Saturday Short List: Dec 3

A view from the beautiful Scottish Highlands for your Saturday

Well December certainly snuck up on me. I even forgot to renew my MBTA monthly travel pass for the first time since moving to Boston. It finally feels like winter, though, which is putting me in the mood for cold weather cooking! With the inspiration of seasonal recipes and approaching holidays, here’s the Saturday Short List:

• Ruth Reichl’s Gift Guide for December. I’ve always liked her, but after reading Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise I was inspired by her outlook on food and approach to being a critic.

• Bostonchefs.com brings us 25 Days of Gift Ideas From & For Boston Chefs. I love the Boston chef community: it’s small enough to be manageable, but still exciting and always changing.

• Basic Polenta from America’s Test Kitchen. I’m not ashamed to have a roll of Trader Joe’s Quinoa Polenta in my pantry right now…but the real thing looks perfect for a cold evening.

• I’m known to make huge quantities of soup – as in enough to eat for three days straight and still freeze half. I have a feeling Trina Hahnemann’s Nordic Winter Vegetable Soup from Food & Wine will be a great addition to my arsenal.

• Melissa Rubel Jacobson’s Do-It-Yourself Truffles, also via Food & Wine, might be on the agenda this month as well. So easy, yet so rewarding!