Beer Cheese…or giving pretzels a new twist

I know Oktoberfest was last month but I’m still feeling those beer and warm pretzel vibes, especially on cool nights parked on the sofa watching sports or, like me, binging on Netflix. Last year I was all about the garlic pretzel bites–easily poppable by the handful. This year, I’ve step up my pretzel game, adding…

Keeping it simple…or the benefits of NOT reinventing the wheel.

The directive was straightforward–make a brownie that was the perfect marriage of crusty exterior and fudgy interior. Simple, right? Except it wasn’t…not by a long shot. I, and countless other fans of The Great British Baking Off, watched in horror and disbelief as one contestant after another failed, some rather miserably, to bake an even…

Leaning into comfort baking season…

The thing about living in the Bay Area is that even with our so-called “micro-climates” we often barely notice a perceptible change in seasons. It’s October and yesterday it was about 80 degrees in the Outer Sunset. I made smoked salmon and avocado sushi for lunch, avoiding the stove entirely. Don’t even talk to me…

Pizza Rolls, Pot Pies, and Pop Tarts…or the Three P’s of Bake Sale

Okay, technically the pizza roll was really a Southern Italian specialty called the n’figgiulata or as my friend and former coworker Maria affectionately called “n’figgy”–a Vivande Porta Via catering menu staple. In trying to describe what the n’figg was to bake sale customers, I invariably resorted to calling it a big pinwheel pizza roll stuffed…