I recently discovered roasted peanut flour thanks to a subscription box someone gifted me. I had never heard of it before - have you? Well I am hooked, once you open the bag, the amazing aroma of delicious roasted peanuts is a total game changer. Once I tasted it, I knew it would be perfect in peanut butter brownies...
Read MoreSo we are officially at the height of summer and with that comes all sorts of amazing produce. My all-time favorite summer produce is heirloom tomatoes (well to be honest it is a three way tie between heirloom tomatoes, figs and white nectarines) But the color and taste of in-season heirloom tomatoes cannot be beat. I look forward to them all year...
Read MoreHappy Monday! I thought I would start a new series on here - a quick and easy recipe series. Recipes that are 30 minutes or less with as few ingredients as possible. So lets kick this off with a miso ginger salmon. It is the perfect weeknight meal.
Read MoreI loved, loved, loved cooking school. It honestly was one of the best experiences ever. I still have my textbooks and binder from cooking school that I look back through often for inspiration and recipes. I was looking back through it recently and I realized there were a couple things from my cooking school experience that I will never make/do again.
Read MoreWe have landed in LA. It has been a rough and crazy couple weeks but we are officially LA residents. I don't think it has hit me yet because I am just so busy. Between my 36 hour trip last week to speak at the Samsung event space and a top secret baking cookbook I am helping to write, I don't know up from down. Which is good and bad. On the one hand it is good because there hasn't been time to really process that we are in a new city trying to make new friends and find new places to eat, things to do. But bad because one day in a couple months I am going to wake up and realize I no longer live in the Bay Area. But I guess denial is good right?
Read MoreI am pretty sure I ate sandwiches most of my childhood. Tuna fish sandwiches to be exact. That and a good peanut butter and jelly –that was a staple. I have recently discovered my love for a chicken salad sandwich that put all those tuna fish sandwiches and PB &Js to shame. I know what you are thinking, why in the world would I need a recipe for chicken salad? Well because this one is all you will ever need, it is that delicious. I was never a huge fan of chicken salad until I developed this recipe. I developed it one day when I had an extra chicken that was roasted off and was trying to figure out what to do with it. I wanted to do something interesting with it, because well, chicken can be so boring and dry sometimes,especially as leftovers.
Read MoreI love a good margarita. Don't give me a sugary drink that has sweet and sour mix. No way - that is a one way ticket to a hangover. Give me a simple but delicious margarita made with tequila, lime juice, and simple syrup. Oh and my secret ingredient, elderberry liquor ( St. Germain). Elderberry gives the margarita a sweet fragrant -but no overpowering -floral taste which I am obsessed with. If elderberry is not your thing just replace with cointreau or skip it all together. Here is a little video I created showing you how to create the perfect margarita. Pair it with some guacamole and maybe a taco or two and you have the world's most perfect meal.
Read MoreYou guys, I had one of the coolest afternoons yesterday. Don't judge me because I am a total dork but I had a meeting at one of the cookbook publishing mecca's -Ten Speed Press. I know this is so unexciting to you but really exciting to me - I am a huge fan (borderline hoarder) of cookbooks and in all the land, Ten Speed produces some of my favorites. The halls were lined with gorgeous pictures of food and the best part was I got to go into their library where I was literally surrounded wall to wall with every cookbook I could dream of. I died. Honest to goodness heaven for a cookbook hoarder. I could just move in and be surrounded by cookbooks and live happily ever after. One of these days I am going to do a cookbook round-up but until then here are some cookbooks I am drooling over: Camino (local Oakland restaurant) Hartwood (makes me want to hope on a plane and fly to Tulum immediately) and Sweeter off the Vine (because who doesn't love a cookbook based solely on baking with fruit)
Read MoreFull confession, I love hippie food. The crazier concoction the better. If it looks like twigs and berries and promises that it is good for me I am sold. I think this fascination with natural foods comes from walking the aisles of a natural food store growing up. I can still smell that store - with its carob chips pretending to be chocolate chips and patchouli soap (I still love both for the record). My fascination continues since we live so close to Berkeley's famous Berkley Bowl, where it seems cool to be into natural food stores. (I think I found my people!)
Read MoreI spent this past weekend in LA. I love LA... I think. Or maybe strongly like. I used to overlook it as a town filled with nothing but movie star hopefuls but the more time I spend there, the more I am drawn to it. Although for the record I do not love the traffic. It is a whole different beast compared to the Bay Area. However I do love the food world there. There is some really interesting stuff happening with food and I was excited to get a glimpse of it this past weekend. I was in town for a food conference (IACP) which is a food industry conference that focused a lot on social media, blogs and video this year. It was really interesting to see what people are doing in this space. It is almost like the Wild West in that the possibilities are endless, especially in online food video/YouTube. Really inspiring. So if I can just get over looking at myself on camera I am going to put out some YouTube videos (there are already some of me for Williams-Sonoma floating around which you can view here. Eeks! )
Read MoreI feel like I have been running around like a crazy person lately. Not sure why but life is just busy right now. Busy and a little bit in flux but I guess that is life, right?
It was Luke's birthday this week so we have been doing a little celebrating. This past weekend I hosted a little get together for friends. Our house isn't that huge but I love having everyone over to celebrate - so much easier than trying to coordinate a restaurant. So we just pile everyone in and they sit and eat wherever they can find a spot. Plus we are so lucky, we have too many friends to fit in a restaurant. The dinner was totally easy and casual - the hardest part was cleaning up our back. After all the rain the Bay Area has had over the past few months, our backyard looked like a jungle. Our backyard is one of my favorite parts of this house. It is small but there is a table, an outdoor fire pit and some string lights - all you need for a party. We have had pretty epic nights back there. On my list is to really make it nice with plants and landscaping but one thing at a time right?
Read MoreThis week I was fortunate enough to be interviewed by Leslie of SpottedSF for the site SFGirlbyBay. I am super excited - it is one of my all time favorite blogs and I am thrilled to be sharing some details on what it is like to work in the Williams-Sonoma Test Kitchen, why this blog came about, as well as where to eat on Oakland.
Read MoreI am trying to get back into running. When I lived in NY I loved running - I did a full and half marathon...in one year. But when I moved to SF 9 years ago, the hills were a total deterrent. The thought of running straight up a hill forced me to take an early retirement. I am trying to get back into it since Oakland is a little flatter but still running a fickle little friend. Some days it feels amazing like you go could on for miles and miles. Other times it hurts every part of your body, scratch that, your soul to finish a 2 mile run.
Read MoreHave you ever thought about the first person that dared eat an oyster? Or what about that first person who tried a mushroom and prayed that it wasn’t poisonous? I am not sure why but I think a lot about these people. Probably because I spend a lot of time prepping food and thoughts like these just pop into my head. Like why do we eat arugula but eating dandelion greens (until recently) has been avoided? Or who thought that if you blanch stinging nettles, which literally sting you when you pick them, they would be the most delicious pizza topping? This burning question is especially relevant when it comes to artichokes. Have you ever seen an artichoke plant? They are scary pre-historic bushes and if the artichoke is not picked in time it turns into this crazy gorgeous purple blossom that looks like it could eat you ( a la the man-eating plant in Little Shops of Horrors). Also the plant is so tough that people literally can make furniture out if it. So who in the world was the crazy person to dig deep inside that prickly center and figure out there was deliciousness in there? How did they know if you steam the center and then douse it with butter and serve with a lemon aioli that tastiness awaits? Who? Who? I need to know!
Read MoreHave you ever thought about the first person that dared eat an oyster? Or what about that first person who tried a mushroom and prayed that it wasn’t poisonous? I am not sure why but I think a lot about these people. Probably because I spend a lot of time prepping food and thoughts like these just pop into my head. Like why do we eat arugula but eating dandelion greens (until recently) has been avoided? Or who thought that if you blanch stinging nettles, which literally sting you when you pick them, they would be the most delicious pizza topping? This burning question is especially relevant when it comes to artichokes. Have you ever seen an artichoke plant? They are scary pre-historic bushes and if the artichoke is not picked in time it turns into this crazy gorgeous purple blossom that looks like it could eat you ( a la the man-eating plant in Little Shops of Horrors). Also the plant is so tough that people literally can make furniture out if it. So who in the world was the crazy person to dig deep inside that prickly center and figure out there was deliciousness in there? How did they know if you steam the center and then douse it with butter and serve with a lemon aioli that tastiness awaits? Who? Who? I need to know!
Read MoreHave you ever thought about the first person that dared eat an oyster? Or what about that first person who tried a mushroom and prayed that it wasn’t poisonous? I am not sure why but I think a lot about these people. Probably because I spend a lot of time prepping food and thoughts like these just pop into my head. Like why do we eat arugula but eating dandelion greens (until recently) has been avoided? Or who thought that if you blanch stinging nettles, which literally sting you when you pick them, they would be the most delicious pizza topping? This burning question is especially relevant when it comes to artichokes. Have you ever seen an artichoke plant? They are scary pre-historic bushes and if the artichoke is not picked in time it turns into this crazy gorgeous purple blossom that looks like it could eat you ( a la the man-eating plant in Little Shops of Horrors). Also the plant is so tough that people literally can make furniture out if it. So who in the world was the crazy person to dig deep inside that prickly center and figure out there was deliciousness in there? How did they know if you steam the center and then douse it with butter and serve with a lemon aioli that tastiness awaits? Who? Who? I need to know!
Read MoreMy full on transformation into hippie life has begun - and I am proud of it. I have always been on the fence but I think as I get older the more I am embracing it. I don’t know if it is a product of Northern California or if I have always been attracted to a more “natural" way of life, but I am totally waving that flag now. Don’t get me wrong I am still addicted to my iPhone, I may have had just cheese and salumi for dinner last night and I have a tree in my living room that I put Miracle Grow on because it is dying,but I like to think it is all about balance and pachouli. (Yes I love the smell of pachouli - that is hippie 101 right?) I have gone pretty much natural on cleaning products, make-up, deodorant and most importantly food There is such a connection between how something is grown and raised to the status of our health. If I were to quit my job today one of the paths that I would probably want to go down is food policy in this country. Sounds sexy right? I take for granted how lucky I am in to live in Northern California and have access to some of the best local, sustainable raised food out there. I used to get horrible migraines that all of a sudden stopped when I started eating better food.
Read MoreSince I cook for a living people often ask me if I cook when I am not working. If you have been following along with this blog it is clear that I cook all the time, I am pretty much always cooking. But it surprises some people that I still have the desire to cook on the weekends, when I am not at work. I know it sounds strange but the more I cook, the more I want to cook. I get in this rhythm that just makes it easy and effortless. It is when I don't cook for a long time that I become a total spaz in the kitchen. I can't explain it but so it goes I guess.
Read MoreMy co-worker recently called me the key lime whisperer. I think it was a term of endearment (right?) because of my love of anything and everything key lime. It stems from growing up in Florida and being surrounded by citrus fruits. Key limes were front and center (that and grapefruits and honeybell oranges). It is pure nostalgia I think. We had a key lime tree in our backyard so key limes were used in everything. They were just as common place as regular limes, maybe even more so. I even remember ordering a key lime pie martini when I was barely old enough to drink- the rim was lined with crushed graham crackers-amazing. But my love of key limes in its purest form is found in a big slice of delicious key lime pie.
Read More
