“So I said, “I better start thinking about having my own language in cooking.” I didn’t invent anything really. I just went down to my knees, looked around and remembered all the tools from my childhood. I looked around a bit into the mountains and saw what the natives had been doing. I grabbed all that and I started cooking with it.” —Francis Mallmann
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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
A couple weeks ago when it was still warm enough to make you sweat, we stopped by a lemonade stand on the corner of the street. We chatted with and met new neighbors. I was juggling a cup of lemonade and a nap-ready, wiggly baby while trying to keep four new names straight. (I’m abnormally good with faces but adversely awful with names.) A homeless woman walked up, put her change down on the table without hesitation, and walked away with a cup of lemonade in hand and a smile on her face. My mind was a thousand different places, but present enough to absorb that brief moment.
Five years ago, I married my best friend. We left our homes and moved to Chicago where he began graduate school. A couple months in to the journey, I started this space. He was working and studying all the time. I quickly learned a weekend outlet was necessary for me to survive blips of boredom, and cleaning the condo wasn’t cutting it. Read more
I hoard two things in this world. Gift cards. And recipes. And maybe holey-armpit t-shirts, but we’ve already gone down that road.
My wallet is full of gift cards from last Christmas. Who knows, maybe from the Christmas prior. I’m not a shopper of clothes. But if and when I do, I probably have a gift card to pay for the total. I call this resourceful. My husband calls this wasteful. His giftcards don’t last a month. Read more
I’m fighting a head cold/summer flu at the moment. Does a summer flu even exist? Read more
“And you’ve totally redeemed yourself,” I said after taking one bite. Before making these banana muffins, I made zucchini/carrot bread. I couldn’t wait to share how something so healthy could taste so divine. Instead it ended up tasting like cardboard with a hint zucchini. Sadly, it even looked like cardboard. I threw away the bread after trying to salvage it by dressing it up as french toast. Nope, nothing can mask the taste of cardboard. Read more
