Amanda Hesser Recaps Her Trip To Round Top

I’m just back from a swing through Texas, California, and Ohio–sourcing, investor-ing, and parent weekend-ing. I returned with a lot of laundry and to an office aflutter in 52 Days of Holiday–scroll down for more on this fun treat!

The Holiday Swap is also underway, and I’m going to order some vanilla beans because I love making these Vanilla Rooibos Tea Cookies for my swappee. If you’re new to the Swap, here’s how it works:

1. You sign up.
2. You are assigned a community member—your swappee—to send a holiday package to.
3. You put together a package of holiday goodies for your swappee. This can include baked goods, homemade snacks/sauces/seasonings, local foods, or crafts.
4. You ship off your package.
5. You receive a package full of surprises from your swapper.
6. Holiday delight ensues!

We’ve been doing the Swap for more than a decade, and more than a thousand people now participate in this old-fashioned gift exchange. It’s a great excuse to get offline and bring joy to a stranger, while receiving some for yourself!

In 1968, Emma Lee Turney started an antiques fair called Round Top in farmland outside Austin. Today, the show runs three times a year, and was recently described by Jojo, Food52’s GM, as “a global gathering of vintage buyers and vendors, interior designers, and style editors over an 11-mile stretch of land filled with tents, wackywares, and incredible characters.”

Last week, a group of us headed there to scout vintage vendors for our Shop. Here’s what we found:

Fish plates and oysters aplenty.

• Our Cookbook Club Friendsgiving potluck is live—come join us and author Hetty Lui McKinnon in Brooklyn on November 14! Use code RAMEN to access the remaining tickets and stay tuned for our next gathering December 5.
• Our 52 Days of Holiday has begun! Every day for the next 47 days, we’ll be sharing a daily seasonal joy–from recipes to special finds, all exclusive to us. Today is a pie contest: Comment on our Instagram to tell us what pie you’d make, and we might send you an Emile Henry pie dish.
• If you’re looking for wreaths and garlands, we just restocked for you.
• If you need new napkins for Thanksgiving, we like these Japanese- and Indian-influenced prints in autumnal colors. I favor the Ingrid and Eva prints. Shout-out to Gabe Appel for tipping us off to this brand!

My friend Christine Muhlke, who I think of as a post-influencer (too stylish and too discreet to play that game), restarted her newsletter of design, fashion, travel, and food tips. You can sign up here.

These woods are lovely, dark and deep

But I have promises to keep.

And clothes to fold before I sleep,

and clothes to fold before I sleep.

Amanda Hesser

P.S. After posting the turbot pan on Instagram, my friend the writer Elissa Altman, who worked at Dean & Deluca in the late 1980s, messaged me that in 1989, when the store moved, the employees had to lug all the goods to the new location: “I was forced to carry a 25 lb copper poacher from Villedieu east on Prince St in my apron to the new store. Every few months, they had me up on a tall ladder moving the damn thing from one metro shelf to another. When the store finally closed, there were two things left: the six-point stag head hanging in the wall above the smoked fish dept, and the f**king turbot poacher.”