I have one of those market totes you’d see on the streets of Paris. It’s knit from water reeds that look like a soft wicker. The top edge is trimmed with a line of leather. It’s my co-op and farmers market bag. Walking home from the store yesterday with my tiny person in tow and a baguette and green onions poking out from the top of our tote, I realize I’m in one of those “What people think I do” collages. You know the kind that ran around the internet last year with six square images set on a black background? At first thought, I’m certain I’d appear in one of the perfectly styled initial images. Woman with well-behaved child walking home hand-in-hand from the market with a beautiful bag of produce. But as I start to break out into a run, I realize I’m not her. I chase my tiny human down praying the baguette is still intact. At least there’s a cool tote on my shoulder, even if it’s barely hanging on. There’s a picture of that in the collage too. Read more
Pineapple. A tropical fruit with a juicy yellow flesh and a thorny green skin. A DIY halloween costume. A stencil design at my grandma’s house. An upside down cake. An emoji🍍. A symbol of hospitality. The emblem Chuck Williams imprinted on his store in 1956, a store you and I know well. Williams-Sonoma. Today, October 2, is Chuck’s 100th birthday! It only seemed fitting to put a little pineapple in his cake. Read more
Blueberry Breakfast Cake. Say that five times fast. I love alliteration. Almost as much as I love breakfast. And cake. And blueberry. So, when it came time to figure out what to do with some leftover summer blueberries, I decided to turn them into this iteration of a coffee cake in blueberry form. My friend Heather Hardison sent me her new book Homegrown: Illustrated Bites just before the craze of summer and our move hit. I dog-eared her Breakfast Blueberry Cake right away. Read more
An english professor in college, who most likely passed me with flying colors because of my Cher impression, always said, “Nothing was created in a vacuum.” At the time, he was encouraging us to read period appropriate texts in order to give context to what we were reading. Admittedly, I read just enough to get by in that class (if Spark Notes counts), and I wrote my final paper on the interaction of scenery and plot in the Harry Potter films, though I would have much preferred to write about The Sixth Sense. I was a design major, worlds away from becoming a writer (or reader for that matter). But what he said stayed with me. Read more
Every year it happens. A new Christmas in a _____ is born. Though, I had to change my preposition from in to on this year. This year I give you: Christmas on a Plate. It might be the easiest and prettiest of the bunch. Read more
A couple weeks ago my mom came into town. She was going to watch Hal while I got so caught up on work I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. Instead I spent most of the week hanging out with her and making Nutella Lattes. I also spent a good amount of time just watching her with Hal. Not the controlling over-the-shoulder kind of watching. More so the how-did-you-do-that kind of watching. Read more
Angel Food Cake was on the on summer to-post list unlike the Lemonade. I crossed it off, and it felt surprisingly good. But not nearly as good as it felt to serve to my extended family after a 3-hour turned 8-hour road trip to the beach last weekend. Fourth of July traffic on the east coast is mighty nasty. Read more
This is the first cake, cake, with layers and frosting, I’ve made since we’ve moved to Connecticut. I’ve been in a funk. Read more