Warm holidays to you and yours, Reader, and happy new year.

See you in 2012.

Dreading having the same old thing again this year at the holiday dinner table? Wanting to impress the fam with a vegan recipe that’ll make them say, without a doubt, “This is vegan?” Just itchin’ for an excuse to make cute, tiny, hand-held pies? Got you covered on all counts, my friend.

These are something we usually make for BKTK—our most glorious yearly Brooklyn-based Thanksgiving feast, whereupon no travel out of NYC is allowed—but these guys will wow just as well this holiday season.

Here’s what you need—

For the Filling:
• 1 medium Butternut Squash
• half a Sweet Onion (like Maya Gold or Vidalia, when it’s in season)
• 5 cloves of Garlic
• .25 cup of Vegetable Broth (fresh, if possible…we’ll write that up some time in the new year)
• Olive Oil
• 1 teaspoon of Smoked Paprika
• Salt + Pepper, to taste

For the Pastry Crust:
• 2.5 cups All-Purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 2 sticks (1 cup) Vegan Margarine (we like Willow Run), very cold
• .25 cup (or so) Ice Water

So, first thing’s first—before you make this, you should know that it’s best to have the dough sit covered and refrigerated overnight. If that’s not possible, at least give it an hour to sit.

One key to a good pastry dough is to add the ice water little by little—too much and the gluten will activate too much, making a dense, chewy crust; too little and it’s a powdery mess that won’t bake. But don’t fret, once you get it down, you’ll be a pro. It’s honestly not that hard. The other key is to touch the margarine with your hands as little as possible, keeping it from melting until the dough’s being baked.

This pie crust recipe’s based on Martha Stewart’s Pate Brisee. She uses a food processor to make it, which you’re more than welcome to do, but we always do it by hand. When you’re ready to go, sift the flour into a large mixing bowl along with the salt. Now take one stick of margarine out, place it on a cutting board, unwrapped, and begin cutting the stick into small squares. We usually quarter it down the length and then chop it across the width into smaller squares. Again, touch the margarine as little as possible, using the knife and maybe a fork or other knife to scrape the pieces into the flour mixture. Scrape off only enough at a time that they can rest int he flour mixture without touching other margarine pieces and sticking together. When you’ve reached capacity for the surface area, lightly mix the margarine pieces in so they’re coated with flour and cut more pieces in and do the same. Repeat the process with the second stick of margarine. Once it’s all in, take a rubber spatula or a fork and quickly smash the pieces into smaller bits all throughout the flour mixture, creating tiny, pea-sized bits of margarine. Now begin to slowly mix in the ice water, maybe a tablespoon at a time, watching to see when the mixture begins to bind together and making sure that you’re thoroughly mixing in the moisture. Once you have a dough that starts to form a ball and doesn’t look wet but isn’t too powdery, stop with the water-adding, already. You’re done. Cover with foil or some such thing and refrigerate, ideally overnight.

On to the filling! This is hella easy. First, carefully divide the butternut squash down its length and place into an oiled baking pan. If you have a smaller baking dish, feel free to divide it down its width too. Bake at 350°F face-down until the outer skin easily punctures when you gently fork it (no jokes). It usually takes 30 to 45 minutes, depending on your particular gourdinal fortitude. Meanwhile, dice up the onion into very small pieces and then saute in a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat with a tablespoon of olive oil until caramelized (10 minutes or so). Add smashed, peeled, and diced garlic and cook for five or so minutes, lowering the heat if the garlic begins to brown too much. When your squash is done, pull it out and set aside to cool. Once it’s cool, carefully peel off the skin. It should come off pretty easily if it’s been cooked enough. If you have trouble, go the other route—scrape the squash meat out. Add the squash to the onions and garlic and saute for 10 minutes, further browning the squash. Now add your spices and the vegetable broth and cook covered for 30-45 minutes, uncovering and stirring every now and then to check the consistency. You basically want to break everything down into a mashed-potato-like consistency, so feel free to smash and chunks with a fork and, if needed, cook off extra liquid uncovered.

Once you’ve got your filling cooked, you just need to set it aside or refrigerate it long enough that it’s cool to the touch. When you’re ready to make the pies (you can refrigerate the filling for a day or two, for real, and even freeze the day, as needed), pre-heat the oven to 375°F. Now, pull or cut lose a ball of dough about the size of a non-baby fist. On a clean, lightly floured surface, roll the ball into a disk that’s about a quarter of an inch thick. Place a quarter cup or so of the cooled filling on one half of the dough disk, gently folding the other side over so you form a half-moon. Seal the edges with a fork. If the dough’s not sticking to to itself well enough, add a little water between the two sides. Set aside on a cool surface and repeat until the dough and/or filling are kaput. Place the hand pies on a cooking sheet so that they’re not touching and bake them until golden, usually 30 minutes or so. If you don’t have a large enough sheet for all of them, refrigerate the ones you’re not baking until there’s room for them.

That’s it! Now go impress those holiday revelers with you hand pie prowess!

Looking for some last-minute—or, if  you’re us, first-minute—gift ideas this holiday season? We’d be remiss if we didn’t recommend these assorted chocolates from Allison’s Gourmet.

Full disclosure—Allison’s a client of ours, but we just tried these for the first time and we’re now fully engaged in a battle we’re sure to lose against our wills in an effort to not totally devour them all in one sitting. Seriously. So good. Especially the salted chocolate caramel.

And, going off that little, beautifully designed ticker in the corner of her home page, looks like there’s still time to order for the holidays. So get giftin’!

Sharon Van Etten • Serpents

As we plunge full-throttle into the blurring race of the holiday season—with it’s maddening last-minute sales and backwards-math shipping exercises and the scent of the inevitable biting cold to come on the fringes of the air around us—we’re reminded that, before we know it, we’re going to be free-falling straight over the edge of this year and straight into next. And this is not any new year, mind you, this is the year Ragnarök that’s knocking on our door—when the gods will rock the heavens with their divine battle and likely take the rest of us with them. Or so the Mayans/Norwegians/crazies claim. So what better way to play out the rest of the year than with some epic-sounding tunes. We’ve got three for you today—because, you know, we’re calling it quits for the year soon here—the first of which is from Brooklyn’s own Sharon Van Etten. Van Etten’s come highly recommended to us in the past—first by our friend, John, and then, in interview, by resident awesome guy, Matt Pond—and last year’s EP (appropriately entitled, Epic) fell far from disappointing. This new track, “Serpents,” from her coming February debut with Jagjaguwar, promises even more growth for the already talented artist. Too bad we’ll only have, like, ten months at best to enjoy it….

Katie Herzig • Make A Noise
Next up, Nashville-based artists, Katie Herzig, who, while very “main-stream” sounding, writes and performs pop-crush-worthy songs that you’ll very likely be hearing in many a movie and/or commercial. In addition to this sweeping, string-filled little number, you can preview her whole 2011 album, The Waking Sleep, over at her site, where you can also download an additional free track, the fit-for-a-Clueless-remake “Free My Mind.”

LP “Into The Wild (Mix)” by LP Rock
Last up, we’ve got a track from the elusively named LA artist, LP (try Googling that). We’ll admit it—we first heard this track on a Citi Bank commercial. And yes, we’re still very upset about that letter we got from them telling us that they’d start changing us a crazy fee per account that didn’t have at least $6000 in it (we have three personal accounts). But we’re putting that aside for right now, because we totally dig this song. Again, rather mainstream as compared to our usual tastes, but undeniably epic and engaging. Plus that’s a pretty kick-ass whistling melody.

So, bring it soon-to-be-embattled  deities. We’ve got a soundtrack worthy of worst.

Miracles of Modern Science • Luminol

A few years ago, Katie and I made the treacherous, cross-Brooklyn trip to Williamsburg to seek out a cramped, dank, basement-like space called Death by Audio, where PBR was sold out of a closet and bands crowded at the front of a narrow room held up by a rickety stage, amplified by a PA system that seemed to have been made on a dare. By raccoons. The band we came to see was the much-buzzed about London-based Micachu + the Shapes. Before they took to ramshackle stage, though, we were presented with a strange quintet of lanky young men dressed head-to-toe in silver space suits standing behind a small colony of classical stringed instruments. Worried at what sound would follow such a strange staging, their songs not only pleasantly surprised us, they downright floored us.

Said strange purveyors of sound were a fledgling version of Miracles of Modern Science, a band now based in Brooklyn that takes melodic rock and pushes it through a filter of classical strings and driving drums to produce uniquely appealing pop. We’ve kept track of MoMS since seeing them live for the first time and have been anticipating with bated breath their debut full-length—Dog Year—out tomorrow. Last week, we got a chance to talk with band founders Evan Younger (double bass + lead vocals—foreground, middle above) and Josh Hirshfeld (mandolin + vocals, background, second form the left) about the new album, sweaty silver space suits, and why they put down their guitars and picked up mandolins and violins and cellos and and and….

Listen to our conversation below, download this week’s Song of the Week—their single, “Luminol”—above, and, finally, stream the entirety of Dog Year over at the band’s bandcamp site, where you can also order album. Oh, and if you’re in NYC, don’t forget to stop by the album release party at Piano’s tomorrow night.

kindness of ravens Interview with Miracles of Modern Science

We’d like to wish a very happy birthday to MooShoes, purveyor of shoes un-cruel, houser of cats much-crazed, and—as we’re extremely proud to say—the very first client we started working with after moving from DC to New York. And, we should mention, a company run by two of the nicest, most considerate, giving sisters we’ve ever met.

Am I ass-kissing now? Eh, regardless, we congratulate them on ten fine years in business. Top-shelf, MooShoes! Top-shelf!

They’ll be celebrating tomorrow with vegan fare from Blossom Du Jour and Dun-Well Doughnuts and 15% off all in-store purchases throughout the day. Come one, come all! Details here. And yes, that IS a lovely newsletter….

Did you know you can see all 54 tons of The AIDS Memorial Quilt online? Well, you can. Seems like a good day to take a look. Below, panel numbers 20, 40, 1519, and 5088.

Okay. Now we’ll go camping.

Designer tents from FieldCandy, as seen over at The Cool Hunter.

Elite Gymnastics • o m a m o r i

First off, yes, that is kind of a nast picture. Mmmmm—dude-stubble pressed against glass. But this week’s Song of the Week is anti-nast (totally calling that as a new genre). Besides making a habit of passing out on scanner beds, Minneapolis duo, Elite Gymnastics also makes a habit of creating some lovely, beat-driven, blissed out snowy beach music (aka—”anti-nast”). We first heard them over at ohmyrockness a while back and can’t stop going back fro more. Check out the Song of the Week, “o m a m o r i,” and their track “l i t t l e t h i n g s” (think something’s up with their computer’s keyboard) below. You can also grab their debut, japanese-looking full-length, Ruin, on green vinyl over at Big Cartel or the digital version on the iTunes.

l i t t l e t h i n g s by elite gymnastics

It’s official—after three votes and two official readings of the ordinance, West Hollywood has sealed the deal and banned the sale of animal fur within city limits, making them the first in the nation to do so. The ban won’t go into effect until September of 2013, but we’d just like to take a second to congratulate WeHo—really, people call it that?—and hope that the trend catches on in Cali and across the nation.

We applaud anyone who actively opposes supporting an industry that confines animals to a lifetime of cruelty in cramped, wire cages that ends in being suffocated, electrocuted, gassed, or poisoned and then skinned for the vanity of small-minded people, often-times while still alive.  Find out more about the fur industry here, sign a pledge to go fur-free, and, if you’re in New York and hoping we’ll soon follow suit, you can reach out to Fur-Free NYC and even attend a No Fur Friday rally this week up at Macy’s.