls away from the sides of the pot in large, dry-looking bubbles. Sometimes this happens quickly and sometimes it doesn’t. The cornmeal is ready when you can tip the pan and have most of the mixture pull away dry.

Quickly stir in the butter until it is completely absorbed. Add the eggs all at once and stir rapidly so that they don’t become scrambled eggs. Next add the cheddar cheese, followed by the onion (you want it to remain crunchy), and the cottage cheese (you don’t wait it to melt away). Stir only long enough to combine. Quickly pour this mixture into the tart pan and spread it to the edges with a buttered teacup so you don’t burn your fingers. (Your wooden spoon will work okay for this, but the cornmeal will stick to it more.) You may have more than you need. The volume of this stuff varies mysteriously.

The cornmeal will begin to set at once, so quickly begin to layer in the slices of tomatoes, starting from the outside of the pan, in concentric circles like the rings of fruit on a French dessert tart. Dig the bottom of each slice into the cornmeal a little. This will cause the tart to thicken as you move toward the center. That’s okay. The rings of tomato slices should overlap a little.

Arranging the tomatoes

Sprinkle with the rest of the salt and the pepper and bake for 30 minutes. The tart may look a little wet at this point but it will set up as it bakes. Sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese and bake another 15 minutes until the cheese is a little brown and crispy. Let rest for 10 minutes before unmolding and slicing. Mix the sour cream with the remaining herbs. Serve warm. This reheats beautifully.

Multitasking in progress. I snuck the cookies in the oven when the tart had 15 minutes left.

Let’s eat!

We here at Algonquin like to mark events with food and drink. No holiday is safe. Least of all Easter. What you need is Bill Smith‘s baked ham recipe from Seasoned in the South.

Baked Ham for a Big Brunch

1 tenderized ham (about 18 pounds) (note: Yes, tenderized ham is fully cooked, and I suppose that it would make a fine ham sandwich, but the twice-cooked glazed ham that it becomes turns people into gluttons, standing around the platter long after the meal is over.)

1 cup (packed) light brown suger

1/2 cup Dijon mustard

1/4 cup Grade B pure maple syrup

This recipe could not be simpler. Get a tenderized ham from your butcher. Cook it, covered, like it says on the wrapper. Usually it will say 20-25 minutes per pound at 325 degrees F. You are talking an easy 7 hours here. Put an inch of water in the bottom of the roasting pan. The ham should be on a rack. If you have to use foil to cover the ham, put a piece of buttered kitchen parchment between the ham and the foil.

Uncover the ham for the last hour of cooking. Lift off the carapace of skin that covers the top of the ham. It will turn into cracklins. Scrape away some of the fat that will be revealed hen you removed the skin. It will all be melted, so this can be easily done with a dinner knife. Make a paste of the sugar, mustard, and maple syrup, and coat the ham with it. THis will run everywhere and make a mess, but that’s okay. Baste with the pan juices at least once during this period. The ham is ready when it is all but falling off the bone and is a minimum of 165 degrees F at the center. It needs to sit at least one hour after cooking before it can be sliced.

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–Susannah Long, intern

Bonus points if you find the Easter egg that I hid in this post.

Before , my experience with New Orleans was comprised of beignets at Café du Monde, my first (and hopefully last) hurricane, and a visit with a psychic (he may not have possessed mind-reading powers, but he did regale my friend and me with stories of his days spent partying with Liza Minnelli).

Now that I’m engaged to a bona fide New Orleanian, all that has changed. On our third date, Ted taught me how to peel and devein a shrimp in under three seconds. Now with Mardi Gras fast approaching, I felt it was my responsibility to try my hand at one of the oldest traditions in the book: making a King Cake. A King Cake, for those of you who don’t already know, is a bready type of cake eaten during Mardi Gras that often has a small trinket (a plastic baby, symbolizing the baby Jesus, or a small fava bean) hidden within.

But let me be honest here. When I told Ted that I would be attempting the baking of said King Cake, he burst out laughing. “No one in New Orleans actually bakes the cake,” he said. “You go out to the bakery and buy it during Mardi Gras.” Undeterred, I called up Crooks’ Corner chef and author of Seasoned in the South, Bill Smith, who more or less repeated exactly what Ted had told me.

I refused to give up and let the cake get the best of me, however. Armed with a copy of John Besh’s My New Orleans (a fantastic gift from my mother-in-law to be), I set aside the rainy Sunday before Mardi Gras to tackle the recipe.

I’ll admit, there were some problems. The grocery store didn’t have purple sprinkles, so the cake’s decorations called to mind “Green Bay Packers” colors rather than Mardi Gras colors. I also couldn’t find a tiny plastic baby. (I thought about hiding a toy truck in the cake, but Ted nixed that idea.) The icing wouldn’t really mix together after I added, as the recipe advised, ¼ cup of condensed milk: I dumped almost half a can in before I could make it spreadable. But several hours later, after all was said and done, Ted was the first to admit that I came pretty close in replicating what he grew up with. And everyone at Algonquin loved the cake so much that they’re now having me bake one each week. (Winner!)

–Megan Fishmann, Publicist

See below the video for the King Cake recipe.

King Cake recipe from My New Orleans: The Cookbook by John Besh

For the cake:

• 1 cup lukewarm milk, about 110°F
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons dry yeast
• 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup melted butter
• 5 egg yolks, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon grated fresh lemon zest
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon
• Several gratings of fresh nutmeg

For the icing:

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup condensed milk
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• Purple, green, and gold decorative sugars

1 fève (fava bean) or plastic baby to hide in the cake after baking

Preparation

1. For the cake, pour the warm milk into a large bowl. Whisk in the granulated sugar, yeast, and a heaping tablespoon of the flour, mixing until both the sugar and the yeast have dissolved.

2. Once bubbles have developed on the surface of the milk and it begins to foam, whisk in the butter, eggs, vanilla, and lemon zest. Add the remaining flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg and fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients with a large rubber spatula.

3. After the dough comes together, pulling away from the sides of the bowl, shape it into a large ball. Knead the dough on a floured surface until it is smooth and elastic, about 15 minutes.

4. Put the dough back into the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and set aside in a draft-free place to let it proof, or rise, for 1 1/2 hours or until the dough has doubled in volume.

5. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Once the dough has risen, punch it down and divide the dough into 3 equal pieces. Roll each piece of dough between your palms into a long strip, making 3 ropes of equal length. Braid the 3 ropes around one another and then form the braided loaf into a circle, pinching ends together to seal. Gently lay the braided dough on a nonstick cookie sheet and let it rise until it doubles in size, about 30 minutes.

6. Once it’s doubled in size, place the cookie sheet in the oven and bake until the braid is golden brown, about 30 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven, place on a wire rack, and allow to cool for 30 minutes.

7. For the icing, while the cake is cooling, whisk together the powdered sugar, condensed milk, and lemon juice in a bowl until the icing is smooth and very spreadable. If the icing is too thick, add a bit more condensed milk; if it’s a touch too loose, add a little more powdered sugar.

8. Once the cake has cooled, spread the icing over the top of the cake and sprinkle with purple, green, and gold decorative sugars while the icing is still wet. Tuck the fève or plastic baby into the underside of the cake and, using a spatula, slide the cake onto a platter.

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FUDGE!!!

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This classic fudge recipe comes from Bill Smith‘s Seasoned in the South. And, I mean, if you’re worried about the quality of your work, you can always send some here and we’d be happy to taste test…

FUDGE

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This recipe dates from the Depression and World War II — times when chocolate was an almost unimaginable luxury. It was always viewed with a bit of awe.

Makes about 64 1-inch squares

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2 cups sugar

1/8 tsp. salt

2 1-0z squares unsweetened baking chocolate, finely chopped

3/4 cup whipping cream

2 Tbs. unsalted butter

1. tsp. vanilla

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Butter an 8-inch square baking dish and set it aside. Mix together the sugar, salt, chocolate, and cream in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring until the chocolate melts. Brush away any sugar crystals that develop on the side of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in cold water. Reduce the heat to medium low and cook the mixture, without stirring, until it reaches soft-ball stage (between 234 degrees and 240 degrees F on a candy thermometer). Gently remove the pan from the heat and drop in the butter, but do not stir it in. It is very important to not stir or jostle the fudge at this point, or it will become gritty and grainy. Let the fudge cool to 110 degrees F.

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Add the vanilla and beat vigorously until the fudge loses its gloss and begins to thicken and look like fudge. This will take at least 10 or 15 minutes, so it’s fine to use an electric mixer. Be patient as nothing happens for several minutes, but then there is a dramatic change in the appearance of the fudge. It becomes smooth and creamy. Scrape the fudge into the buttered dish. Cool completely and cut into squares.

As Merry Christmas Week draws to a close, I want to send you off with something to keep you warm–something bursting with comfort and joy–but I cannot buy everyone a Snuggie. So instead, I offer a recipe for Mulled Red Wine from Camille Glenn’s Old Fashioned Christmas Cookbook. I suggest serving this sometime after you slice the celery sticks but well before your nephew opens his Sock em’-Siren-Whistle-Rifle.

Mulled Red Wine

This is a festive and delicious punch that complements beef, ham, or game (or spending extended amounts of time with extended family).

Zest and juice of 2 lemons

Zest and juice of 1/2 navel orange

2 cups cold water

7 or 8 whole cloves

1 cinnamon stick (3 inches long)

1/4 cup sugar

1 bottle good-quality red wine

1. Warm 12 to 15 punch cups.

2. Finely sliver the lemon and orange zest. Strain the lemon and orange juices into a stainless-steel saucepan. Add the zest, water, cloves, cinnamon stick, and sugar.

3. Pour in the wine and heat the mixture until it is very hot, but do not allow it to boil. Strain the wine into a heated pitcher and then pour it into the warm punch cups and serve immediately.

Serves 12 to 15

–Susannah Long, Intern

Heather Lende, author of the beautiful memoirs Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs and If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name, has a new column in Woman’s Day. Her first piece is about being grateful for families during the holidays–you can read it in its entirety online. (Isn’t the illustration accompanying her piece fantastic?)

Here at Algonquin, we have a lot to be thankful for. The scent of galleys, fresh from the printer. Mail room birthday parties. Rescue dogs. Fine wine. And eating until you can no longer fit into your fat pants. On Thursday, we encourage you to add one more delicious dish to your already creaking table: scalloped potatoes á la Bill Smith, from his cookbook Seasoned in the South: Recipes from Crook’s Corner and from Home.

SCALLOPED POTATOES

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People always ask for this recipe. Because the gratin is so rich and thick, they want to know what kind of cheese is in it. There is none.

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To prepare these potatoes, you will need a shallow, 2-quart baking dish that can be used both on top of the stove and in the oven. A 12-inch cast-iron skillet would do. I use an old French cast-iron gratin at home.

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Serves 10-12

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2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted

6 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

1 teaspoon dried marjoram

¼ teaspoon dried red pepper flakes

4 large baking potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

1 ½ teaspoons salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 ½ cups half-and-half

1 ½ cups heavy cream

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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the butter in a large pan on top of the stove over high heat and swirl it around to coat the bottom. As the butter begins to sizzle, add the garlic, marjoram, and pepper flakes. As soon as this begins to smell wonderful remove it from the heat. You don’t want browned garlic or burned herbs. Fill the pan with layers of sliced potatoes. Broadcast the salt and pepper over the top and wash this down with the half-and-half. Return the pan to the stovetop and turn the heat on full blast. When the butter begins to bubble through the half-and-half, drizzle the heavy cream all over the top of the potatoes.

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Place the gratin in the oven, uncovered, for 60 to 70 minutes. Baste from time to time. The potatoes are done when they are completely tender and the top has become pretty and brown. Let the potatoes rest for 10 minutes before serving. This is a great side dish for steaks or for roast chicken.

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There are endless variations of this recipe. Sliced mushrooms and onions are a good addition. Lately, I’ve been doing a winter version with sweet potatoes, celery root, parsnips, and carrots. No white potatoes at all. In the summer, odds and ends from the garden can be used: some sliced tomatoes, fresh herbs, sliced squash, even beets (although the color will be startling). And hot chiles are very good baked in heavy cream.

Today, we have a video of Smith as he forages for honeysuckle for one of his signature desserts: Honeysuckle Sorbet.

Honeysuckle Sorbet

Makes about 2 quarts

4 cups (tightly packed but not smashed) honeysuckle flowers, leaves and stems discarded
5 1/3 cups cool water
1 1/3 cups water
2 cups sugar
Few drops of freshly squeezed lemon juice
Speck of cinnamon

Place the flowers in a nonreactive container (glass or stainless steel) and cover with the cool water. Weight down with a plate. Let stand on the counter overnight.

In a small saucepan, make a syrup out of the sugar and the water by boiling it until all the sugar is dissolved and it begins to look lustrous and slightly thick, 3-5 minutes. Add a few drops of lemon juice to prevent the sugar from recrystallizing. Cool the syrup completely. Strain the honeysuckle infusion, gently pressing the blossoms so as not to waste any of your previous efforts. Combine the two liquids and add the merest dusting of cinnamon. You don’t want to taste it, but you can tell if it’s not there. I use the tip of a sharp boning knife to measure it. Churn in an ice-cream maker. This does not keep for more than a week or two.

Enjoy!

The International Network Of Golf is a 20-year-old, non-profit, media-based networking organization whose mission is to enhance and promote communication and education in golf. At the 17th annual ING Media Awards, James Dodson took first place in the “Book Author” category for his book A Son of the Game.

Since 1953, Western Writers of America has promoted and honored the best in Western literature with the annual Spur Awards. The awards are given for works whose inspiration, image, and literary excellence best represent the reality and spirit of the American West. Robert Olmstead took the award for “Best Western Short Novel” with Far Bright Star.

Amy Stewart’s Wicked Plants was one of four titles to win the American Horticultural Society’s 2010 Book of the Year award.

Bill Smith is the “Best Chef: Southeastern” nominee for the 2010 James Beard Foundation Award.

and

Secret Son by Laila Lalami is on the longlist for the Orange Prize for Fiction.

We’re just so proud!