Deceptive Apple Tart
Dear friends, family, colleagues, casual acquaintances, and indifferent web surfers, You may have thought that I had stopped cooking delicious deserts to pursue other, more social pastimes. Maybe I threw a wild party, watched a football game, or even went clubbing.1 Not so. I’ve been quietly cooking and baking away during my few waking hours away from work, but simply haven’t found the time to share my experiments projects. I’m of the firm belief that tarts are among the most rewarding of desserts to bake, because it always...
read more ->Experimental Lentil [Soup]
MAID. O, welcome, Heracles! come in, sweetheart. My Lady, when they told her, set to work, Baked mighty loaves, boiled two or three tureens Of lentil soup, roasted a prime ox whole, Made rolls and honey-cakes. So come along. –Aristophanes, The Frogs I’ll admit, I sometimes have odd cravings. Raw carrots, candy hearts, frozen peas… the list goes on.1 But earlier this week, after consuming some mediocre lentil soup at a mediocre falafel joint in my neighborhood, all I could think about was lentils. In a lentil-induced haze, I...
read more ->Magic Pizza Crust
Let’s imagine that you, dear reader, are filled with admiration for my cooking projects1 and immediately run to the kitchen to try out each of these recipes over and over. If this is the case, then you have a veritable swimming pool of pesto sitting around, waiting to be used.2 And you’re probably sick of eating it with pasta. Well, here’s some great news! You can have fresh, homemade pesto pizza! Yum yum! And it’s so easy! I’ve made this recipe (modified from Jay’s Signature Pizza Crust) many times, and it...
read more ->Poor Woman’s Pesto
I have a confession to make. I’m a pesto snob.1 I spent years sampling store-bought varieties, disappointed with everything in a jar, and nearly all of the fresher, refrigerated ones. While studying abroad in Paris, I lived on yogurt, baguettes, and–yes–pesto. Watching a friend make pesto out of a packet nearly killed me.2 You know that saying? About what to do if you want something done well? And don’t have a celebrated Italian chef locked away in your kitchen cupboard?3 Clearly, the answer was to find a good pesto...
read more ->San Francisco 2010, Day 5
Our last day was spent revisiting places we didn’t spend enough time in earlier. We made a quick tour of Japantown, where I ate a crèpe.1 Went into every Japanese grocery store within a 4-block radius, passing up fresh octopus for delicious but hard-to-open fruit drops.2 Also picked up a pair of handy collapsible chopsticks. Headed back to the Lumiere to watch the animated shorts, followed by a very satisfying dinner at one of the city’s best Thai restaurants.3 After that, we repacked our things and went to catch a bus to the...
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Writer, illustrator, musician, rogue librarian, explorer, ill-fated baker.