FRIENDS!!!!
I’m SO excited & thrilled to be teaching at a Be Present: Joy Retreat on the Oregon Coast this coming Spring!
There will be a Painting Workshop with Mati Rose McDonough, a Polaroid Workshop with Andrea Jenkins and a Cooking/Baking Workshop with yours truly! I’ll be helping you find JOY in your kitchen.
Registration is now open! Mark your calendars!
I’d love to see you there. It’s gonna be a blast!
Traditions. My life has been full of them, thanks to my mom. But somehow this year, our Thanksgiving isn’t going to be the same. My grandma has moved back to New York, and my brothers will be away so we’re having something very small and quaint at my parent’s house this year. Guess who WON’T be staying up late to clean fancy dishes all night long with her mom? ME! Honestly, I couldn’t be more thrilled. I’ve been craving a breakup in tradition for awhile now. Ever since a few family members past, it’s weird going through the motions, pretending that things are the same.Things aren’t. Life changes! People change! And guess what? So do taste buds!
If you are craving a change in your traditional Thanksgiving meal, add this to the mix! It’s a pumpkin CREAM pie with a sprinkling of crunchy chopped candied pecans on top. Ever wonder what it would be like to have a pumpkin pie candy bar? This flavor profile totally nails it. The buttery crunch and ginger spice of the crust is TO. DIE. FOR. It’s kinda like crunchy toffee! The pumpkin custard is creamy & spicy and the whipped cream with pecan chunks resting in the fluff? OUTRAGEOUS! It’s what dreams are made of.
So wake up your guest’s taste buds and offer them something different. I don’t think they’ll miss a slice of the regular ole’ pumpkin pie. And if your Great Aunt Sally scoffs at her dessert plate filled with this pie, make sure you put a lump of coal on her plate at the Christmas table. Why does she have to be such a Scrooge??!!
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I attended the Second Annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival.
I spent a lot of time with Joy, Janet, Allison & Danielle! Very fun!
Here’s what happened:
On Friday night Joy & I went to the Herbst Pavilion at Fort Mason in San Francisco.
Malt…how I love thee…Let me count the ways…
–I love you in a chocolate malt at a baseball game. You are the perfect ending to all the roasted peanuts & hot dogs I inhale. I love you so much that I endure eating you with a wooden spoon. Hey! It’s not that easy!
–I love you in a strawberry milkshake at a diner. I always convince the waitress to add more of you in my cup, because you are THAT good.
–I love you in the Robins Eggs I eat at Easter. I love you so much that I’ve endured bloody cracked lips from wearing off the candy shell to get to you!
–I love you in these Matled Waffles. You add a yeasty depth that mimic the Weekend Waffles & the Buckwheat Belgium Waffles I’ve made in the past. The best part is that I didn’t have to wait for any yeast to rise. You were perfect right off the bat! You make the waffles crispy on the outside and subtly chewy on the inside. You were a star! Now, what should I do with you next?!!
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I only cook recipes for my blog a few days a week, when my schedule permits. The rest of the time I make stuff up in the kitchen (without photographic evidence) or rely heavily on quesadillas, frozen soups, toast & eggs or sometimes cereal for dinner. Two nights ago I made Molly’s black beans for myself and added Kale to the mix. There I was, bouncing up and down at the dinner table! I was so delighted with my dish but had no one to share it with. Casey had a work dinner, which meant I ate a LOT of beans!
He was home for dinner last night, and despite having it two nights in a row I couldn’t wait to make it for him. Even though it’s kinda hippy/crunchy food, I knew he would enjoy the kick/depth of the black beans and the sweet & savory aspect of the roasted delicata squash & apples.
The light has been disappearing earlier in the evenings, so my cooking schedule is totally messed up as a result! I didn’t feel like whipping out my camera flash, so my trusty cellphone will help tell the tale 🙂
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So I walk out onto the Project Runway stage holding this cake on a pedestal and Michael Kors gasps! He cries, “EFFORTLESSLY CHIC!” Then I proceed to ask him why the screw always comes out on my ritzy MK sunglasses??! Come on Michael! My Isaac Mizrahi sunglasses from Target have held up for almost 4 years now! Of course Nina Garcia would like to talk some mad crap about my cake, but the caramelized walnuts shut her up. Yeah girl. You know it’s totally editorial. Zip it. Later on I catch Heidi scarfing down half of it….
Then I woke up…. Why is this cake effortlessly chic? Well there’s three different recipes that come together to produce a simple, yet killer pumpkin cake. At first I was intimidated because I usually avoid recipes that refer to ANOTHER recipe to complete an ingredient. I just want it all there, right in front of my face. I want to know how hard I need work and if the effort is going to pay off. So yeah… I was blown away by the ease of this cake. Three different recipes? Child’s play. Chic? Check! Effortless? Pretty much!
This is the cake that we ate on Halloween night. YES. After all that candy wrangling, my friends & neighbors made room for this cake. Once you lay eyes on a cake like this, your stomach sends singles to your brain. “Hey! Let’s make some room for this cake!” Yes, surprisingly they’ll synchronize their swatches and suddenly your devouring a big slice.
Oh and did you get a load of those nuts? Make sure you snag one because I might fight you for it.
Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween! We sure did!
Cooper was a Red Sox player. We TRIED to get him to wear a hat…but no dice.
He always takes them off the second we put them on him.
I was all spidery. My neighbor made me a spider hat! Isn’t it cool?!
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