Fall in Northern Californiaā¦ is not quite fall. In San Francisco, there are no leaves crunching under foot and the temperature is more or less the same on October 15th as it is on July 15th. In the Midwest itās an all-sensory experience that makes death pretty appealing: you can see the leaves transforming from…
Category: Baking
Cream Biscuits
Three months and three days ago I blew up my life: sold most of my belongings, packed up the rest and dragged my cat with me to San Francisco to be closer to family. Thereās nothing like a 2,000 mile move to make you appreciate the value of simplicity. And simple I must be. After…
The Tart Keith Richards Won’t Touch
āIt wasnāt my idea of a dessert, and they tried to force me to eat it, threatening me with punishment or a fine. It was very Dickensian. I had to write out āI will not refuse foodā three hundred times in my infantile hand.ā That was Keith Richardsā reaction to the Gypsy tart they served…
Lila Clementine Cookies
I am a notoriously bad gift giver. Thereās no excuse for it; I am just not gifted at giving gifts. My dad is probably the biggest victim of my bad gifts. One year for his birthday I picked up a book for him at KMart simply titled āRunning.ā Basically, it was a guide filled with…
Black & White Cookies
If youāve never had a black and white cookie, theyāre not really cookies at all, nor are they black and white. They are not crunchy and crumbly the way you expect cookies to be, rather they are soft and supple cakes hidden beneath a thin layer of half vanilla and half chocolate fondant (hardened icing)….
Sourdough Bread
There are few things as delicious as a slice of sourdough bread with a generous layer of almost-cold-butter. But making it is not quite as simple as the pleasure of a piece of breadābut because this kind of stuff excites me, I wanted to share just how awesome sourdough bread is. Sponge-Worthy Starter What makes…
The Imperfect Pretzel: A Beastly Bavarian Treat
I donāt like pretzels in general, but I do love a good Bavarian soft pretzel. Iāve never made them and theyāve been on my list for a while. But last week, after a trip to Milwaukee where theyāre already celebrating Oktoberfest (German roots are anchored deep in Wisconsin), pretzels climbed to the top of my…
Surviving the Polar Vortex: Bread on the Fly (sort of)
The winds in the Polar Vortex are allegedly slowing down and temperatures in Chiberia are jumping from -14F to a balmy 14F. One can only hope. I fed the last bit of bread in my apartment to the birds who apparently didnāt seek warmer temperatures at a lower latitude. Ā Since my courage has only allowed…
Don’t Take My Word: Sable Cookies
Oh dear, Shia Labeouf, thank you for giving me something to think about. The Transformers actor and complete goofus spent the holidays doing damage control for a series of plagiarism accusations: once for an apology he lifted from an Esquire feature, another for completely ripping off a graphic novel to make a film short, and…
Bread Worth Stealing from an Old Lady: Marble Rye
I was watching Seinfeld againā¦ and I just couldnāt get marble rye out of my head (Episode #117: Georgeās parents took back the marble rye they brought to Susanās parentsā house and George came up with a plan to replace it so Susanās parents wouldnāt think even less of the Costanzas than they already did…