Before my Christmas break, I finished all my work so I could take a real vacation, including leaving my laptop in Brooklyn and spending little time on social media. Well, the no working part happened but my vision of a holiday spent catching up with family and reading (actual books) was destroyed by a flu-like virus that knocked me on my ass for over a week. Hence, my disappearance from the internet and likely slow, sporadic return as I get back into work mode and try to resuscitate a DOA 2015.

Here’s a quick summary of some of my work that went live last month. I never got around to promoting half of it, so I’m sharing a number of these for the first time – Enjoy!

I’d been itching to caramelize white chocolate for a while but…then what? One cannot survive on caramelized white chocolate alone, but caramelized white HOT chocolate? I could get by on that for a while.

I made cronuts in the name of reviewing Dominique Ansel: The Secret Recipes for The Kitchn. As expected, the cookbook has some laborious but delicious baked goods to try, but surprisingly is also full of insight into Ansel’s creative process and some easy recipes for us amateurs.

I mean, is there any way crab meat and puff pastry together wouldn’t taste amazing? These hot crab puffs are inspired by a crab dip I look forward to eating whenever I go home to Virginia and will steal the show at any gathering.

I developed a lasagna recipe for The Kitchn layered with roasted butternut squash, sausage, and spinach. Although lasagnas are a little one the time-consuming side to make, I always find it’s worth it because 1) It’s a meal-in-one – no side dish required and 2) leftovers!

I also had a couple roundup articles last month for The Kitchn, including 12 Fun After-Dinner Coffee Drinks and Last Minute Hostess Gifts You Can Make or Bake.

These apple pie bars contain 6 3/4 sticks butter. So, yes, they’re buttery, but they also have that sweet-tart balance all great apple pie dessert possess.

I love that writing for Recipe.com pushes me to make dishes I wouldn’t otherwise think to make on my own. In December, I made chicken and dumplings for the first time and it was a hit with my family. Poultry seasoning FTW.

So, somehow this was my only true holiday post? It’s a good one though: buttery mint cookies with a simple and fast yet impressive method for decorating them.

I think I promoted most of these on at least one social media outlet each, but if you’re not following me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram or in case you missed some of my plugs, here’s a recap of November’s work:

Leading up to Thanksgiving, I was craving pumpkin pie on a daily basis. In lieu of making a bi-weekly pie, I scratched the itch with a pumpkin pie smoothie. It’s super creamy and sweet enough to read pie without pulling it out of breakfast territory. Get the recipe on The Kitchn.

I’ve recently been reviewing for The Kitchn, kicking it off with a review of Rose Levy Beranbaum’s The Baking Bible. My photo of the coconut cupcakes with coconut silk meringue buttercream was one of my most popular instagrams to date, so the post is definitely worth a visit.

But my favorite cookbook so far is undoubtedly Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty More. In one week I tested seven recipes and can’t wait to dive into more. Get the full review over at The Kitchn.

I have so many idea for Hellobee, especially now that I’m deep in the trenches of feeding a growing family deliciously and healthfully with limited time availability. Given that last factor I only got around to sharing one of them this month, titled The Best Fish Sticks You’ll Ever Eat. If you’ve never tried a dry, wet, dry breading (or even if you have), you should definitely give the recipe a go.

Since fall hit, it’s winter squash EVERYDAY. There are too many varieties, too many executions to get to them all. Despite the urge to try it all, I keep gravitating toward sweet, smooth kabocha squash, and when I saw some personal-sized specimens at our co-op I knew I had to stuff them. I came up with a rich recipe for kabocha stuffed with sausage and ricotta for SheKnows and it’s killer good.

Also for SheKnows I have an article on easy ways to improve rotisserie chicken. This grocery store convenience is already a quick way to a healthy meal, but my rotisserie chicken upgrades take it from good to gourmet.)

(This post was sponsored by Hannaford. Join them in the fight against hunger this holiday season with Hannaford Helps Fight Hunger.

November was a big entertaining month for us, so it’s appropriate that I also wrote a post for SheKnows focused on simple yet spectacular crostini toppings. I can attest from experience that they are both adult- and toddler-approved.

The most incredible thing I made all month was a brown butter custard pie for Recipe.com. It’s a Momofuku dessert, so it’s loaded with crazy awesome components like a cinnamon toast crumb crust, cranberry glaze, and (my favorite) sweet potato ganache. If you didn’t get a chance to make this for Thanksgiving, you’ve gotta give it a try for Christmas or New Year’s.

If there’s anything better than sweet potato biscuits, it’s sweet potato biscuits with sage butter.

Yeasted doughnuts are my favorite brunch food ever, so I was psyched to make these baked currant doughnuts. They take a long time to make, but most of the time is hands off and my article includes instructions for largely making them ahead of time.

I loved this recipe for pumpkin soba noodles with pork because the flavors are a little unpredictable but somehow work. The fried sage and blue cheese garnishes make it.

And, my last Recipe.com contribution was a penne bake with sausage and ricotta. So. Much. Cheese.