I have a confession. Since 2020 slam-crashed into the world and changed so much, not only in our individual daily lives, but in the world as a whole, I’m a wee bit apprehensive of New Year’s. I can remember 2019 very well, with an almost quixotic fondness; this week several years ago, we baptized our newborn son in what was—unbeknownst to us at the time—the last of the big gatherings before Covid, masks, quarantines, vaccines, sanitizers and the general disarray and conflict all of those things have caused. We had the most lovely day in Brooklyn with family and friends, gathering as we’d been gathering for a lifetime.
We wrapped up 2019 blissfully unaware of what the turn around the corner into 2020 was about to bring. But my rational mind knows that this is and has always been the way of life—we never do know what’s around the corner. So I make my cookies and bread and raise my family, and during this past week especially, the lazy yawn between Christmas and New Year’s, try to enjoy myself, have some extra wine if I want it, eat the cookies, watch the movies, snuggle a little longer on the sofa, let the ever-present workload sit in a way I normally wouldn’t. During this time the world mercifully slows down for a bit, and we’re allowed to let go of the demands it normally places on us, guilt free. It’s a little magical time when the grind suspends, and quite simply, I love it.
I do like to make lists of goals for the coming year, both for work and my personal life. I feel like taking a few minutes to center your ambitions before the calendar year flips is a great ritual of intention. In fact, when I made my work goals for this coming year, I put the pen down and looked at the page and my first thought was, That’s manageable. That’s all realistic yet wonderful and doable. So it also gives me focus and inspiration.
Here are a few of the things I’d like to accomplish this year and offer to all of you:
Live cooking, fermenting and baking workshops via Zoom
Trips and workshops in Southern Italy
Finish the novel I’m writing, as well as the lifestyle book I’ve been working on
Revamp and restock The Bella Figura Shoppe
How about you? Do you make goals for the coming year?
To celebrate this calm week and the New Year approach, below I’ve included the decadent, white sugar and non-ancient grain recipe I promised you in last week’s post; it’s a family favorite, and a family tradition.
I don’t actually make these cookies, because, knock wood, make the horns, my mother remains the reigning queen of rainbow-cookie making. My sister, Anna, is actually really good at making them, too. So I find my lane in the einkorn sourdough world, and let the heavy hitters make these! I wouldn’t normally bake with ingredients like food coloring and white all-purpose flour, but around the holidays, I will definitely enjoy the things my mother makes with them. And I’ll tell you this—when the time comes, one-hundred and seventy five years from now, when my mother is no longer here to bake them, I will bake these cookies for Christmas because I believe, of course, in the continuation of tradition, and because, let’s be honest, they’re delicious. I’ll happily take up the crown. That is, of course, if my sister let’s me wear it. :)