Adventures in Cooking Through the Pantry: Faux Chocolate Lava Cake

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I’m of the opinion that batter and dough are often better than the baked goods they produce – maybe it’s because eating them is a bit illicit (breaking the ruuuuuules!), or because the little nibble you can sneak is the perfect amount, or maybe it’s because they represent potential, the buttery sugary possibilities of a recipe before you add too much of one thing or another, or one side collapses, or it comes out of the oven a bit dry. But guess what, kids – that won’t happen with Food52’s Ooey and Gooey Double-Baked chocolate cake.

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Let me tell you why this sucker is almost fullproof: you’re intentionally baking some of it twice, while underbaking the rest, and even in the best of circumstances it’s a bit humble looking. So it’s not surprising I’ve fallen in love with this here piece of warm chocolatey goodness, which I’ve made lately made on three occasions: (more…)

Adventures in Cooking Through the Pantry: Almond Cake

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This is the third in a series: the first two installments are here (Winter Veggie Tacos with Homemade Tortillas) and here (Vegetarian Spring Rolls and Cauliflower Roast).  

You know what’s even better than a friend with a houseboat? A friend with a houseboat who likes to throw parties. Long leisurely sunny-afternoon parties, let’s-take-the-kayak-for-a-spin parties, parties where everyone crowds onto the deck to eat crab and corn with their hands and rinses the butter off in the water, then watches the sun set over the marina, between the sailboat masts (upcoming post on all this, I promise). The only way I could think of to be worthy of this kind of party was to bring dessert – a cake of some kind, one that we could all eat with without fuss, that would slip in among the partygoers and provide a sweet coda to conversation.

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The Power of Single Women

New York Magazine’s article on the political clout of unmarried women is making the rounds in my circles, and rightly so. Its argument is that the leftward surge that we’re seeing now in American politics is the result of a large number of politically-engaged, well-educated women who are delaying marriage because of the lack of support and infrastructure. We get dinged all through our lives for the same things that propel men forward: marriage, children, managing our careers. These problems – and this political movement – cut across the economic spectrum, and (hopefully) will have positive effects on legislation for the ladeez. And, therefore, everyone.

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Some of the most powerful tidbits from the article, to my mind:

In 2009, the proportion of American women who were married dropped below 50 percent. In other words, for the first time in American history, single women (including those who were never married, widowed, divorced, or separated) outnumbered married women. Perhaps even more strikingly, the number of adults younger than 34 who had never married was up to 46 percent, rising 12 percentage points in less than a decade. For women under 30, the likelihood of being married has become astonishingly small: Today, only around 20 percent of Americans are wed by age 29, compared to the nearly 60 percent in 1960.

These numbers are wild.

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Adventures in Cooking Through the Pantry: Winter Veggie Tacos with Homemade Tortillas

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The second in a series: the first installment, Vegetarian Spring Rolls + Cauliflower Roast, is here.

My friend Katie is a farmer, a grad student, a mother, and a crazy good cook. We visited her family at their farm a few weeks ago, and for dinner she whipped up tacos with homemade tortillas and winter vegetables from their fields. (I, oh so helpfully, got to run up to the top field to pick the kale.) Topped with spicy citrusy crema, they were packed with flavor.

When we got home I realized I had a few bags of masa harina sitting in the pantry. They had been intended for pupusas, which are tasty and fun to make, but when I saw a tortilla press sitting on the shelf at Cookin’, our local secondhand cookware shop, it all came together.

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Grandview

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It is possible, it turns out, to live in a place for a decade – to live in it long enough to feel that it’s time to move on – and still be madly in love with it. San Francisco and I are like high school sweethearts in the last weeks before college, ready to break up but still reveling in our time together. We’re rolling around on the beach, in the salt spray, in golden light. We’re holding hands and skipping down the street, laughing at our good fortune in having found each other. We’re gazing at the same moon, breathing in the same fog-dampened night air, sighing longingly into the same dark night.

With that extended metaphor in mind, know that Mike and I have been walking all over this damn city, discovering art installations, grabbing meals at new-to-us restaurants, stumbling upon breweries down industrial alleys (more on that in a future post), and getting to know all the jewel-like parks that dot these 49 square miles.

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Adventures in Cooking Through the Pantry: Vegetarian Springs Rolls & Cauliflower Roast

We’re at t-minus 5 weeks until our big move to New York, and I am dutifully cooking my way through our pantry and freezer. It’s a big night when we only need to pick up a few veggies from the store, or even – gasp – not buy anything new at all.

Which makes Monday night’s meal an A+. Fresh, veggie, easy, and delicious. Nothing revolutionary here, but tasty all the same. And my apologies, but you know I’m not a profesh food blogger because of the artificially-lit photos. I’m just not willing to wake up extra early and cook before work so I can shoot with natural light. I love you, but not that much.

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A classic California weekend, Part 2

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Continuing Monday’s recap of our perfect Northern California weekend…

On Sunday we picked up our usual bounty of loaves at Wildflour Bread in Freestone, tucked in between vineyards, dairy farms, and redwoods. (Years ago, on one of our first visits to western Sonoma, we wandered in and drooled over the bread and sticky buns before realizing the place was cash only. But then! The lovely Wildflour folks told us we could walk out the door with arms full of bread and mail them a check later. THE BEST.)

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We brought a warm cheese-studded fougasse to our friend’s houseboat in Sausalito for brunch, and spent the day on her sunny deck (slash dock), feet in the water, watching the pelicans dive bomb for herring. When the sun got too strong we moved inside to lounge on the hammock. This is not a drill, guys: it was an actual idyll. (more…)