Peppermint bark is one of those seasonal confections that looks really impressive and makes a great gift, but is actually really easy to prepare. I make a batch every year and every year it’s a bit different. For our Holiday Sweater party this weekend, I used a new recipe that layers a chocolate ganache between white chocolate for a softer bite. It feels very festive and who doesn’t like chocolate and peppermint?

We decided to buy a 5 lb bag of carrots at Whole Foods (because why not, right?), so get ready for a lot of carrot related food posts. Starting with these muffins. I knew I wanted to make a form of carrot cake because 1) SO MANY CARROTS and 2) our new food processor can shred like a champion. So I searched for recipes using my usual technique and ended up with this one for Gluten-Free Vegan Carrot Apple Muffins.

Moule-frites is just a fancy French/Belgian way of saying “mussels and french fries”. During an excursion to Whole Foods (we tried out the new one in InkBlock and omg it’s enormous) we discovered some Maine mussels and thought, well why not? We looked up a recipe for a white wine broth that seemed reasonable and bought a regular old potato for frying. For the mussels: Ingredients: 2/3 bottle dry white wine (we used the Three Wishes Pinot Grigio from Whole Foods because it’s about $3) 4-6 tablespoons butter One onion 4 cloves garlic Dry and fresh herbs to taste (we used fresh basil and dried cilantro because… well, that’s what we had) 1 pound fresh live mussels Bring the wine to a simmer with the butter, onion, garlic and herbs.

Earlier this week, I was feeling inspired by this recipe from one of our favorite celebrity chefs, Daniel Boulud. Except we had approximately none of the ingredients and it looked far too time consuming for a regular weeknight. So instead, I cooked up what we had on hand to create a dish that Matt has cited as his favorite ever. The highest praise! Just kidding, he says this about everything I cook; it was part of our marriage vows.