Whipped Ricotta with Mixed Berries, Or Reminiscing on Holidays Past

Medically reviewed by Christiana George Updated Date: January 6, 2026

This Fourth of July, Chris and I will find ourselves alone, with nary a barbecue or picnic to attend. It’s a lonely position to be in, but such is the case when you’re a stranger to an area I suppose.

We should really be used to it by now.

Last Thanksgiving, we were in Puno, Peru. I believe we ate street hamburgers, 33 cents each, and arroz con leche—also bought off the street from a man with a cartful of the stuff—for dinner. We were resolute about not making a big deal out of the day. I made a big deal out of the day.

For Christmas, we were in Mendoza, Argentina, and celebrated the evening at a huge hostel-organized dinner where we endured ham stuffed in chicken stuffed in something else because I didn’t want to spent the holiday alone, just the two of us. The evening quickly devolved into a girls-gone-wild soiree, where tequila shots were generously given out to those brave enough (or wanton enough) to slurp them from some poor girl’s bellybutton (I was not wanton enough to be that girl).

And New Year’s Eve was celebrated in Santiago, Chile. We’d debated trying to be in Valparaiso that night, but, again, in the attempt to not make a big deal over the holiday, we opted to stay in Chile’s capital instead. Where we were invited to a concert which turned out to be more like a rave and spent the entire night alternating between momentary blindness and momentary deafness. It turned out to be one of our more fun New Year’s Eves.

If this last year has taught me anything, it’s how not to make a big deal over holidays.

But I’m not saying we won’t be a little lonely.

Sometimes, all it takes is going through the motions to make a day feel festive. Or make-believe motions in this case.

If I were playing hostess to a yardful of guests, I would totally serve this dessert as a 4th of July finale, after an evening of food-gorging, fireworks-watching, and beer-guzzling. It’s sweet, velvety, and cold, the cream cheese imparting a slight tartness, the ricotta grounding it firmly as a luxurious dessert. While not heavy, it’s certainly rich. And the berries, oh the berries: I will miss them when they’re out of season.

WHIPPED RICOTTA WITH MIXED BERRIES

Adapted from Bon Appetit

Serves 6

Ingredients:

2 cups whole-milk ricotta cheese
4 ounces (1/2 cup) cream cheese, room temperature
4 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp honey
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups mixed fruit (strawberries, blueberries, peaches, raspberries, etc.)
2 tsp fresh lemon juice

Directions:

Mix ricotta cheese, cream cheese, 2 Tbsp sugar, honey, and vanilla extract thoroughly (alternatively, blend everything together in a food processor and transfer to a bowl). Cover and refrigerate until slightly set (about 2 hours).

Toss fruit with lemon juice and remaining 2 Tbsp sugar in a large bowl. Let stand at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

Divide ricotta among six bowls. Top with berries and serve.

Note: You can go all-out patriotic like I did, and use blueberries and strawberries in your fruit blend, but I think peaches would work terrifically as well.

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Korean Fried Chicken

Mains

Christiana George
Updated Date:
January 2, 2026

I have had the most incredible hankering for Korean food recently. I can’t explain it, except that this current weather makes me want to cuddle up with a bowl of soondubu and freshly cooked rice, made in a stone pot of course. I also just recently discovered Maangchi, who is just about the cutest woman alive other than my mom. They remind me an awful lot of each other actually.
Maangchi doesn’t do anything in half measures, meaning everything she cooks is in huge quantities. She whips out 10 pounds of kimchi at a time, fries huge basins of japchae. I can’t imagine the number of people she cooks for, but in the case of the recipe I’m sharing today, she deep-fried three pounds of chicken wings. For Chris and me, two to three wings/drumettes each, so maybe half a pound of chicken total, is sufficient. Although maybe we’re just light eaters. It’s hard to say.
But hold it! I’m misleading you, aren’t I? I actually didn’t end up following Maangchi’s recipe. It was pretty good, but I found that I preferred Saveur’s version better. The two taste totally different; I just found her version to be a bit cloying. (Also, I don’t understand why corn syrup seems to end up in a lot of Korean dishes—is it a common ingredient? And why?)

What the two versions have in common—and what makes Korean fried chicken so dang addictive—is that the chicken is fried twice. This results in a Seriously Crispy Crust. It’s the difference between a weak handshake and a firm one, sallow and sturdy. A robust crust, if you will. I think it’s dead simple and pretty genius. (The only downside is that you have to withstand being barraged by oil twice as long. Actually, come to think of it, that’s a pretty big downside. Deep-frying is freaky. Make sure you wear long sleeves. And gloves. And clear everything away around the perimeter of the pot because it’s going to get dirty.) And then you smother it in a hot-garlicky-mouth-puckering sauce and away you go!
(On an unrelated note, if you follow me on Instagram, you might know that I was in California last week, where I got to meet the newest generation of the Anderson clan, aka Chris’s brother’s four-and-a-half month old son and our nephew! I get a little giddy calling him this, because it didn’t really occur to me that he WAS related to me until Chris’s sister-in-law [which makes her my sister-in-law?] called me Aunt Linda. Aunt Linda! That’s so exciting! And now that I’ve seen him and fallen in love, I want to buy him things like this onesie. What do you think? Isn’t it adorable?? [Now my mom thinks I want to start popping them out. Ha. Ha ha ha. Sorry Mom. You’ll have to give me time.])
KOREAN FRIED CHICKEN (aka KFC)
From Saveur
Makes 16 pieces
Ingredients:
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 (1.5″) piece peeled ginger, chopped
3 Tbsp soy sauce
3 Tbsp gochujang
1.5 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 Tbsp Asian sesame oil
1 Tbsp honey
2/3 cup flour
1 Tbsp cornstarch
2/3 cup water
16 chicken wingettes/drumettes (from 8 chicken wings)
Canola oil, for frying
Sesame seeds and chopped green onions for topping
Directions:
Make the sauce: process the garlic, ginger, soy sauce, gochujang, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and honey with a food processor/immesion blender until blended (or mince the garlic and ginger and whisk the ingredients together by hand).
For the chicken: in a bowl, whisk the flour, corn starch, and water. Add the chicken and toss. In a medium-sized heavy-bottomed pot, pour about 2 inches of oil. Clip a candy thermometer onto the side of the pot and heat the oil until it reaches a temperature of 350 degrees F. Add the chicken pieces gently, but don’t crowd the pot; you’ll have to work in two or three batches. Fry chicken until golden, about 6 to 8 minutes. Drain on paper towels. Reheat the oil to 350 degrees and fry chicken again until crisp and medium brown, 6 to 8 minutes. Drain.
In a large bowl, toss the chicken pieces with the sauce, top with sesame seeds and green onions if using, and serve. With lots of napkins.