The Upside of Winter

They're back...Snowflakes.

And, that can only mean one other thing is back too...Mallowmars!

James Barron of The New York Times recently waxed poetic about this classic cookie:

Proust had his madeleines. Douglas Boxer had his Mallomars.

"My mother used to buy them on special occasions, and I used to sneak down to the kitchen and steal them," said Mr. Boxer, who grew up to be an owner of Rare Bar & Grill, a restaurant in the Shelburne Murray Hill Hotel at 303 Lexington Avenue, near 37th Street. "And then she'd say, 'Somebody last night had three Mallomars. Wonder who it was?' "

That question comes up at this time of year, for like Beaujolais nouveau, Mallomars are not a year-round delicacy, not even in the New York area, where 70 percent of Mallomars are sold. Mallomars return to supermarket shelves in the fall after a warm-weather break. But Mallomars connoisseurs do not celebrate by holding tastings of the new batch or by calling friends to announce "les Mallomars sont arriv