Welcome to the last monthly post of the year! I would say that this felt like a fast year but truthfully it still feels like 2012 to me so my opinions might not be reality-based. Here’s what went down last month!

Here are the best tweets of the month.
The best Christmas tweets can be found over here.
I recapped how I did on my autumn list.
I wrote my winter list of things that I want to do.
I got drinks at The Peninsula, which was fun and Christmas-y but wildly overpriced.

Some of the department store windows in NYC this year were fantastic.

The New York Public Library, December 2023

I made these espresso martini cookies and they were really good.
Nathan’s special was named Best YouTube Special of 2023 by The New York Times (!!!!!!!)
Finally got dinner at Mel’s (in the old Del Posto space) and it was good! But I never need to go again.
We’ve needed new pots and pans for over a decade, so it was immensely satisfying to buy this set from Wayfair.
I made this apple crumb cake over Christmas break and I didn’t try it (!), but it wasn’t a big hit since it was only half eaten by the time I left for New York so I should remember not to make this one again. (Also I never want to become the type of person who doesn’t eat the things she makes for others, it goes against everything I stand for??)
Speaking of Christmas food, so much was made!
- Still obsessed with making homemade pizza with sausage and fennel.
- Two charcuterie boards: I will forever add candy to these boards going forward. And I finally made the ricotta jam jar and it was a a big hit. Absolutely should be on all charcuterie boards at all times. (The tip I use to make this faster: make the tomato jam yourself, but absolutely buy jarred pesto.)
- The mushroom loaf (that I learned about from this tweet) that I will absolutely make again, it was so good.
- The leftover turkey sandwich: always a winner.
- The Nutella cookies: always my favourite. Next year I won’t be so stingy with the amount of Nutella.
- Made the spinach & artichoke puff pastry Christmas tree for the second time and I absolutely love this recipe. It’s delicious, beautiful and actually not difficult to make.
- Not every recipe can be a winner, so the losers this year? The Christmas lunch roast beef sandwiches. The meat was overcooked and tough enough that it made me instantly decide to try a new lunch recipe next year. Also I’ve messed up shortbread on TWO different recipes this month. The Alison Roman ones I always make during the holidays AND a new recipe of chocolate pistachio shortbread cookies. Both doughs were beyond crumbly, and they just didn’t taste right. So I’ll need to take a long shortbread break.

Spinach & artichoke puff pastry Christmas tree

Obsessed with the Mighty Patch nose patches.
Some things I watched:
- I started Office Christmas Party and stopped it after twenty minutes, it was so bad.
- I finished The Crown. Oof. Other than the fact that this was, by far, the worst season of all - it really made me focus on what a terrible show it truly is and how thankful I am that it has ended. I hate that it was based on all of these real people, but so much of it is fiction. If the writers/creators would have just committed to either being fully truthful or fully fictitious then I wouldn’t be left with this feeling of disgust. There’s so much to complain about, but I’ll let it go because let’s just be glad it’s done. But really… the ghost of Diana? God, this series was sick.
The egg nog flavoured Greek yogurt at Trader Joe’s is spectacular.

We didn’t have the whole family together this Christmas (which never feels right), but we made the most of it.

Did my annual skating night with some close friends that truly heals us all, haha.

Buying skates at age 38 was the smartest decision I’ve made in my adult life

Nathan and I spent the past few days near Baltimore in Maryland and went to The B&O Railroad Museum (yes the B&O Railroad from Monopoly), which is a must-visit attraction if you’re nearby and then I had a great crab cake from Alexander’s Tavern.

Fun clouds make a photo a thousand times cooler

I told Nathan that one of his resolutions will (not “should”) be “take more photos of Liz.”

Train museums are the best museums, fight me

Some things that I’m looking forward to this month: looking forward to seeing the Restaurant Week menus (it starts on January 16th), I’m going to start using this first-of-the-month checklist again and I’ll recap my resolutions from last year as well as make new 2024 ones.

If you have any interest in the other monthly roundups of 2023, they can be found here: November, October, September, August, July, June, May, April, March, February and January.

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