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Somehow, slices of winter’s citrus becomes an acceptable dessert for guests when showered with vanilla bean syrup. At least no one complained at our 24th annual World Christmas – Cuba style. Dr. April’s beansand baked rice (recipe coming), a helping hand from the famous Porto’s Bakery, three batches of mojitos using this wacky tool, a Cubano roast pork recipe from Saveur – made up for not roasting a whole suckling pig (face roasting = stomach turning), a jicama slaw, and grilled pineapple/avocado salad filled every last corner of our plates.

It seems wrong that citrus fruits are at peak juiciest in the winter – quite a welcome pack of sunshine to yank us out of our root vegetable rut. With this easy 3-ingredient syrup, you can take already sublime fruits to dessert status in moments.

If you consider yourself an almost-cook, then chances are you don’t have vanilla beans hanging around your pantry. Could I encourage you to pick up a jar at your grocer or online if I said they keep for a long time and have many uses from baking to flavoring porous foodstuffs like sugar and salt and vodka and who can resist a waft of fresh vanilla? With a little knife trickery to making orange slicing and vanilla pod scrapingeasy, this dessert comes together in a pinch – just in time for celebrating our revitalized commitment to real food. Are we on our diets yet? Perhaps after the four movies, replete with theatre popcorn, that I will see before break ends. Happy New Year.