Kathleen Hill: Cookies, spiff-ups and New Year’s takeout

Merry Christmas?

Remember that? The world has changed so much since our last Merry Christmas.

Now we hope and give thanks that we and everyone we know is well and succeeds in adapting to the pandemic, the economy, not getting together, not going out and everything else we know to be today.

But there is joy in all the creativity we have seen in making everything from sourdough bread to holiday cookies, thinking up festive meals (many without turkey), trying a skill we thought we never had time for, and just enjoying each other if you have people to get together with, even on Zoom.

Maybe we have learned to value different things, new ideas and arts instead of malls and piles of presents. Many people have found small gifts locally, which helps local business owners and staff keep things open.

If you are still stumped for gifts or can’t get out – try gift cards, still available tomorrow and forever at local stores and restaurants. Even a little plant from a local nursery.

Happiness and joy can come from giving to others, even if it’s just a phone call. So go for it.

Aunt Momo’s super cookie delivery

Many people know the Roche family, the late Genevieve and Joe Roche and all the kids. Aunt Momo (Mara Roche) and brother Brendan organize the monthly breakfasts at St. Francis Solano church. Carrrie Roche has joined sister Mara in Aunt Momo’s Wine Country Wine Country Ranch Cooking to develop their cookie delivery program.

The cookies are excellent and those who donated for the Vintage Festival tea party got to sample many of them: Palmiers, a puff-pastry cookie brushed with custard glaze and sugar crystals; snickerdoodles; madeleines; triple chocolate chip cookies; and Valrhona and Guittard chocolate sprinkle cookies. $13.50 to $22.50 for six cookies, combo platters for $36. See them all at auntmomos.com.

Spiff up time again?

Every year at this time I ask restaurant owners when they are closing for what I call their annual spiff-ups, which might include waxing floors, cleaning rugs, touch up paint, cleaning the kitchen and more.

This year is different for sure. Some of that might get done, but many have made decisions based on other circumstances.

Some have decided to just take a break for two to three weeks, inspired by the pandemic, protecting their employees, saving money, and not knowing if they will get any “PPP” from the federal government and when it might come.

Those restaurateurs making the choice to take a break (that I know of) from now until at least the end of the first week in January include La Salette, Tasca Tasca, Café La Haye and Layla. More might go this way after New Year’s as well.

Among personal caterers who prepare and deliver meals, Kyle Kuklewski, Bryan Jones, the Epicurean Connection and Cristina Topham are all taking breaks to spend the holidays quietly with family.

Spread Catering spreading

Cristina Topham, who has cooked in New York, Europe and on yachts around the world, has lickety-split bubbled to the top among Bay Area caterers.

How did she do it? She went back to her grandmother’s and mother’s recipes from their Lebanese background, with many vegetarian offerings, made beautiful food, worked like the devil and occasionally retreats to cuddling with her kitties. She started out by hand-delivering food from San Francisco to Santa Rosa a few days a week. It seemed daring given some isolationist sentiments out there.

Topham’s food is so colorful that people who had never tried Lebanese food dared to try it. And they like it.

We tried to find her a location for a kitchen here in Sonoma so she would no longer have to commute to her rented kitchen in Napa. But it didn’t work out, so Spread is still seeking a more permanent home.

Dine to say ‘good riddance’ to 2020

Hopefully we are not going to or hosting New Year’s Eve parties this year.

Those among of us who have called it “amateur night” have cooked special dinners to celebrate forever, and many more of us will be doing that this year.

If you don’t want to cook, you have many alternatives, such as ordering from a local restaurant.

Murphy’s Irish Pub, HopMonk Tavern, Jacob’s, La Casa, Black Bear and many other restaurants will be serving their regular menus for takeout. Check directly with the ones that interest you.

Here are some chefs’ special offers for New Year’s Eve takeout.

Cochon Volant

Rob Larman’s Cochon Volant will be open both New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

Depot Hotel & Restaurant

Gia Ghilarducci presents an extensive and elegant four-course menu for New Year’s Eve, starring with potato leek soup, salad or Maine scallops or Cotechino sausage; Dungeness crab cannelloni, poached filet of salmon, ricotta and provolone tortellini or grilled filet of beef; followed by chocolate torte, limoncello cake or tiramisu. ($70). Pick up 4 to 8 p.m. Dec. 31. 241 First St. W., Sonoma. 938-2980.

Girl & the Fig

Owner Sondra Bernstein offers her regular menu both NYE and NYD, plus a special meal of braised beef short ribs, smashed red potatoes, Brussels sprouts, carrots ($120 serves 2); Mt. Lassen trout with creamed kale, carrots and potatoes ($120). Or winter squash ragout with risotto cakes ($100). Cocktails, dessert, and caviar service also available. 938-3634 or thegirlandthefig.com.

Glen Ellen Star

Three course menu includes cauliflower bisque, ricotta gnudi, with black truffle oil; a kit to be cooked at home of handmade rigatoni with Dungeness crab “puttanesca,” and a handmade “twix” bar. Ari Weisswasser says the pasta is fresh and comes with cooking instructions. $40 per person, minimum of two ($80). 13648 Arnold Drive, Glen Ellen. 343-1384.

Picazo Kitchen & Bar

Kina Chavez offers a terrific deal at Picazo Kitchen & Bar. Three courses include choices of New England clam chowder, tortilla soup, or biscuits and butter. Second course brings barbecued baby back ribs, New York steak roast, or Mexican veggie lasagna, with which you choose two sides of coleslaw, mashed potatoes, potato salad, green salad or grilled veggies. Dessert choices include cheesecake, tiramisu, brownie, flan brûlée, or vegan açai sorbet. Add bottle of wine for 50 percent off. Delivery on request. 935-3287.

Valley Bar & Bottle

Valley Bar & Bottle offers two “Let’s Sink This Ship” kits to go, basically snacks with distinct Asian flairs and flavors. ($50 to $75). 487 First St. W., Sonoma. 934-8403. Then they are reopening on Inauguration Day, Jan. 21.

Don’t let the Cliff House fall off the cliff

Dan and Mary Hountalas have had a vineyard on Bonness Road in Sonoma for nearly 40 years and live right here in the city of Sonoma.

The Hountalases have owned and run the famed and picturesque Cliff House hanging over the Pacific Ocean in San Francisco for nearly 50 years, and their family has been serving food in the immediate area since 1903. Dan’s uncle, Louis, had the little place up the road that also had to close recently without a lease.

Many Sonoma residents either came here from the San Francisco area or at least visited the Cliff House for special occasion meals and celebrations, including Mother’s and Father’s Day buffets, and always fun food with a spectacular view. Once the Hill family sat at a window table when a practicing Blue Angel zoomed by between our table level and the water. Heart stopping.

Dan and Mary and family have run the restaurants while leasing from the National Park Service, which owns much of the property along that rugged coastline.

The lease with the National Park Service includes three restaurants: The Cliff House. Sutro’s, and the Lands’ End Lookout, the latter two much less formal than the Cliff House.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Park Service extended short-term leases while the family secured Aramark as a partner.

Since the Hountalases and Aramark have tried to lease the property, the National Park Service under the Trump administration has announced that they think they will wait a couple of years to lease it and see what happens to business post-pandemic.

Meanwhile the building will stand empty, and we all know what happens then. Dan Hountalas told the Index-Tribune that it is costing him and Mary $50,000 a month for insurance and security and they are “out of money.”

Dan said, “Trump hires and fires people every three months, and it’s impossible to know how to solve this or who to deal with. Nancy Pelosi is a longtime friend and customer, but she’s busy and we are too shy to bother her.” But her office is trying to help.

While the Parks Service bureaucrats “sit on their butts, we are supposed to vacate on Dec. 31,” he said.

As of Tuesday, there seemed to be some movement in a positive direction. Let’s hope so.

Restaurant Hustle

The Food Network will premiere "Restaurant Hustle 2020: All on the Line," a film produced, directed and narrated by Sonoma County's Guy Fieri.

According to the New York Times, it follows four restaurant owners and how they are dealing or not with the current pandemic and economic crisis. A must-see to understand our neighbors' struggles. Dec. 27, 6 p.m.