While you were lost in my endless stove scroll, I got to guest edit an issue of Domino’s Home Front and I went down another rabbit hole: plate racks! They don’t make sense for our Ojai design, but man do I love a dedicated display for dishes.

This week on Homeward:

• I’m going to ask for your help deciding which flatware to get for Ojai. Below are my six picks.

• There’s a new book out about the benefits of cold water—which I will appreciate and respect without dipping a toe into any icy liquid.

• And I have a very cool, very old dessert recipe, in case you need one for the holidays. I promise you: no one else will be bringing this to your Friendsgiving.

Let’s start with dessert. As a cook who likes to rebel on Thanksgiving by serving shellfish or capon instead of turkey, and salad rather than green bean casserole, I wanted to find a dessert that would feel seasonally appropriate, yet not bow to the expectations of Thanksgiving menus.

I turned to a recipe for Hazelnut Cake from one of my cookbooks, The Essential New York Times Cookbook. The cake, which is called Filbert Torte, came from Delmonico’s, the NYC restaurant of the late 19th-century. Back when I wrote my book, ground hazelnuts were hard to come by, so I offered instructions for toasting the nuts and grinding them in a food processor. Now you can pick up some hazelnut meal from Bob’s Red Mill and other players, and skip that step.

While I usually recoil from layer cake recipes, this one’s a snap. You make three thin layers of hazelnut sponge cake, lacquer them with apricot jam, and muffle the layered disk with a glossy pouf of maraschino-infused meringue icing. Pretty neat, no?

Making this again, I got thinking about what you could sub in for the apricot jam layer. I’d try a hazelnut chocolate spread or a cherry jam. I say, go ahead and shock your relatives by showing up with a non-pumpkin, non-apple dessert. Do it! Do it! Here’s the play-by-play: ...