When life gives you lemons, Part 2

My newfound friend is selling her house and moving away. I’m thrilled for her because she’s pressing the restart button on her life, embracing the great unknown and embarking on new adventures on the other side of the country. I’m also saddened by her imminent departure. Though technically Krislyn and I have been neighbors for…

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Weekend Cooking Project – Chicken Wings and Boba

I know when I say chicken wings and boba some people might think of food courts and lazy weekends strolling through multi-leveled shopping malls. Won’t lie, I really miss that favorite of pastimes– not the shopping so much as chatting with my friends while we aimlessly strolled in and out of stores. It was exercise…

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Cozying up to custard

I wasn’t in the mood to cook dinner. I wasn’t even sure what the heck I wanted to eat. I’d baked two different loaves of bread in two days– a pillowy soft, fluffy whole wheat milk bread and my lazy person’s version of a rustic loaf (aka 5 Minute No Knead Bread)–mainly because I just…

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The comfort of cream cheese…or burning cheesecake on purpose

When the immediate world around us is literally going up in flames, tsunami waves of thick noxious smoke blanketing the sky, it seems perversely ironic a burnt (on purpose) cheesecake has become food media’s latest obsession, eclipsing the early pandemic darling sourdough. In the Bay Area, a one-man operation based out of Oakland called Basuku–brainchild…

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There goes another little piece of my heart…

My phone buzzed several times throughout Monday morning confirming the news that Ton Kiang, a beloved SF dim sum institution, was closing its doors for good at the end of the month. Like many small independent restaurants in the city, Ton Kiang did its best to stay afloat during the pandemic by adopting a take-out…

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Let the chips fall where they may…so long as they land in cookie dough.

“If the world comes to an end, I’m going to want cookies.” Susan Beth Pfeffer, Life As We Knew It Last weekend I watched the thoroughly enjoyable Palm Springs on Hulu. In the comedy, Nyles (Andy Samberg) and Sarah (Cristin Milioti) find themselves stuck together in an escapable “Groundhog’s Day” wedding party scenario. While the tone…

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Hot Scone Therapy…or I’ll take that with a side of clotted cream

I’ve been eating scones long before I understood their iconic role in the ritual know as afternoon tea. Mom would occasionally treat us to a six-pack of currant scones from the in-store bakery at the old Petrini’s Market in Stonestown. They were these substantial, thick biscuity rounds, slightly sweet, with a dense crumb that begged…

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Small Wonders…or the pleasures of a perfect bite

“Cakes are healthy too, you just eat a small slice.” ― Mary Berry I suppose there are times for colossal slices of cake, fatter than the Cake Bible itself, loaded with enough calories to sustain a small child for a week, and so obscenely heavy it could suffocate a small lapdog–an IG “Omg, can you believe the…

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Savoring Puff Pastry…or the preaching the power of pig fat.

I’m one of those pastry chefs who very rarely makes their own puff pastry. Unlike croissant dough, good quality puff pastry dough is usually readily available (okay unless you live in the middle of nowhere, then you’re SOL), so I’m not especially motivated to make it from scratch…certainly not without a pastry sheeter. That’s not…

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It’s tea time somewhere in the world…or I dream of Chelsea buns

I’ve resigned myself to the sobering fact that I’m not gonna be going anywhere anytime soon, nothing outside my self-imposed 5 mile radius…no flights across the country to visit friends in Maine…and certainly no trips outside the country. The world has, in effect, uninvited us to their party because we can’t be trusted to not…

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