Cherry Chocolate Bites | Holiday Cookies

Little drop cookies are cute as a bug, and even better if you want to add a little chocolate ganache to sweeten things up. I like 'em plain and simple -- just pop one in your mouth and keep on ho ho ho-ing!

Cherry Biscotti | Holiday Cookies

Italian cookies are sturdy, not too sweet and perfect for sitting round the fire or sharing with friends.

Date Balls | Holiday Cookies

This simple recipe took some trial and error to get right, but the outcome makes for a tasty treat with a little crunch.

The Accidental Vegetarian: Fire-Roasted Peppers

I'm not sure what (if anything) this strangely cool, damp year in Northern California says about global warming, but it definitively changed the relationship between the physical calendar on my wall and my erstwhile sense of the natural culinary seasons: I didn't eat a ripe tomato until well into August, and I'm still picking chili peppers from our garden in mid-December. And, in a proximal vein, I managed to procure a Technicolor Dreamcoat of richly hued, perfectly ripened late-season peppers from Soda Rock Farms at our very last farmer's market of 2010