What to Cook Right Now

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A few years ago, on an icy December evening, the doorbell rang unexpectedly. Outside stood a friend in spangles and heels, with a bottle of ribbon-tied bubbly in her hands. The occasion? She was a week early for our holiday party.

My family was in sweatpants mode, roasting vegetables and simmering a soup for dinner, but we were feeling merry and begged her to stay.

We shared roasted parsnips and lemony red lentil soup, drank up her good Champagne and had the loveliest impromptu visit. It was just as fun as the party the following week — and far cozier.

If you can find a way to schedule (or stumble into) some kind of calm togetherness around the table during the holiday cacophony, you’ll thank yourself.

You know what else is cozy and festive? Breakfast on Christmas morning! For something truly dazzling, Sohla El-Waylly came up with a genius glow up for sheets of purchased puff pastry — turning them into a giant almond croissant (above), filled with creamy frangipane in the center.

Or there’s Genevieve Ko’s superlative French toast, for a classic breakfast dish that everyone will love. If you prefer a savory meal amid your piles of wrapping paper and torn ribbons and bows, how about shrimp and grits with plenty of Cheddar to make the grits extra creamy?

Any of these options would pair well with a sweet and spicy fruit salad and mimosas.

Marinated, preferably overnight, with garlic, citrus and herbs, it’s then slowly roasted until the skin crisps into irresistible chicharrón. That 8-pound bone-in pork shoulder will feed a crowd more economically than, say, a prime rib roast, though we have a recipe for that, too, if you’re ready to splurge.

I’ll leave you with a little bit of the lyrics: “Songs build little rooms in time / And housed within the song’s design / Is the ghost the host has left behind / To greet and sweep the guest inside / Stoke the fire and sing his lines”

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What to Cook Right Now

A few years ago, on an icy December evening, the doorbell rang unexpectedly. Outside stood a friend in spangles and heels, with a bottle of ribbon-tied bubbly in her hands. The occasion? She was a week early for our holiday party.