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As the holiday season was approaching, I pondered new and different cookie recipes to try this year. There are cookies that are good for giving as gifts in person and cookies that can withstand being mailed as gifts. There are also cookies that really only work for serving at home if they’re particularly fragile or require refrigeration. I was looking for options that fit into the first two categories. I also really wanted to spend some more time with a book that I bought a couple of years ago but hadn’t gotten around to mentioning here on the blog. It’s Cookie Love: More Than 60 Recipes and Techniques for Turning the Ordinary into the Extraordinary by Mindy Segal, and it’s full of what I might call special occasion cookies. Although there are some straightforward recipes in the book, several of the cookies require a multi-step process. That was the case with these sandwich cookies, but I can tell you that all the steps involved were worth it. Segal named this recipe The Black Sabbath...

The holiday season is upon us, and I’m knee-deep in ordering gifts, deciding which cookies to bake this year, and making a wreath for our front door. Bear in mind that crafting is not actually on my list of enjoyable hobbies, but two trips to the craft store, one to the hardware store, and an online order later, the homemade wreath is almost ready to hang. Speaking of gifts, I have one for two of you! I want to tell you about the book Unforgettable: The Bold Flavors of Paula Wolfert's Renegade Life of which I received a review copy. And, I have one book to offer to each of two winners. Just leave a comment on this post with your email address so I can contact you, and I’ll pick the winners next week on Friday, December 15th. (The winners will need to provide a mailing address in the US or Canada.)  You’re going to enjoy this story of Paula Wolfert’s career in food. She started writing about Moroccan food before several of the key ingredients could even be found in the US. Her focu...