New Year’s Eve

Toasted rounds of baguette topped with goat cheese and chopped pistachios with a dish of honey in the background.

Goat Cheese with Honey

This little ditty is simplicity itself. Drizzle fresh, creamy goat cheese with a little honey and behold the loveliness of sweet, sweet synergy.

Sweet and spicy roasted nuts in a large green bowl on a wooden table.

Sweet and Spicy Roasted Nuts

These sweet and spicy nuts are addictive, so serve with care. The sweet comes from sugar, the spicy is the result of red pepper flakes. Use any kind of nut.

A dozen nutella truffles on a blue tabletop; a person's hand sifting cocoa over them

Nutella Truffles

Orbs of Nutella, chocolate, and cream, all dusted in cocoa powder. Need we say more?

Three Champagne cocktails with a Champagne cork an a plate of sugar cubes beside the drinks.

Champagne Cocktail

The quintessential something to sip at an elegant soirée, a large party, or just because it’s a random Tuesday night.

Oliebollen, or Dutch doughnuts, in a wire basket, covered with powdered sugar on a white tablecloth.

Oliebollen ~ Dutch Doughnuts

Nothing’s better than warm oliebollen, or Dutch doughnuts, thanks to their crisp nooks and crannies and their pillowy centers hidden beneath a dusting of confectioners’ sugar.

Truffled mac and cheese in four mini-casserole pans, one with a fork and a few mouthfuls missing.

Truffled Mac and Cheese

Mac and cheese goes high falutin’ with a drizzle of chichi truffle oil and a few shavings of black truffle. Pricey, perhaps. But well worth it every once in a special while.

A dozen hazelnut thyme matchsticks in a glass

Hazelnut Thyme Matchsticks

Hazelnut thyme matchsticks are thin, crisp crackers made with ground hazelnuts, cheese, and butter. The matchsticks are perfect with soup or as a snack.

2 Lobster thermidor in a baking dish, flanked by dinner plates and glasses of wine.

Lobster Thermidor

For lobster thermidor, lobster is cooked and then coated in a rich thermidor sauce, seasoned with mustard and tarragon, and scooped back in the shell.

Mussels marinara garnished with parsley, in a white saucepan beside two wine glasses.

Mussels Marinara ~ Cozze alla Marinara

Three ingredients. One pot. And less than 15 minutes from stovetop to table—barely enough time to uncork a bottle of wine or crack open a beer. Somehow, we think you’ll manage.

A rectangular pine nut-toffee tart with rosemary and orange cut into triangles

Toffee Tart with Pine Nuts and Rosemary

This tart’s an unusual but fantabulous confection. The meatiness of the nuts, the piney notes of rosemary, the citrusy orange, and sweetness of the toffee play oh-so-nicely together.