At the risk of just becoming a food blog, here’s a rundown of a bunch of good food I made over this holiday break.

We usually spend the last couple weeks of December with my inlaws. My MIL insists on cooking most days, but this year for Hanukkah I decided to treat them to a proper Jewish dinner. I couldn’t find brisket at the local market so I used chuck to make a solid pot roast with plenty of mushrooms and onions. Then, of course, I made latkes. I’ve made latkes before for them but this time I stuffed some of the latkes with dill pickle chips (a trick my buddy Carter taught me). Smashing success.

MIL also told me she didn’t want anything for Christmas, so I made her cookies that she could at least enjoy (and enjoy sharing). These are hermits: a soft, spiced molasses cookie, made with my grandmother’s recipe. Someday I’ll share that here, I think. These cookies remind me so much of childhood.

For Christmas proper we always go to Long Island to visit the larger Hwang family. A couple of years ago for a different family gathering I made char siu pork from the Nom Wah Tea Parlor cookbook, and it was a major hit. Better yet, we discovered that sliced char siu pork and cream cheese makes an incredible bagel sandwich. We started calling it the Hwang-Aronson special. It’s since become a Christmas Eve Day tradition. Give it a shot!