Tre Marie Panettone from Boston’s  Salumeria Italiana

My friend Jenny keeps a blog called The Lore of the Garden, and through it I discovered the winter solstice is on its way.  Today is the longest night, and after solstice, the nights slowly, incrementally become shorter.  It gets a bit fuzzy in March because the sun starts setting sooner.  According to the Gregorian Calendar, New Year is just around the corner.

One of the nicest New Year blog greetings came from Elissa Altman’s Poor Man’s Feast site with a list of wishes for her readers.  I would add a wish for panetonne, introduced to me by my friend Rosie many years ago. Instantly, after tasting it, I was transported to my childhood and the sweet, fruit-filled buns that would arrive by bike from Srirangam’s only bakery.  When I returned to India for a year of college, my eighteenth birthday was celebrated with an extraordinary fruitcake, the likes of which I have never tasted since.   In France, it was the lovely slice of fruited pound cake served on the train in a  hand-wheeled cart down the aisle which makes me nostalgic. Panetonne is like fruitcake and fruited pound-cake, but it is lighter, more brioche than pound.

Sweets for the solstice.

May your year be filled with light and strength.  May you always proofread.