Amy Sherman is a San Francisco-based cookbook author, food writer and recipe developer.  She launched the blog “Cooking with Amy” in June of 2003, and it quickly earned recognition as one of the top five food blogs by Forbes and a top food blog by The Guardian (UK).  Additionally, it was featured as the "blog of the day" on the critically-acclaimed Julie & Julia movie web site.

Here is a great holiday recipe of Amy’s called Maple Roasted Sweet Potatoes. Leaving out the calorie-filled brown sugar and marshmallows, Amy adds a dash of sweetness and a squeeze of lemon juice for refreshment to the diced morsels. Keeping things healthy, Amy uses a T-fal ActiFry as a speedy crock to cook the potatoes with pulsating hot air, which lessens or eliminates the need for oil altogether.

Who doesn’t like bacon!? If you must, this appetizer blends savory bacon with nice, healthy sweet prunes, producing an edible nugget of holiday cheer. The Lapostolle Residence in Chile pairs Cuvée Alexandre Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 with Prunes Wrapped in Bacon to enhance its rich and smoky flavor, making it a perfect addition to any holiday menu.  Add this to your holiday menu!

12 each strips of bacon, uncooked

12 each prunes, dried and pitted

12 each toothpicks

Lay six pieces of bacon onto a sheet pan or cutting board. Place one prune at the end of each strip. Roll the bacon around the prune, pulling gently to make sure the bacon fits tightly. Secure the pork with a toothpick. Repeat the steps to prepare the remaining six prunes. Heat a saute pan over medium-high heat, and place the prunes into the pan. When the prunes are ready to be flipped, the bacon will release itself from the pan. Gently swirl the pan throughout the process, allowing the bacon fat to distribute evenly. When the bacon is golden on all sides, remove the prunes and place onto paper towels.

On a midweek night, Ronald Flores is running around Art and Soul Restaurant’s packed Art Bar serving up artisan drinks for a thirsty post-work crowd. As Art Bar’s mixologist, Flores has been a fan favorite and critic’s choice winner at Corcoran Gallery of Art’s ARTINI event for two years in a row. It’s no surprise. Flores has a knack for crafting unique and artistic cocktails, with tinctures and syrups only his imaginative mixology mind could concoct.

Figs are known to be sexy fruits and often thought to have psychoactive properties. The ancient Greeks associated figs with love and fertility. Of course, everyone knows these aphrodisiac elements can make cocktail mixing extra fun.

Flores’ fig and whiskey cocktail is sure to satisfy two very different palates. Not too sweet and not too bitter, the finish is smooth and warming. Allspice Dram complements smooth white whiskey, and a dash of lemon and ginger marries it all together.

Just in time for the holiday baking season, renowned Magnolia Bakery paid a visit to Hallmark Channel's "Home & Family" show and unveiled a brand-new recipe they created especially for the show. Pumpkin is a mainstay of the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays with pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie being the traditional confections to feature the seasonal squash, but Magnolia Bakery has a new dessert recipe that offers a fresh twist on this holiday classic:

PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE BARS

1 tbsp. butter, softened
3 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 C. granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/3 C. pumpkin puree
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tbsp. all-purpose flour

5.5 oz. Callebaut semisweet chocolate chunks
5 oz. butter, softened
4 large eggs
3/4 c. granulated sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt
1-1/3 C. Hecker's AP Flour

Julia wrote that she learned to make this cake after seeing waiters strolling by with slice after slice in restaurants in the South of France. She would order a piece, only to be told the cake was sold out and that next time she would need to order a piece ahead of time.

The cake is made using a spiced brioche dough and is filled with rum flavored buttercream. The beehive effect comes from the toasted walnuts scattered on top. Julia suggests doubling the brioche recipe, but I found the single recipe that follows more than enough. The cake serves 12-15 people.

In one of her cooking programs, Martha gave a whole new meaning to “baby food.”  It showed her conning some poor attention-starved parents into allowing her to “dress” their babies just in time for Thanksgiving – literally. Who needs turducken when you can smother a poor baby laying under hot lights with fancy felt cutouts and feathers attached with a sizzling hot glue gun? Where are social services when you need them!?