I’ll Drink To Penne with Vodka Sauce

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Penne with vodka sauce makes a weeknight dinner feel deliciously special.
Penne with vodka sauce makes a weeknight dinner feel deliciously special.

As you shake and stir cocktails galore this holiday season, try to refrain from polishing off every drop of the vodka.

Instead, save some to make this easy and delicious “Penne with Vodka Sauce.”

It’s from “Simple Pasta” (Ten Speed Press), of which I received a review copy. This engaging book is by Odette Williams, the Australia-born cook and writer who now lives in Brooklyn.

It is her second cookbook, after the huge success of her “Simple Cake” (Ten Speed Press), a favorite in my house and named one of the best baking books of 2019 by the New York Times.

Like that book, this one is filled with tempting recipes that aren’t overly complicated but deliver on flavor and pure delight.

It’s a book that you’ll reach for again and again to try your hand at dishes that include making your own fresh pasta or to substituting dried instead, as well as accompaniments like salads, cocktails, and desserts.

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What I’ve Been Drinking of Late, Part 24

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Heidrun's California Orange Blossom mead.
Heidrun’s California Orange Blossom mead.

Heidrun Mead

For a real change of pace from the usual Napa or Sonoma Valley wine tasting, head to Point Reyes Station for a tasting of mead.

Yes, sparkling wines not made from grapes but honey.

Since 1997, Heidrun Meadery has specialized in this distinctive bubbly made in the French méthode champenoise tradition. It is one of North America’s oldest meaderies still in operation.

Mead is an ancient beverage that has been made far longer than either beer or wine. Owing to the different flower nectars gathered by the bees, the resulting meads boasts surprisingly intense and varied flavors, as I found when I was fortunate enough to try samples.

Heidrun recently partnered with the World Honey Exchange, a U.S.-based organization that helps honey cooperatives around the globe, particularly those in the threatened ecosystems of Patagonia, Ethiopia and Tanzania, gain access to larger markets.

Its three new limited-edition meads ($65 each) are produced from the nectar of Chilean Ulmo, Ethiopian Geteme and Tanzanian Miombo woodland flower blossoms respectively.

All of the sparkling meads are meant to be enjoyed ice cold in flutes, just like Champagne.

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Double Chocolate Oriolos

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Chocolate plus more chocolate. Who can resist?
Chocolate plus more chocolate. Who can resist?

At this time of year, you can never have too many chocolate cookies.

I stand by that thought unequivocally.

While versions of this chocolate-frosted, chocolate cookie abound, these particular “Double Chocolate Oriolos” are more modest in size, making them a perfect treat to indulge in without overindulging.

The recipe is from “The Cookie Bible” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), of which I received a review copy, by legendary New York baker Rose Levy Beranbaum.

The collection includes recipes for cookies of every sort: drop, cut-out, bars, sandwiches, chocolate-dipped, and more.

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Plant-Based Savory Spreads Make Entertaining Easy

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Growee Foods' Three Pepper Spread, which I used to saute shrimp with peppers, onions, and broccoli.
Growee Foods’ Three Pepper Spread, which I used to saute shrimp with peppers, onions, and broccoli.

When Aman Blana gave up meat and dairy, he was disappointed to find that so many vegan foods on store shelves carried a laundry list of ingredients.

He wanted something simpler, so he created it, himself, with Atlanta’s Growee Foods.

The company’s savory spreads may only be a year old, but they’ve already won a Nexty award in 2022, given to natural foods products that are deemed progressive, impactful and trustworthy.

They come in three flavors: Three Pepper Spread, Curry Zucchini, and Spiced Mango.

I had a chance to try samples of all three, which contain no gluten, nut, corn, GMOs or soy.

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Oat Rolls — With A Touch of Honey

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Oatmeal porridge, honey, and a preferment give these tender rolls sweetness and lovely developed flavor.
Oatmeal porridge, honey, and a preferment give these tender rolls sweetness and lovely developed flavor.

Admittedly, I have a problem with commitment.

Only when it comes to bread making, that is.

During the pandemic, when everyone who was anyone was fussing over their sourdough starter like a new puppy, I was not.

I just couldn’t bring myself to pull the trigger to tend to a starter that needed caring, feeding, and coddling, day in and day out. After all, I already had a husband who needed all of that. (Kidding, sort of.)

So, when it comes to my sporadic bread baking, I rely on packaged dry yeast instead, which is convenient enough to buy at any supermarket and to keep handy in my fridge when the urge strikes.

But along comes 2019 James Beard Award-winning “Outstanding Baker” and head baker at Chicago’s Publican Quality Bread bakery, Greg Wade, who shows how to combine both dry yeast and a preferment for even better results, as evidenced in his recipe for sensational “Oat Rolls.”

It’s all in his new cookbook, “Bread Head” (W.W. Norton), of which I received a review copy. It was written with St. Louis book collaborator Rachel Holtzman.

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