Eating

Next week: vacation. This week: lots of work to do - and great appreciation for batches of leftover deliciousness that require no real cooking. Like salsa verde-topped "tostadas" made from leftover polenta. Tart, sweet, spicy, warm, soft and crispy in each bite.

Molten Chocolate Cake. The last course of the last meal of the year. Out with a bang. A warm, soft semi-sweet one with a super-low glycemic load. Spectacular in your mouth, with or without Champagne.

In South Carolina, USA, they eat a lot of Hoppin' John next week. Rice and black-eyed peas. For some, it's the hangover cure. For others, it brings good luck for the New Year. In this version, South Carolina meets Italian cuisine. I feel lucky already.

'Tis the season for handheld snacks. Sometime between now and the end of New Year's Day, you're gonna eat some chips. So let's think about making Better Cheaper Chips. Chips that taste better. Chips that are actually healthy foods, not junk.

A cheese that puts the party in dinner party. A tradition that combines sitting around a fire with sharing and passing around good food. What more could you want?

Quick and simple to make. Less than 15 cents per piece. Every bite's a little party in your mouth. Light, fun, interesting, beautiful. Almost fat-free. Want to come back as roasted vegetable sushi in your next life?

This turns out so spectacularly well you'll be amazed you made it yourself. It tastes and smells so ... complex. But its preparation isn't even slightly complicated - and it takes less than one hour, start to first mouthful. The first in a series of seriously festive holiday meals.