Best Recipes of 2009

My favorite recipes from 2009, just 12 of the best recipes of the year, recipes that especially express "fresh" and "easy" and "memorable" and "flavor-forward" and "seasonal" — all hallmarks of Kitchen Parade recipes. Ditto. Ditto. It happens every year, Thanksgiving tumbling into Advent, Christmas careening toward New Year's. The lists are long and never once completed. This year, it was especially easy to welcome off-list activities: a 2080-mile trek to visit my mother's Canadian family to sample Christmas cookies; a "bring-a-salad-ingredient" party; a surprise breakfast just hours Christmas house guests arrived; a feast cooked by a husband-wife-daughter team who make Iron Chef look like Amateur Night; a lesson in shortbread from my sister. Though good food figured in all these good times, food was hardly their point. So while selecting 2009's best recipes, I ignored the temptation to share another story,