Don’t worry, I’m not going to preach about New Year’s resolutions. I’m not on a crash diet and I will never, ever give up butter or sugar. No, this salad’s more about the fact that I simply cannot bear the thought of any heavy foods for a while. It seems like all I’ve done for weeks is eat. If anyone offers me another cookie or piece of cheese, I may very well drop into a food coma that lasts until next winter.
Somewhere in the mix of gorging on prime rib, attempting to empty punch bowls after my guests left (bad idea), and spending afternoons tidying edges of gingerbread and fruitcake, my body began screaming out for vegetables. I started ogling salads online and decided, just as soon as I finished the cheese ball I was working on, I was going to make this carrot and avocado salad.
This recipe caught my eye on the food52 website. I adore roasted carrots and the thought of combining them with creamy avocado, lemon, and cumin sounded just right. I tweaked the recipe a bit, cutting out blanching the carrots and a few superfluous ingredients (because as tired as I am of over-eating, I’m even more tired of doing dishes and running to the store for the forgotten this or that), and the flavors and textures wound up being exactly what I was craving.
Just when I thought I was done baking for a good long while, I discovered a carton of buttermilk a few days away from expiring and half of a pack of almond paste in the back of the fridge. What to do, what to do? Well, we can’t be wasteful and since we’ve got almost a week to go before we start thinking about New Year’s resolutions and whatnot, what do you say we make one last holiday treat?
Shaved fennel with orange slices and black olives is far and away my favorite winter salad. It’s a very non-recipe recipe that I’m about to share, but it’s a combination that I adore, so I must sing its praises to you. The flavors play so well off one another: the crunch of raw fennel is highlighted with sweet juicy citrus and cut with briny black olives. It’s a salad that makes such a refreshing counter to heavy winter braises and roasts that I find myself making/craving this salad all the time. 
One thing I really appreciated about traveling in Belgium and the Netherlands this fall was that every time I ordered a coffee or tea, it would be served with a little something sweet. In most cases, it’s just a packaged cookie or a thin wafer of chocolate, but once in a while, you really luck out and get a tiny cream puff or a narrow sliver of a tart. 
I have a theory on how the humble little quick bread became everyone’s favorite homemade holiday gift: no one has time for anything in December. Life goes from busy to absolutely chaotic. I’m supposed to be where, when? You’re on your way over…um, great! Throw in shopping, pre-entertaining deep-cleaning, the fact that you must double the amount of time it takes to go anywhere, and you get the picture. If you’re going to have something in homemade in hand when you show up at that party, the only viable option is a loaf of quick bread.