Best of all, these require no effort other than peeling and cutting. They will hold in the oven for awhile, so if they are done before the rest of the meal is cooked, they will keep without getting dried out. Guests love them and they couldn’t be easier to make.

The carrots cook down quite a lot, so I usually allot at least 2 whole carrots per person. This recipe will serve 4, but for each additional person just add more carrots and more oil and seasonings.

You might be tempted to use the pre-cut “baby” carrots instead of peeling and cutting larger carrots. Now I am all for making life easier but I will honestly say that for some reason, they just don’t taste very good when prepared this way. If you’re rushed for time, you can try using them, but I don’t really recommend it. Still, any carrots are better than no carrots!

Recipe: Easy Oven-Roasted Carrots
serves 4 as a side dish

INGREDIENTS:

• 8 large carrots
• a couple glugs of olive oil
• 1 to 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 large pinch ground cinnamon
• coarse salt (like Kosher salt) to taste

METHOD:

• Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
• Peel carrots and rinse them off, or if you prefer to leave the peels on, just scrub and rinse very well to remove all dirt. Cut off ends. Cut into 3 inch segments, then quarter each segment (you can half the smallest pieces if quarters seems too small.)
• Put carrots in an oven-proof metal or ceramic pan like an 8 inch square or round pan. Add a few glugs of olive oil, spices, and salt to taste. Toss with a wooden spoon to coat.
• Cook for about 1 hour, stirring once. Serve immediately or turn off the oven and leave carrots in until serving time.

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Warm out of the oven, they are little wedges of heaven. The next day you can pop them in the toaster to imitate that fresh-baked feeling. Either way they are great for brunch, tea, or in lieu of biscuits with a fried chicken dinner. I was on the verge of adding crispy bacon to the mix, so if that floats your boat, don’t let me stop you.

The key to flaky scones is to leave the butter pieces reasonably large so they melt and bubble and create little air pockets in the scones during the baking process. I like to mix this up with my fingers so I can feel the butter pieces, but you can use a pastry blender if you prefer. The ideal size and shape is either little balls, like small lentils, or flat pieces about the size and shape of cornflakes.

Recipe: Buttery Cheddar and Scallion Scones
makes 8 scones

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• pinch cayenne pepper (optional)
• 1/2 cup butter, cold and cut into small cubes
• 6 green onions, trimmed and finely chopped, white and light green parts only
• 1 cup medium or sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup + 2 Tblsp half and half or heavy cream

METHOD:

• Preheat oven to 400F and prepare a baking sheet with parchment or a silpat.
• Sift together flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and cayenne.
• Add butter and use your fingers or a pastry blender to cut the butter into the flour mixture until the butter pieces are the size of small lentils. There can also be flat pieces of butter about the shape and size of a cornflake.
• Add cheese and green onion and mix to combine. Stir in 1/2 cup of half and half or cream just until dough comes together. If it’s too dry, add a little more.
• Move dough to a floured surface and fold over on itself just once or twice to totally combine. Pat into a circle about 7 or 8 inches in diameter. Cut into 8 wedges. Transfer to baking sheet, leaving about 1/2 inch between each scone.
• Brush top of each scone with remaining 2 Tblsp cream. Sprinkle with coarse salt and additional cayenne pepper (optional.)
• Bake 20 minutes, until golden brown on the bottom and top. Serve warm.

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Of course, shortbread is fabulous on its own, but I happened to have some fresh clementine curd on hand, so it was hard to resist drizzling some over the top. I also sampled it with a glass of milk, a mug of tea, with hot chocolate, by itself, and… well, don’t judge me, it makes an enormous recipe so I basically HAD to eat it so it wouldn’t go to waste.

You can (and should) get the recipe from Eating Out Loud. I would add a few notes in addition:

• I recommend sifting the dry ingredients so you don’t get any hard lumps. (True confession: my cornstarch might have been old and lumpy.)
• This makes an enormous amount (6 cups of dry ingredients!) so I made a half recipe and put it in a 9×13 pan.
• Perhaps because of making the half recipe in a different kind of pan, they took me about 1 hour and 20 minutes total to cook.
• I wasn’t able to prick the shortbread with a fork before putting them in the oven – they were too flaky to prick. So I did the pricking about halfway through the baking. Maybe I didn’t press the mixture down hard enough? So: press it down really well.

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Curds need a lot of acid, which is why you only see citrus-based curds like lemon or orange or grapefruit, and never apple or banana or strawberry. This is definitely not health food–it’s essentially a buttery, yolky, sugary suspension flavored with citrus juice and zest. You know, like hollandaise sauce or aioli, but sweet. I learned to make curd in a double boiler, but I’m lazy and 8 months pregnant and my giant belly keeps accidentally turning on the gas when I lean over the stove to stir, so I did not use a double boiler because it takes forever. Instead, I made it very carefully over low heat and then strained it through a fine mesh strainer. You can do that too, and you don’t even have to be pregnant. I should tell you that if you don’t strain it, a) you might get zest in your teeth, and b) more importantly, it might have little pieces of cooked egg in it, which in case you can’t figure out, would be extremely disgusting.

For the record, I hate hate hate the word “curd” – to my ears, it’s one of the least pleasant words in the English language. I know a lot of you are not fans of “moist” or “panties” or whatever, but for me “curd” rises to the top of my icky words list. Unfortunately, curds of all types are extremely delicious so for the time being I will just have to suck it up and try to embrace the curd for what it is and not what it’s called.

Recipe: Clementine Curd
Makes about 1 1/2 cups. You can substitute part oranges, blood oranges, tangerines, etc. for all or part of the clementines.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup butter, cut in pieces
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup clementine juice (I needed 10 but I think I am a wussy juicer)
• zest of 4 clementines
• pinch salt
• 3 egg yolks

METHOD:

• Put butter pieces, sugar, juice, zest, and salt in a heavy saucepan, like an enameled cast iron pot. Heat over low heat, stirring with a whisk, until butter is melted.
• Prepare a large metal bowl with ice and water and set aside.
• Put egg yolks in a bowl. Ladle a little of the hot liquid over the yolks to temper them and whisk. Add yolk mixture back to the pot.
• Whisk constantly over low heat, about 15 minutes, until curd is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon heavily enough to leave a clean line when you run your finger through it. (It will thicken more as it cools.)
• Put pot into ice bath and continue whisking to cool. You don’t have to whisk constantly – just whisk well, wait a minute or two, whisk again, and repeat until cooled to room temperature and thickened.
• Pour into airtight containers or jars and refrigerate. This will keep for at least a week.

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As luck would have it, it turned out to be a very, very good salad that I will be making many more times. When my guests asked for the recipe, I had to demur. I had not even written down the ingredients. So I promised to re-create it as soon as possible and pass along the recipe.

I am not a big fan of raw kale by itself or in big pieces, but shredding it and balancing it with cabbage makes a salad that’s pretty, good for you, and great tasting. I used clementines but if you can’t find them, you can use oranges. At home, I don’t normally supreme my citrus (by which I mean take off all the pithy white bits) but if you want to do that then I recommend this tutorial from Coconut and Lime. I think you could top this with grilled steak or chicken for a main course salad. Enjoy!

Recipe: Kale & Cabbage Salad with Miso Dressing 

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 bunch kale (I used Tuscan, but any kind is fine)
• 1 small head cabbage
• 1-2 avocados, cubed
• 4-5 seedless clementines, peeled and segmented
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 3 Tblsp olive oil or vegetable oil
• 2 Tblsp white miso paste
• 2 Tblsp rice vinegar
• 1 Tblsp honey
• 2 tsp very hot water
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp smooth Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• salt and pepper to taste

METHOD:

• Wash and dry kale well. Grasp each kale leaf at the bottom of the stalk between your thumb and forefinger, and run your fingers up the stalk to separate the leaf from the stalk. Discard the stalks and stack the leaves. Fold the leaves lengthwise and  shred finely with a large knife. Place in a large salad bowl
• Remove outer leaves and stalk of cabbage, then cut into quarters. Use a large knife to shred as finely as possible. Add to the bowl with the kale. Combine with your hands or salad tongs.
• Top kale and cabbage with clementine segments, almonds, and avocado.
• In a small bowl, whisk remaining ingredients together well, ensuring miso is well broken up and combined. Toss about half the dressing with the salad. Add more dressing if desired. Serve immediately.
• Note: you can make the dressing up to 24 hours in advance if desired. Store in the fridge and whisk well before serving.

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I was a little skeptical at first – raw kale instead of basil? But it turns out, I was totally wrong to doubt. What I like about this is that it only takes a few leaves of kale, and you can use the rest of the kale in something else–unlike basil, pesto, which uses about half a bunch and then forces me to witness the slow and slimy death of the remainder of the bunch every time I open my refrigerator.

For a creamy, fulfilling, vegetarian pasta dish, cook the noodles, then toss some pesto with the pasta and a little of the reserved pasta water in the pot. For a great appetizer, spread the pesto on thin slices of toasted bread and top with sliced cherry tomatoes and/or sprinkle with more crushed walnuts or a little bit of grated cheese. You can make the pesto while you’re boiling the noodles or toasting the bread.

I didn’t have parmesan, so I used some salty grated pecorino, which cut the bitterness of the kale really well. I think you could use either with excellent results. If I’m being honest, I eyeballed the cheese and thereby I probably used extra, because that’s kind of how I roll, so if it’s not tasting great throw another 1/4 cup of cheese in the mix and see how it goes. Get the recipe here! 

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Do you ever see these things in the store and think “what the hell is that? And how do you eat it?” This is the unattractive and underloved celery root, which is the root of the celery plant. It kind of tastes like celery, but better and with a completely different texture. Once you peel away all the knobbly Hobbit-y bits you get a white, starchy root vegetable that looks like a potato.

The celery flavor goes really well with a hearty, saucy beef or pork dish, like short ribs or pork stew.

Recipe: Celery Root and Cauliflower Puree
serves 6-8

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 whole celery roots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 head cauliflower, leaves trimmed, roughly chopped
• 4-6 Tblsp butter
• 1/2 cup creme fraiche

METHOD:

• Put vegetables into a pot of salted water. Bring to a boil then cook about 15 minutes, until celery root is tender when you stick a knife in.
• Drain vegetables and put them in a food processor or food mill. Add butter, creme fraiche, and salt and pepper to taste, and process or mill until smooth.
• Serve immediately.

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What’s extra great is that there is no flour nor butter in them, just egg whites for binding, so they are practically health food. (OK technically it would be more accurate to say they are practically candy, since the bulk is made up of sugar and chocolate.)

Now I know it’s been almost 2 weeks since Christmas, but do you still have some janky old candy canes lying around? Put them into a plastic bag and hit them with a hammer to make scraps. Sprinkle them on half the cookies before baking, so the chocolate-peppermint lovers in your life can have something nice, too. If you sprinkle them on after baking… well, sadly, they will just slide off. I know this from experience.

Get the recipe from Recipe Girl here.

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The trick with these is to stir them super vigorously so the sugar starts to crystallize and help the spices cling to the nuts. Once they start to get sandy and sugary, you’ll know they are ready to go. I remember learning learning to make these in pastry school and not seeing them get sandy, despite what I thought were my best efforts at stirring them. The instructor came by and sneered, “you call that VIGOROUS? You need to stir VIGOROUSLY!” So I always think of that and smile while I’m stirring them. Vigorously.

And since you get a mini arm workout, you can justify eating a few extra nuts.

You can easily double or triple this recipe or play with the spices to your liking. If you don’t have a candy thermometer, here’s a guide to help you get to soft ball stage without one.

Recipe: Sweet & Spicy Holiday Nuts
makes 1 1/2 cups nuts

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• Large pinch of cayenne pepper
• Large pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups unsalted shelled nuts of your choice

METHOD:

• Combine sugar and water in a saucepan on the stove over medium high heat. Meanwhile, combine spices and salt in a bowl.
• Insert a candy thermometer into the sugar and when it reaches 238 degrees (soft ball stage) turn off the heat and add the spices and the nuts.
• Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon for 2-3 minutes, until the nuts start to get a sandy texture.
• Pour nuts out onto a sheet of parchment paper or foil to cool. When they are cool enough to handle, gently break the clumps up with your hands.
• You can store them for up to a week in a sealed plastic bag or tightly closed container.

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If you haven’t worked with fresh lemongrass before, here’s a helpful post about how to prepare the stalks for cooking.

Recipe: Toasted Broccoli Soup with Coriander and Lemongrass

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 2 bunches baby broccoli, roughly chopped
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 6 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 stalk lemongrass, trimmed and roughly chopped
• 3 inch piece of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
• pinch of chili flakes (or more to taste)
• 1 Tblsp rice vinegar
• juice of 1 lemon

METHOD:

• Heat sesame oil in a medium-large pot over high heat. When oil is hot, add chopped broccoli and toast in the oil about 5 minutes, until the edges start to brown.
• Add garlic and coriander seeds and cook about 20 seconds, until garlic is fragrant.
• Add chicken broth, lemongrass, ginger, and chili flakes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and cook about 15 minutes. Crack the lid slightly to let the steam off.
• Add rice vinegar and lemon juice. Puree very well in batches until smooth. Taste and add soy sauce or salt to season if necessary.
• Serve with additional chili flakes and a drizzle of sesame oil.

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