Broccolini with Tofu, Sesame and Coriander

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Let’s say your car battery dies at a gas station three blocks away from your mother’s house at 6:30pm on Christmas Eve. And by dead I mean…really dead. Like, so dead that even two sets of jumper cables, your mom’s best friend’s husband who is a car mechanic, and a partridge in a pear tree can’t save it.

Oy.  Really, really oy.

And then, after about an hour of jumper cable jiggling and attempts at engine revving, you finally do get the car started again but are given strict instructions not to shut the thing off under any circumstances unless you want to be stranded where only Triple AAA and a tow truck can save you.

Which is to say…you are most definitely not piling your mom, brother and sister into the car and driving out to Long Island to be with extended family as per your original plans.  Unless you want to be stuck there until New Year’s.  And, well. You have to go to work on Wednesday. So that’s a no-go.

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Lasagna of Fall Vegetables, Gruyere and Sage Bechamel {twelve weeks of winter squash}

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I slept through three alarms this morning.

If you know me, you know how absurd this is since I am pretty much a human 6AM alarm clock who kind of just sets the alarms for posterity.

But this is pretty much what happens when, on the day before the day before Christmas you realize you have never once in the past year used the KitchenAid pasta maker attachment for your stand mixer that you got for Christmas last year, and since you have a guilt complex three hundred miles wide, well…

…you decide to remedy this quite perturbing situation.

Immediately.

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Chili Mole

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Here’s the future.

In approximately two.point.five days you are going to lose all sense of time, space, and self amidst a mayhem of cookie production/consumption, various shades of red and green ribbons, and a deep and intensely disconcerting preoccupation with channeling your inner gift wrapping goddess. (Because seriously, you are so anal retentive about so many things in life that she must  be in there somewhere…no matter what your total inability to get a perfect edge may lead you to believe.)

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Baked Ziti with Eggplant…and a Review of Now Eat This! Italian

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As a former Biggest Loser fanatic, I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Rocco DiSpirito’s boyish good looks and his persistence in trying to make healthy food look and taste good.  To that end, he’s created a whole Now Eat This! cookbook series (and now tv show!) that is aimed at turning previously unhealthy dishes into meals that you can feel good about eating, the newest installment of which is Now Eat This! Italian.  As a serious lover of Italian food and as someone who hates that sluggish feeling that often comes after eating it, I was thrilled when I was sent this cookbook to review and couldn’t wait to delve into it’s gorgeously photographed pages.

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