Smoky, silky, creamy baba ganouj (aka baba ganoush). This Middle Eastern eggplant dip is ideal for meze platters or for simply snacking with flatbread or crackers. Naturally vegan and gluten-free. When I was young(er), my dad would brine a turkey every Thanksgiving and fire up the smoker in our Topanga Canyon yard. I wish I...
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Hibiscus-Tequila Spritzers
I secretly call this drink 'Jamaica Me Crazy.' In Mexico, where hibiscus water (agua de jamaica) originates, they actually pronounce it 'huh-MY-cuh,' making this pun slightly less clever. But some folks complain that tequila causes them to act nutso, so I find the name apropos.
(Gluten-Free!) Congo Bars
My big sister is amazing. She can do anything, and does, from trail running marathons to singing, dancing and playing the cello. She also has three jobs, four if you count having a teenaged daughter (though maybe that's more like 10 jobs..) and is one of the kindest, most caring and comforting people I know.
Sweet Corn and Roasted Poblano Chowder
While I don't believe for a minute that the coldest winter Samuel Clemens ever spent was a summer in San Francisco (he lived on the East Coast for most of his life, for god's sake) the weather here is undeniably fickle. I began writing this post the Sunday before last, after a week of days...
Fig and Ginger Scones
These adorable fig scones feature buttery, ginger-flecked scone dough with fig halves baked into the dough. Make these GF by using my gluten-free scone dough! My first job out of pastry school was at a renowned San Francisco restaurant in the dessert kitchen. Everyone who worked there had a dour demeanor, including a fellow pastry...
Summer Vegetable Enchiladas
I am always surprised to find that there are still people out there who think that eating a vegetarian meal means leaving the table hungry. Haven't the last 3 decades been about disproving that theory? Haven't we moved beyond that by now?
Crispy Sesame Kale Chips
One of the coolest jobs I've ever had was working as a barista at Farley's, the renowned coffee shop here on Potrero Hill. Known for its surly servers and devil-may-care customer service, we spent much of our time, between making espresso drinks and restocking, smack-talking customers we disliked.
Zucchini-Tomato Tart
During my first baking job at UCSC, I met a middle-aged baker named Roxanne who every morning would serve me up a big plate of Too Much Information. Trysts in the walk-in with the cutie who mixed the pizza dough, drug induced escapades, naughty acts with various boyfriends; no subject was off-limits for Roxanne. She...
Apricot Cherry Clafoutis
A few years ago, when I told Jay we were having cherry clafoutis for dessert he chided me for cooking the precious fruits which make such a teasingly brief (and expensive) appearance every spring. Why squander them, rather than enjoying them fresh? But when he took his first bite of the juicy, brandy-infused cherries surrounded...
Tonic Water
Depending on how you see it, I had the good fortune to celebrate my 21st birthday in Italy. While many an American young adult spend the first night of their 21st year of life blind drunk, staggering from bar to bar in an alcohol-fueled frenzy, I spent mine calmly indulging in fabulous thin-crust pizza and...
Multi-Grain Sandwich Bread
Packed with whole grains and seeds yet still springy and light, this multi-grain sandwich bread comes together with a minimum of fuss. While few aromas are as tantalizing as a loaf of buttery white bread emerging from the oven (right up there with bacon frying and coffee percolating; if you do it right, you can...
Stolen Granola
This homemade granola tastes like a giant, crisp oatmeal cookie, with huge clusters that you can break into whatever size you like. No stirring required! Featured in Food52 Genius Recipes Column and in Genius Desserts. I went to pastry school for two reasons. The first was to learn to make croissants. I had given it...
Saffron Risotto with Spring Vegetable Ragout
It is no secret that my hometown ('Hell-A' or 'Smell-A' as we call it around here) is not my favorite city in the world. Fortunately, the person I like to visit with the most often (my mom) makes the trek northward to see myself and my siblings every few months, so there is seldom a...
Rhubarb Streusel Coffee Cake
Tender, buttery, and loaded with brown sugar streusel, this rhubarb coffee cake is an easy way to use up spring's bounty. Try this recipe with any seasonal fruit: berries, peaches, sour cherries, plums, or apricots. See this recipe for a gluten-free and/or dairy-free coffee cake variation. Synchronicity is a funny thing. Like the time I...
Creamy Sesame Soba Noodles
Today's recipe, a chilled noodle salad tossed with vegetables, crispy tofu, and a creamy sesame dressing, is a wedding of two culinary obsessions: peanut sauce and soba noodles.
Hippie Crispies (Healthy Chocolate Rice Crispy Treats)
These healthy chocolate rice crispy treats (AKA Hippie Crispies) are made with just 8 ingredients in 10 minutes of active time. No marshmallows, no corn syrup, no butter! They're chewy, gooey, crispy, crunchy, not too sweet, and they're naturally gluten-free, vegan, and refined sugar-free too. You don't have to be a hippie to enjoy these,...
Dreamy Vanilla Ice Cream
Whoever coined the term 'plain vanilla' has obviously never tasted something made with genuine vanilla beans. If they had, they would know vanilla to be one of the wildest, most exotic, sensual flavors in the world. I mean, it's the fruit of a tropical orchid, and tastes rich, sweet, fruity and floral all at once....
Brown Butter Rhubarb Squares
One weekend in late September, my cousin threw the coolest birthday party for herself. And when I say cool, I mean that not only was a campout in Big Sur's Pfeiffer National Park an awesome idea for a birthday weekend, but it was actually physically very cold. And wet.
Green Garlic, Chive, and Cheese Souffles, and Roasted Asparagus
The other day someone asked me, 'Is it true that if you look at a souffle the wrong way it will fall?'
Panela-Rum Buttercrunch Toffee
I seem to have bad candy thermometer karma. Every one I've ever purchased has either been miscalibrated from the get go, or has broken within the first few uses.
Bacon Beer Scones with Smoked Cheddar and Caramelized Onions
When you're bojon, sometimes you may wonder what to do with those extra forty hours a week not taken up by work. There are few rules as to what constitutes an ideal bojon activity, but generally speaking, unless you just sold your new start-up to Google or developed a brilliant iPhone app, it should be...
Lemon Balm and Crème Fraîche Ice Cream
I had never really thought of putting herbs in baked goods. But one day several years ago, before I began pastry school, I was flipping through a San Francisco magazine on my lunch break and happened upon an interview with Nicole Krasinski, the former pastry chef of the former Rubicon.
Rhubarb Chevre Galettes
Though I wouldn't necessarily use the word 'deprived,' there are certain things I never, or rarely, experienced as a child. McDonalds. Red meat. Kraft mac n' cheese. My school-lunch sandwiches (nitrate-free turkey) were always built upon whole wheat bread, and I looked forward to going to friends' houses where I could gorge on Jiffy peanut...
(Raw, Vegan!) Chocolate Pudding
You know you've been there. Someone close to you falls in with a bad crowd. You try your best to help them, but it's no use: they don't want to be helped. They start acting different, dressing differently, talking differently. You start to drift apart. And you hear rumors. How they meet in converted garages,...