There are so many things to love about living in San Francisco:
Sunny days, chilly nights, a walk uphill to the grocery store counts as a workout, burritos…
But, I have to say, the one requisite item for living in California that brings me pure joy is my compost bucket.
I love reducing, reusing and recycling and living in California is my green light to get gross. But, if I may get on my soap box for just a second, Americans waste way too much food. It goes well beyond what we compost and what’s not going in the mouths of hungry Americans; according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, 10% of the total U.S. energy budget goes toward getting food from farms to our tables, that same food uses 50% of U.S. land and 80% of all freshwater consumed in the United States. Yet, 40% (40%!!!!!) of food in the United States today goes uneaten. If there’s a justifiable reason for throwing away food, I would love to know what it is because these stats make me sad. 
In the kitchen, I do a lot of experimenting and have a lot of leftover.. stuff. Stuff I re-purpose or it has to go in the compost bucket along with my kale stalks, egg shells, coffee grounds, and clementine peels. I do my best to fill it with the things that are inedible. And I know I can’t teach the world to waste less with a little blog post, but at least I can set an example.
So this week, I went through my leftover inventory and what I have to save from the compost bucket by re-purposing it is as follows:
- Pumpkin from my Pumpkin Babka
- Ginger syrup from my experimental Ginger Lemonade Cupcakes
- An old banana that was just a little too speckled to eat on its own
My logic said the magical combination should be: Banana Pumpkin Cupcakes with Caramel Ginger Frosting.
That might not be what a pastry chef would come up with, but this is my kitchen and I’ll do whatever freaky formula my logic comes up with.
There are so many flavors in there with a lot of potential for weird… but it’s also potential for practice. Practice fusing flavors. Practice messing with textures. Practice using different ways to make frosting. The frosting was my favorite (you have to make it first because it needs time to cool).
