i’ve just returned from about 40 hours in new york and i feel like a blob that just ran a marathon. not that i would know what a marathon hangover feels like, but when you adjust to a stationary life in a driving town and then briefly return to your city lady semi-roots that are heavily influenced by a complete aversion to riding the subway so you spend a ton of your time walking and eating and walking some more, and because shoe shopping is not your favorite you do it all in terrible shoes that lack proper arch support, you feel a little hurty the next day. it’s ok! i got this new matchy katniss everdeen sweat suit that feels like a continuous hug so i think i’m going to be just fine!

most of my time was spent with the deeelightful humans at apartment therapy and the kitchn for their 10 under 40 maker talk! we built gingerbread houses (here’s the glittery one i built with gaby and 1/2 of sir kensington!) which was easily some of the most fun i’ve had collaboratively building an edible dwelling since sunday school when we made pretzel sukkahs. and then at night we had to give speeches in front of an audience and i did not barf on stage even though i was almost positive i would, therefore i consider the event a success.

the rest of my time in the city was spent eating bagels with jonah hill (rather, splitting lox with donny and siobhan while we stalker stared across the room at the back of jonah’s head while he drank orange juice), hummus with 1/3 of my bridal party, condiments in the facebook cafeteria with talia, popcorn with lior at the beautiful food52 holiday popup, shakshuka focaccia with a side of triumph at breads (because do you know how many times i have been to breads looking for that shakshuka focaccia and they’ve been sold out???), and a kasha knish from yonah.

now i am back just in time for the last few nights of hanukkah, so i’m squeezing in one more latke for you! it’s nothing too crazy, just a simple twist on a classic. it’s the same combination of crispy/salty/sweet/creamy elements that you get with the traditional sour cream and apple sauce latke, but i’ve subbed out sour cream for ricotta and apple sauce for grape jam to give you another way to keep the eight nights of latkes exciting.

grape and ricotta latkes

1. make a batch of ex-boyfriend latkes

2. top them with a healthy plop of ricotta and a sprinkle of salt

3. make a divot in the ricotta to hold the jam

4. fill the divot with grape jam (i'm loving this ancho chile grape jam!)

5. enjoy!

-yeh!

thank you so much to grapes from california for sponsoring this post!