After dinner has for me always been a kind of galaxy of the the unconscious mind. After the bakers have left the building, the butchers have left the shop. After the computers have been powered down and many of the dishes have been washed. After the preparing or the choosing, the successes or the failures, before the day finally falls away, arrives one last moment of truth; one last balance to be tipped. How much is just enough to carry us through to a couple chapters read before bed or how, or better yet why, does one resist the swirling, whirling, imbibing that will keep us awake and wondering though the young hours of tomorrow’s day. Here at play are the cakes and tarts, the cookies and candies, the thimbles and the theories, the phobias and the desires of our time. But no matter who or what or how we choose, the entirety of our hours will give way to the finality of day. Here in this Journal we seek out sweet relief, of each and every kind.-AD “There’s a capacity for appetite,” Samuel said, “that a whole heaven and earth of cake can’t satisfy.” John Steinbeck, from East of Eden RECIPES Apricot + Hazelnut Biscotti Coconut Macaroons Chocolate Sandwich Cookies Marshmallow Fluff Rugelach Biscochitos Holiday Gingerbread Dough Royal Icing Apple Cider Caramels Nut Brittle Nutty Caramel Apples Marshmallows Sugar Plums Lemon Chess Pie Pate Brisee Buttermilk Pie Rye Pecan Pie Quick Puff Pastry Pear Tarte Tatin Croquembouche Cranberry Cake Eccles Suksess Terte Black Plum Pudding Brown Bread Sticky Toffee Pudding Blueberry Pudding Noodle Kugel Persimmon Pudding Apricot Pudding Spotted Dick Custard Sauce Cream Cheese w/ Chutney Turkey Banh Mi Sandwich Holiday Kedgeree Salade Rapide Candied Quince and Goat Cheese Tart Negroni ‘Dark’ Hot Chocolate Trees Nuts Black Manhattan Creme de Menthe on the Rocks Crime de Menthe Limoncello Glogg Maple Sazerac Rye Daisy