http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/12/dining/kalettes-a-pilgrim-dinner-and-more-food-news.html 2014-11-10 23:52:34 Kalettes, a Pilgrim Dinner and More Food News What happens when you cross kale and brussels sprouts, and Chapter One offers a colonial dinner. === To Serve: Two Vegetables Combine for a Taste of Their Own Cross kale and brussels sprouts and you have Kalettes, which look like baby kale leaves attached to a thick stem. Kalettes became popular in Europe when they were introduced last year. Now they’re being grown in California. Used raw, their sweet, slightly cabbage flavor enhances salads. I liked them even better in a quick stir-fry, to soften their bite: To Celebrate: Thanksgiving Dinner the Way the Pilgrims Ate At Chapter One, a tavern restaurant that opened this year, the chef, Warren Baird, has started a series of monthly historic dinners. The colonial menu he served on a recent Sunday will be repeated for Thanksgiving, making for one of the more unusual restaurant menus for the holiday. If you’re looking for something beyond the typical turkey and sweet potatoes, consider a period menu that includes slabs of venison with cranberries, succotash, root vegetables, dark rye and cornbread, and a delicate hasty pudding for dessert, all accompanied by hard cider. Mr. Baird gives a lively tutorial on the history of the food during the dinner: To Consult: Before Raising a Glass, Browsing for Ideas As frosty summer coolers have given way to darker and spicier libations, sometimes served warm, it’s the moment for this slender book of festive holiday drinks. Chapters cover revised classics (a pear daiquiri), warm drinks (Fernet-apple toddy), punches (one made with rum and cider), seasonal drinks (brandied apple with cider and Cognac) and sparklers (one spiked with gin). Tips for entertaining and some clever ideas are included, like giving a whiff of mezcal to a cocktail simply by rinsing the glass with the spirit (the Gibraltar): “ To Shop: In TriBeCa, Finding Their Sweet Spot After 10 years in Red Hook, Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito have crossed the river to Manhattan to open a branch of their bakery and homey cafe, Baked, known for its cookies, brownies and layer cakes. The new store in TriBeCa, larger and more industrial-looking than the original, has an expanded menu of comfort foods, sandwiches, miniature tarts and quiches, and beer and wine. It also serves toasts with various toppings, devised with Hervé Poussot of Almondine in Dumbo: To Use: The Brush Becomes Part of the Meal Order the whole grilled daurade at Cherche Midi, the new Keith McNally French restaurant in NoLIta, and alongside comes a small sauceboat of lemony olive oil to apply to the fish. There’s a brush, but it’s no ordinary tool. It’s a tidy and attractive bundle of herbs — rosemary, thyme, parsley and basil — tied snugly with chives. Daniel Parilla, one of the executive chefs, came up with the idea. I have often used branches of sturdy aromatic herbs like rosemary as basting brushes at the stove or the grill, but it never occurred to me to serve them at the table. That’s about to change: To Fold: They’re for Wiping, Not for Nibbling Brighten the Thanksgiving table with muslin napkins printed with golden squash blossoms. Foxy & Winston, a company in Red Hook, Brooklyn, that makes them, also sells other vegetable designs, including bright ruby beets and green artichokes (red and green for Christmas, perhaps). Matching tablecloths are also available: