… to eat all the things.

It’s almost unfair how clustered the next six weeks are with delicious eating, followed by the guilty wasteland of January. But I’m just not going to think about that part yet. Instead, here is an entire[ly pointless] post of some of the tastes of the season. Go ahead and put on your fat pants.

We really start our seasonal culinary reveling early November with our annual donut making extravaganza– year 7! As times get crazier, families get bigger, and there are evermore toddlers running around, we decided to simplify things even more and we just made a double batch of these, topped with a variety of Trader Joe’s sauces. And I know I said it last year, but I am really going to stick with donut holes next year, as they just seem better homemade. We also changed things up this year by encouraging people to bring a couple donuts from their favorite local donut shop, of which there are so many in this area. It meant we had a massive selection of donuts… and only 5 left at the end of the evening. Our community is nothing if not an impressive group of donut eaters. This is what I want to take (and eat and serve) at every holiday party.

These are the best Thanksgiving/Christmas brownies there are- just to add some variety to the pie spread.

Should you find you need some kale to balance out your gluttony, I’m a big fan of this festive kale salad and this one.

Last Saturday morning. Henry was in an extra whiny mood, and I decided it was time for our first baking adventure. He constantly begs to help “stir it!” (which he pronounces “$hit!”) whenever I am cooking and I knew he would love baking, but just couldn’t mentally get past the disaster assuredly awaiting such an endeavor. It was as messy as I had feared, but also so fun, as he was beside himself with excitement to be baking. We made this banana bread (decreased sugar and subbed half of the flour for coconut flour) and it was so tasty. A departure from my standard banana bread, but still delicious and jussttttt healthy enough for me to not feel bad serving it toasted for snacktime- the perfect gift to present when you show up at people’s houses over the holidays. Should you find yourself somewhere where pie is being served, and should you be like me and categorically think cobbler is the vastly superior dessert, you should just bring this tasty cobbler-disguised-as-pie. I let the pie crust go all up the sides and used frozen mixed berries (thawed) instead of fresh blackberries and it was the best thing ever. The almond crumble really takes it to the next pie level, aka, cobbler.

Deb has a similar recipe I would like to try, as her recipes are usually some of my favorite versions of anything. I made her old-school baked ziti last week and it was the perfect cold night comfort food.

My parents get in tonight, as we are staying home for Thanksgiving for the first time since this epic feast. I have much higher hopes for this year, as our cooking conditions are vastly improved. Looking forward to a cozy couple days with family and delicious food!