Winners and Losers of 2022

Just kidding, they're all winners!

Seasons Greetings eaters and readers! This will be your last newsletter of 2022, so instead of the usual “Three Things” I’m excited about, I thought I’d gift you a double dose and then some with a highlight reel of the year’s 10 best recipes. Before we get to that, though, can we please take a minute to talk about how insane the World Cup finals were? I don’t think I’ll get over that game any time soon — beyond how exhilarating it was purely as an athletic contest, so much of the magic for me was how connected I felt to the two billion people across the world watching the same thing at the same time, such a rarity in our streaming disconnected world. I know the event was not without its major issues this year, but never am I more grateful for sports on days like Sunday…and even for the 48 hours that followed, when it seemed everyone from the holiday party hosts to the guy walking his dog in the Messi jersey to my dentist to friends on every text thread were all Did you see that game? Have you ever seen anything like it? How about that Mbappé goal? Can you believe Messi finally did it? It felt good.

One more thing before we get to the DALS year in food: For those of you living in New York or hitting New York in the near future, my friend and fellow Substacker Yolanda Edwards asked a bunch of us to weigh in on our favorite spots to eat, shop, and hang. It’s an astonishing resource — and worth the price of a subscription if you ask me! Also, Hanukkah celebrators: Happy Happy! Here’s my go-to latke! And now….my Top 10 in 2022!

1. Winningest Holiday Cookie

A few days ago, Susan Spungen, the Lionel Messi of holiday cookies, joined us for a Holiday Baking Hotline and even if you weren’t around for it, you can head over there to read through the questions and answers. We talked about everything from an approachable Yule log to festive-feeling gluten-free cookies, to homemade food gifts, and I loved that reader Erin asked this question: What cookie can I make for a holiday cookie competition that has the best chance of winning? Her answer? Triple-Ginger Chocolate Chunk Cookie (shown above), which Susan is apparently quite famous for. Naturally, I had to bake a batch of them over the weekend to see what all the fuss was about. Suffice to say, I get it now! Look at those cookies — all melty and crackly. Hope you won, Erin! (Reminder, hotlines are for subscribers only, but that recipe link will work for everybody.)

2. Most Comforting Comfort Food

I wrote up this recipe for last year’s Super Bowl, but of course, my mom’s lasagna is an anytime-of-year showstopper, never not the right call when you’re feeding a crowd or just the family. It can be dressed up or down, and I made it this year for my kids’ college friends, for a regular old Sunday dinner, and plan to bring one to my parents’ for Christmas Eve on Saturday.

3. Feel-Good-iest Dinner

Ottolenghi was the first to teach me how delicious jammy tomatoes tasted with lentils, all bursty and sweet, and it was a combination I couldn’t seem to get enough of in 2002 — even in the dead of winter when the tomatoes are decidedly not bursty and sweet without some substantial assistance. I switch up the cheese and the vegetables tossed with my tomato-lentils through the year, but eventually I settled on this simple dinner, which I often stretch out with Bibb or butter lettuce to up the green quotient. Makes a great dinner for those nights in between, say, the holiday ham and the cookie party.

4. Best Please-Everyone Meal

I found myself making Hannah Che’s Cold Noodle & Cabbage Salad on repeat — it’s one of those super flavorful vegetable-loaded dinners that works for every kind of eater — gluten free, vegetarian, vegan, hungry. Delicious all year long, but especially so in the summer.

5. Most Popular!

Fun fact: This Overnight Baked French Toast was one of the most popular posts I wrote all year long for my Wednesday food column over at Cup of Jo. I’m guessing that’s because it’s make-ahead, simple to assemble, and endlessly riffable with fruit, nuts, and toppings. Also, not that you need me to tell you this, but it might be just the thing for a Christmas or New Year’s brunch.

6. Biggest Sleeper Hit

This Ginger-Miso Dressing kind of flew under the radar this year, but I would like to make sure it gets celebrated properly for its role consistently upgrading my salads throughout 2022. As I wrote back in March, “Drizzle it on top of any greens or vegetables or shredded cabbage, then toss in a protein like 8-minute pan-fried tofu cubes, and you’ve got a pretty hearty, healthy, umami-packed meal.”

7. Kids’ Most Requested

Do you even need convincing on this one? The crunchy pretzel-coated pieces dressed in a tangy yogurt-based honey mustard dressing is a recreation of a favorite from my City Bakery (RIP) days, and in the words of my daughter, “It’s like the bougiest item on the kid’s menu.”

8. Highest ROI

I have always loved Pavlova, but I think 2022 was the year I officially embraced it. In the summer, I topped with berries and thinly sliced stone fruits, drizzles of tropical pulps and sprinkles of coconut, but in the winter — now — I’d be all about pomegranates with chocolate drizzle or lemon curd and candied almonds. I will never not be amazed by how something this dramatic can be made from simply sugar, cream, and egg whites.

9. Best Dinner Party Starter

I change my position on starters every week (one showstopper vs. lots of little salty snacks) but on one particularly cold Saturday night last winter when we had our friends Sonya and Pierre over for dinner, my position was decidedly: Showstopper. Namely Fresh Anchovy Toasts with Caramelized Onions. Not for nothin’, they make a perfect weeknight dinner when you serve them with a green salad.

10. Most Heartwarmingly Random

Jodi Levine and I started our Like Magic project as a way to share all the creative ways people celebrate each other and infuse meaning into their everyday. And if there is one idea that perfectly encapsulates that mission — and that really caught on with followers — it’s the Random Celebratory Carvel Ice Cream Cake which essentially says there is NO occasion too small to make a BIG deal over. The more personal the piped-on message, is, in fact the the more oddball, the more unexpected, the more delightful. That’s what we think anyway. Head over to Like Magic to check out the cakes follow along with our project in general.

Have a wonderful holiday and, as always, THANK YOU for being here.

See you in 2023,
Jenny