Amazing Macaroni!

The Chefs: Made by Lyndsay and Frankie, eaten by Brooke

The Menu: The amazing VN macaroni and cheese, topped off with some of Frankie's homemade chocolates!

The Goods: So some mornings (read: most) I'm forgetful or lazy or late, and therefore forget or don't feel like or don't have time to make a lunch. These are the mornings I'm grateful for my wonderful VN co-workers, including Ms. Lyndsay Orwig who so graciously shared her VN mac and cheese with me. And yesterday, as you might have read in This Just In, a Ms. Frankie McGee gifted us some homemade chocolate-covered, cream-cheese filled dates and chocolate-covered almonds. Don't mind if I do! That's why I love the holiday season! Are you as emphatic about this time of year as we are? Check out VN's complete survival guide to the 2010 holidays!

Mega Miso Soup

The Chef: Elizabeth

The Menu: Basically, it's miso soup, plus a few extra bits. Elizabeth tried to fend off the illness that's struck a few of our staffers by including colossal amounts of garlic in this soup, and adding rice, Napa cabbage, and green onions. For toppings we chose from black sesame seeds, sesame oil, soy sauce, and gochujang—aka Korean red pepper paste—and Sriracha. Yes, this easily counts as "fusion."

The Goods: Today was highly exciting as we again dined al fresco, and we tested the first batch of cookies from our Holiday Cookie Collection! Yes, we'll be tantalizing you with our testing tales until we're ready to launch the collection itself. Since we're not ready to spill those details yet, we hope you'll enjoy this instead:

Yes, those are dates, stuffed with Dandies, dipped in chocolate. Have we ever mentioned that we freaking love Frankie?!

Extra-Super Awesome Surprise

The Chef: Frankie

The Menu: Chocolate-covered everything! No, like, literally, everything. Frankie just came in to the office—on her day off no less!—to bring us a sweet smorgasbord of chocolate-covered goodies. Included in this incredible array were peanut-butter-filled pretzels, regular pretzels, faux-cream-cheese-filled dates, raspberry jam, peanut butter, coffee beans, and toasted almonds. Oh, did we mention that she just made these out of the goodness of her heart? Because she did. Are we dead with joy? Yes.

The Goods: It just really doesn't get much better than a surprise delivery of epic, chocolate-covered proportions. Frankie, as you may recall, spoils us routinely with her homemade goodies, but this is an extravagance, even by her standards. Also, did we mention that she is maybe absolutely our favorite person on the planet? Because she is, hands down.