My 2019 “Keeper” Recipe Is Never Leaving My Side

Every Friday morning, Bon Appétit senior staff writer Alex Beggs shares weekly highlights from the BA offices, from awesome new recipes to office drama to restaurant recs, with some weird (food!) stuff she saw on the internet thrown in. It gets better: If you sign up for our newsletter, you'll get this letter before everyone else.

Who is your favorite child

You know you have one. We’re updating this list of our reader’ keepers, as in, the Bon Appétit recipes you make over and over again. I want to know yours!! This year, mine was Chris Morocco’s “sambalognese” (pictured above). The spicy sauce made all other red sauces pointless to me. I need the HEAT. Heat that’s perfectly balanced by a little sugar, a lotta garlic, plus ginger, soy sauce, and rice vinegar.

So please, tell me your “keeper”—new recipe or old!—by emailing staff.bonappetit@gmail.com. Oh! I’m also looking for etiquette questions about hosting dinner parties; send ‘em if you got ‘em.

Get the recipe: Spicy-Sweet Sambal Pork Noodles

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The end is near

Of the year, sheesh! Don’t be so morbid. And as we close out 2019, Google sent out a round-up of the year’s top trending searches, a sweet little reminder that you’re always being watched. Google’s a lot like Santa in that way. They see you when you’re searching, they know when you’re awake, they know if you’ve been incognito so be incognito for goodness’ sake! Ohhhh the top trending recipe search was “shepherd’s pie”??? Why??? But more intriguing was the top cocktail search: “pornstar martini.”

What. the. Heck. Is. That.

Actually, it sounds amazing. It’s a frothy orange drink that’s super popular in the U.K. (and was invented there, according to stevethebartender.com.au, in 2002). Delish has a simplified recipe: 4 oz. vanilla vodka, ½ cup passionfruit juice, and prosecco. But wait, the prosecco is served in a shot glass like a sidecar. This is confusing!!! Why not make it a spritz? That would be so good! I guess the prosecco shot is hyperbolic on purpose, it’s over-the-top, like [unprintable thoughts].

Get a great shepherd’s pie recipe here.

Cookie week

It was Rick Martinez COOKIE WEEK at BA this week and while the fashionable tie-dye cookies and minty black-and-whites got a lot of aesthetic attention, my favorite is the butter pecan skillet cookie. It’s a giant, nutty, buttery cookie with a simple vanilla glaze and maple syrup-roasted pecans on top. I die. Rick, who developed these recipes in the middle of his summer vacation, told me they were inspired by “Fire Island queens—all they wanted to eat was Butter Pecan Talenti gelato.” Yesssss.

They were the shining maple star of Emma Wartzman’s Thanksgiving and were “a real accomplishment in texture,” she said. Kate Fenoglio reports that they got even better a few days after baking—and are exceptional with coffee for breakfast. “My aunt-in-law made them and they were a huge hit,” said cookie editor Hilary Cadigan. Priya Krishna tried nearly an entire skillet-full during tastings: “Truly they are one of the best cookies I have had in a long long time,” she said, “and I eat a lot of cookies.”

Get the recipe: Butter Pecan Skillet Cookies

Read: A nice story about Rick “Sugar Man” Martinez at Slate

Speaking of cookies

Amy H. made ALL of the cookies from our December issue—cool!!!

Speaking of Rick and cookies

Rick got a COOKIE MANICURE by the mega-talented @jmoneynails!!!!

Listen up

They roped me into recording a mini-segment on the Bon Appétit Foodcast called “Cook/Marry/Kill” where I pick a recipe to make, a food story I love, and a food thing I want to gently murder every week. It’s fun, I swear. Listen here if you want some musings on the $120,000 banana and KFC’s fried chicken-scented firelog. Or not! Carry on with your day. I’ll never know.

Unnecessary food meme of the week

Unnecessary food feud of the week

“Do you make or buy pigs in a blanket?” was a question Christina Chaey posed to our Slack group. The replies BLEW UP. “If by ‘make,’ you mean buy the Pillsbury crescents and wrap them around cuts of sausage/hot dogs/kielbasa, then yes,” said Jesse Sparks. “But that’s as far as I’m going for Notorious P.I.B.’s.” Incredible abbreviating. “Hebrew national baby!” cheered on Molly Baz. Aliza Abarbanel roots to Trader Joe’s P.I.B.s. And you know it’s an important discussion when Adam Rapoport chimes in: “Buy. But—and this is a real [redacted] thing to say, says the guy in a turtleneck and a blazer, looking like Tom from Succession—but the ones at Polo Bar are REALLY good.” To which Chaey replied: “Do they have a freezer section or…”

Pretzel blankets anyone?

Originally Appeared on Bon Appétit