Growing up in the porn capital of the world in the 80's and 90's, I inevitably developed a valley accent. One night I said to my dad over a dinner of Trader Joe's quiche, 'Is this crust, like, whole wheat?' My dad smirkingly replied, 'It's not only like whole wheat, it is whole wheat.' You...
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Brown Butter-Glazed Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Coffeecake
There are two kinds of people in the world: chocolate dessert people and fruit dessert people. (People who don't like dessert: not people.) I used to place myself firmly in the former camp, and freely admit to being a devout chocophile. But I don't often get a chance to bake with it, since there...
Sourdough Deep Dish Pizza
If you think the food world is free from the chains of fashion, you probably live under a rock. Take chocolate. Having been the only thing available in this country for so many years, overly sweetened milk chocolate fell out of fashion when folks realized the wonders of bittersweet. Ever darker chocolates began appearing, and...
Bake Sale!
Last night, my modern dance group, Gnosis, held our second annual show Dance for Another Day to help fund Lupus research. Highlights included cowboys in rhinestone-studded chaps, dancing dolls, pop n' locks, ochos, singing into shoes, and yummy treats courtesy of the Bojon Gourmet, vended by my lovely sister, niece, and sister in spirit, Isaac...
Coconut Cardamom Arroz con Leche
My favorite kinds of breakfasts are ones that also double as dessert. Though commonly eaten as an after dinner treat in Latin America, an extremely talented cook named Nancy makes arroz con leche every morning at the band camp that the doc and I attend every summer. There's nothing better than a bowl warm, sweet,...
Winter Squash and Sage Gougeres
Oh winter squash and cheese, will I ever get tired of combining you? This morning, I set out to make gougeres, heavenly little puffs of pate a choux with loads of gruyere cheese folded in. Pate a choux, like most things with fancy French names, is deceptively easy to make. (Take a brunoise, for instance....
Mac and Cheese with Winter Squash, Bacon and Collards
When you think of Italians, it is likely that several characteristics come to mind. Sylish, perhaps. Romantic, sophisticated, passionate. Unless you've spent a fair amount of time with them, I doubt you associate with them the words picky, stubborn or dogmatic. Prepare to be disillusioned. Italians don't like eating things with too many flavors...
Curried Coconut Sweet Potato Tea Cake
I've never exactly been a trendsetter. All too often I find myself clambering onto the bandwagon just as all the cool passengers have already transfered. Take fourth grade, for instance. My best friend and I spent weeks choreographing a dance to our favorite song, Ice Ice Baby, for our school's talent show. When you're...
Sourdough apple-oat pancakes with aged cheddar and bacon
A vegan's worst nightmare, and not diet food by any stretch of the imagination, you would be hard pressed to find a better cure for a hangover than these deliciously satisfying cakes, other than a bit of the old 'hair of the dog.' I made this discovery the first time I made the original recipe,...
Rum and Sweet Potato Cinnamon Buns
And this one time? at band camp? I baked cinnamon buns for 200 people. No hobart had I, so I kneaded the dough in 6 batches in the kitchen aid. I spent hours shaping the buns late into the night, amidst giant moths, spastic june bugs and drunken musicians; just the usual. The buns finished...
Pumpkin Cheesecake Squares with Gingersnap Crust
I would be embarrassed to admit how many of these I have eaten in the past week. Luckily I've lost count. I came up with the idea, as often happens, lying in bed one morning. I wanted to bring something sweet to a birthday party that night, and had considered making a classic pumpkin cheesecake....
Discarded Sourdough Starter Focaccia (Quick & Easy!)
Follow this top-rated recipe tutorial at home to bake soft, crusty, and chewy fresh focaccia using a combination of leftover discarded sourdough starter and instant yeast. It’s easy and quick to make, as far as baking homemade focaccia goes, no special equipment needed! This recipe takes about 4 hours to make; baker's schedule included! This...
Huckleberry-Fig Crumble Tart
My absolute favorite type of dessert is one made with ripe, seasonal fruit, hot from the oven, with a buttery flakey crust or topping and a big scoop of melting ice cream. For this reason, nothing beats a fruit crisp for ease, speed and sweet tooth satisfaction. Nothing, except maybe that same, gooey, buttery fruit...
Fresh Fig Custard Tart with Fig Leaf Ice Cream
I find a strawberry, sliced lengthwise, to be much more suggestive than the fresh fig about which folks often waggle their eyebrows. But suggestive or no, fresh figs are pretty much my favorite fruit in the world, and I am blessed to have incredibly generous friends as Michael and Sara DeWeil with an extremely prolific...
Sourdough Olive Bread
I can count on my fingers the positive aspects of growing up in the porn capital of the world. La Brea Bakery's olive bread ranks up there near the top, and I often brought a hunk of it, with a few slices of provolone, for lunch during high school. Now that I live in San...
Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins
It's a difficult thing to admit, but: Jay doesn't have a sweet tooth. He didn't even eat fruit when I first moved in, several years ago, and would turn his nose up at sugary vegetables, such as sweet potatoes and winter squash. While creamy custards and ice cream make me weak in the knees, he...
Chocolate Granola Recipe
One night, like many before me, I got hooked. Molly Wizenberg's exquisite blog, Orangette, sucked me in with her crack-like writing, spare photography and mouthwatering recipes. Guided there by rave reviews of a chocolate granola recipe, I sifted through her blog for hours, unable to pry my eyes away from her addictive writing style, driven...
Homemade Sourdough Bread
This homemade sourdough bread recipe produces a full-flavored boule with an open crumb and a nicely caramelized crust. Adapted from Nancy Silverton. San Francisco Sourdough Bread The first homemade sourdough bread I ever baked, four years ago, turned out as hard and dense as a brick. Living in the sourdough capital of the world, San Francisco,...
The most decadent eggs you will ever eat
A few years ago, I got an exciting phone call. I had won a recipe contest from Cook's Country, the sister magazine to Cook's Illustrated. The subject was "interesting sandwiches," and my entry consisted of french style, slow-cooked eggs on multi-grain toast with goat cheese and arugula. I was to receive $100, and a one-year...
Huckleberry Pear Galette with Sourdough Pie Crust
Jay and I have been in huckleberry heaven. Huckle heaven is not the place where pious huckleberries go after being sacrificed to a bojon gourmet's belly, but rather the euphoric state in which one finds oneself after a successful huckle hunt. Jay and I stumbled on a ginormous (I can't believe my spell check is...
Mugolio (pine cone bud extract) Ice Cream
I purchased a tiny bottle of Mugolio, or pine cone bud extract, over a year ago at Avedano's meat market in Bernal Heights. Imagine licking fresh maple syrup while standing in the middle of a fragrant pine forest, and you have a vague notion of what Mugolio tastes like. But trying to describe Mugolio's ambrosial...
Whole-Grain Sourdough Crackers {vegan option}
These easy homemade crackers are richly flavored with butter, whole grain spelt or wheat flour, and sourdough starter. A great way to use up excess sourdough! Homemade Crackers FTW It was a revelation when I learned that baking homemade crackers takes about the same effort as making sugar cookies. Of the many recipes I tried...