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Land, Maggie O’Farrell - 3.75 stars

I was so excited to read this after loving both the novel and movie, Hamnet, last year from Maggie O’Farrell. Land follows a father and son in Ireland, soon after the famine, and I really thought I’d love this because they make maps for a living (as do I!) but unfortunately this was just too slow paced for me at the time of reading. I preferred the later parts when we begin to follow the sisters and that’s what really got me wrapped up in the story and brought up the final rating. I think I should’ve waited and read this in the winter because majority of the book is set on the stormy coastline of Ireland, and some freezing parts of Canada. It’s written beautifully with rich descriptions of the setting and each character, but was too slow to start out and trying to also be somewhat in the fantasy genre.

The Poppy War, R.F. Kuang - 2.5 stars

Oof, I really did not enjoy reading this book. It is so violent, I genuinely became nauseous during a few different points while reading. It’s phenomenally written, and based on an extremely important point in time of history, but I just didn’t like reading it. If you can handle horrifying violence this is a great read, but that type of story is not for me personally.

The Reformatory, Tananarive Due - 4.75 stars

A perfect summerween read! This story features a wide array of plot devices, and everything is done perfectly. Set at a boy’s reformatory in rural Florida, there are hauntings and important commentary on what these types of schools inflicted upon the young boys that were sent there. It really reminded me of The Nickel Boys, but with ghosts, and I really enjoyed the dual perspectives between Robert and his sister Gloria who tirelessly works towards getting him out of The Reformatory.

Pool House, Mary H.K. Choi - 2.5 stars

Pool House was a miss for me. I had a hard time understanding what the whole point of it was. At one point, I was concerned that the big message of this novel was that a rich man can help you find your purpose in life, but thankfully that didn’t turn out to be the case. I think the message may be that some people’s mother’s really suck, but I’m not sure. I just couldn’t relate to anyone in the story and it felt like we were continuously meandering throughout LA and NYC.

The Intuitionist, Colson Whitehead - 3.75 stars

An elevator inspectors elevator suddenly crashes in freefall, an accident that’s nearly impossible to occur naturally, and we follow the mystery of what happened, why, and who did it. This was a compelling story that taught me a lot about elevators. It was a really interesting premise and a quick read for me. I enjoyed it!

The Mad Wife, Meagan Church - 3.25 stars

This was an audiobook I listened to throughout the month. It wasn’t bad, but didn’t blow me away, either. The second half really picks up and then I couldn’t put it down. It reminded me a lot of The Stepford Wives for a while!

The Lying Life of Adults, Elena Ferrante - 4 stars

Continuing with my Elena Ferrante summer, her writing once again blows me away. This is a true coming of age story, set in Naples like her Neapolitan Quartet, but we are no longer in ‘the neighborhood’ and there’s a whole new array of characters. This completely transported me to Italy (as her writing always does) and was just really enjoyable.

Taiwan Travelogue, Yang Shuang-zi - 5 stars

This is the September book for my book club, and I absolutely loved it. This book is allegedly fiction, but from the Introduction we learn that may not be the case. We follow a young woman, Aoyama, on her government sponsored trip from Japan to Taiwan where she is paired with a translator, Chi-chan. The two begin to build a friendship (or is it a romance??) over the course of many train rides throughout the country, and through many shared meals together. There is phenomenal food writing in here, which of course I love, but I also really enjoyed the pure yearning described by Aoyama for Chi-chan. Furthermore, we learn a lot about Japan’s colonization of Taiwan either outright or by reading between the lines. It transported me to Taiwan, and perfectly encapsulated what the country must have been like during the 1930s. I had a great time reading this, and really appreciated all the footnotes throughout (something I wish The Poppy War had).

If you had any favorite reads in August, please share them with me!! Until next time! :)

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I had a couple of my childhood besties stay with me on Friday night, and, as one does, we watched Twilight and ate hot malted brownie sundaes. On round 2 of our sundaes, we ran out of ice cream, but thankfully I had half a carton of heavy cream in the fridge so I just said quickly that I could make some whipped cream. They proceeded to freak out saying that’s way too much effort and they could just eat the brownie on its own. Me being me, and knowing it takes no more than a couple minutes to make whipped cream, I happily ignored their cries and made the damn whipped cream.

They laughed so hard when they heard my stand mixer turn on, and couldn’t believe it when I handed them their sundaes (is it still a sundae if there’s no ice cream?) just a few moments later, piled high with the whipped cream. One even said, “if a man had a gun to my head and told me to make whipped cream I never would’ve lived before tonight!” Clearly, this post was necessary to save lives. My friends were really impressed and I can’t believe how many people don’t know how to make their own whipped cream. Today, that changes!

For those of you that don’t know (good thing there isn’t a gun to your head), making your own whipped cream is truly so easy and will always be more delicious than the substance out of a can. I’m just going to detail what I do in a non-recipe format because I never measure anything with whipped cream and it turns out great no matter what!

Step one: pour some cold heavy cream into a large bowl; maybe half the carton, maybe more for more people. (8oz makes enough whipped cream for about 4 people)

Step two: turn on your stand mixer or hand mixer (or channel your inner strength and get to whisking by hand) and let the cream get frothy.

Step three: add a generous spoonful of powdered sugar, and a little pinch of salt.

Step four: whip until the lines of your whisk are visible in the cream. it should have a little more volume at this point.

Step five: pour in a splash of vanilla.

Step six: whip a little more. stop. check the texture, give it a taste. add more sugar if it isn’t sweet enough, or more salt if you think it needs it. whip again for just a couple seconds.

Serve!!!

Now you’re ready to have dessert on demand because I strongly believe that a bowl of whipped cream can 100% serve as the whole dessert. Either way, you can impress your friends with this quick party trick!

Have a great week; bye!!! :)

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My wonderful Dad turned 70 (amazing, I know) and his birthday happened to fall during our family and friends annual Pismo camping trip. If you’ve never heard of Pismo, it’s the only beach in California where you can drive your car right up to the water (but remember to air your tires down so you don’t dig in and get stuck) and there are natural sand dunes where you can take recreational offroad vehicles. It’s one of the coolest places and a very special destination for me. My parents have been going for something like 40 years, and this year, we got to celebrate my dad’s birthday in the dunes!

Of course, I wanted to take this opportunity to make my dad’s birthday cake! I brainstormed for a couple weeks and finally landed on what I thought would be the perfect cake. A vanilla sponge cake soaked in vanilla milk, layered with passionfruit curd and vanilla bean cheesecake mousse, and the whole thing held together with just enough vanilla bean swiss meringue buttercream. Divine!

I needed to make something that would feed a crowd of about 20 and reliably make it in the car for about 3-3.5 hours, plus survive the bumpy, lumpy journey through the dunes and into camp. I hoped and prayed that one of my Trader Joe’s cooler bags would be big enough to hold the cake and thankfully it was!

The first component made was the passionfruit curd that I made a week before the Pismo weekend, since it stays fresh in the fridge for up to two weeks. I use frozen passionfruit that I get from a Thai grocery store in Hollywood (Silom Supermarket for anyone wanting to go). This was pretty easy to toss together, and came out just right! Not too sour, not too sweet.

The vanilla sponge cake was baked and cooled on Wednesday, and that evening I made the cheesecake mousse, too. I assembled the whole cake (minus the buttercream) and put it in the freezer so those soft layers of mousse and curd could firm up. Everything was finished on Friday when I made the vanilla bean swiss meringue buttercream and decorated the whole thing. I am still quite bad at writing on cakes and centering things well, but at least you know I really did make it by hand (:

Into the fridge the cake went to chill and firm up before getting boxed up and driven away on Saturday morning!

Everyone loved the cake, my dad especially, and it was so cool to have something like this while camping! I had a lot of fun putting the cake together and sharing it with my family and friends. Maybe this will become a yearly tradition?? Cake in the Dunes?? A smore’s cake would really fit the campsite vibes…

Until next time, bye!!

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I read quite a bit, and this always shocks people, but I’m not a huge TV person and really try to keep my screentime on my phone to a minimum. I’ve always been a reader since I was a kid, but this year I really ramped things up — Sol got me a Kobo for my birthday after my beloved Kindle Paperwhite from 2018 finally died and could not be resuscitated. The Kobo (like the Kindle) makes me read sooo much faster thanks to the stats on how long it’ll take me to finish a chapter. When I see it’ll only take me about 8 minutes, I’m more than happy to read just one more before bed (and then one more after that). I also love using Libby with my Kobo which allows me to borrow e-books from the library, and you can have multiple libraries on Libby so I can place holds across whichever library has the shortest wait time. I really don’t buy too many books, and prefer to read as much as I can from the library, and then if I really love something and feel like I’d reread it, I’ll buy it for my shelf. Unless it’s a used bookstore, then I’m more than happy to spend, spend, spend!

For July, I read 10 books! It was a great month for reading, honestly. So many of my reads were above 3 stars! Below, I’ll share some brief thoughts on each book if you’re interested!

The Story of the Lost Child, Elena Ferrante

What. A. Book. This is the fourth book in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet series that I started in June. This final novel in the series was an absolute page-turner, and one that I truly could not put down. The series follows two friends, Lila and Elena, from childhood through adulthood. Their friendship is full of love, jealousy, drama and the setting is in Naples, Italy in the 60s. I loved the series so much and the fourth book was a phenomenal ending to it all. I ended up buying the series to keep on my bookshelf after borrowing all the books from the library. I already want to reread it!

It’s Hard to be An Animal, Robert Eggers

This was our July read for my book club, and unfortunately, not very good. One of our members, Trevor, made a very compelling argument that this is actually an incel manifesto and after he said that I really couldn’t unsee it. It deserves less than 3 stars, but that’s what I rated it after reading it (and before meeting with my club). It was fine. A solid idea for plot, but a pretty mediocre execution in the delivery.

These Heathens, Mia McKenzie

I loved this book so much! This is a novel set in 1960s Georgia, and it is definitely one of my favorites from the year. It’s full of wit and sly jokes, and there’s some good gossip in there too. I was laughing out loud on multiple occasions, but there is more to the story than just comedy. McKenzie seamlessly weaves in commentary on feminism and Black liberation, too. It wasn’t too long of a novel, but the writing was phenomenal with each character and setting vivid and deep. Would recommend!

Slow Days, Fast Company, Eve Babitz

Babitz is an iconic L.A. author, and I loved her book L.A. Woman and this one was just as good. This is more of a set of short stories surrounding our main character, and my favorite was ‘Dodger Stadium’ where she becomes a sudden, dedicated fan to the Dodgers over the course of a few innings. Knowing all the little places the book takes us through brings me joy, and it was a nice, light read for the most part. I couldn’t stop laughing at the story in Palm Springs because the narration is exactly how I imagined I’d describe that same situation to my mom on the phone.

The Wall, Marlen Haushofer

I read this for a different book club I’m a member of, and absolutely loved it. Dystopia fans, this one’s for you!! Earlier this year, I read I Who Have Never Known Men which came out in the 90s, but The Wall came out in the 60s and it’s clear to me that IWHNKM was very much inspired by The Wall. I still love them both as they are different in their plots and characters, but they both follow the narration of the last woman alive. The Wall was a large commentary on ‘humanity’ and what it means to be human, and what humans do with their autonomy and power. I can’t say more without spoiling it, but I really recommend this book (and IWHNKM).

Whistler, Ann Patchett

One of the most anticipated novels of the year, Whistler is about a middle-aged woman that runs into her previous stepfather from when she was a child before he and her mother divorced soon after their marriage. We find out that they went through a traumatic accident together, and their rekindling brings all that up for them and how it shaped their life since then. It’s a very sweet story about love, family, loss and identity. I enjoyed it immensely and found it incredibly easy to read.

Dungeon Crawler Carl, Matt Dinniman

This book is what I call a ‘boy book.’ Regardless, the premise of this book is also right up my alley — suddenly, in the night, the world collapses and all remaining humans are funneled underground into ‘the dungeon’ where their survival is televised to all the aliens in the universe for their entertainment. The ‘players’ (remaining humans) must fight their way through the levels of the dungeon to survive, and the interface they see and can access somehow is akin to a video game screen. I would have loved this book, but there were a few too many instances of scenes with undertones of misogyny and racism for me, and the action scenes got a bit redundant. I see why this series has such a strong following, but I won’t continue supporting this author as I have a feeling he’s not a great guy based on the writing in this book. Bummer!

Into the Blue, Emma Brodie

A romance! I am actually not big on romance novels; I find them to be too cheesy, corny and eye-roll-producing. This one, though, is different. It’s somewhat of a Will They Won’t They / Friends to Lovers trope, but well done. Our two main characters grew up together and spent a summer reciting Shakespeare, and then come back into one another’s lives on set of a TV show, and it just goes on from there. It would’ve been 5 stars for me if I was a theater kid, but I am not so some of it was a little too much for me in that regard. I enjoyed this overall and would recommend it!

Kin, Tayari Jones

The book pick for August for my book club! I really enjoyed this book, and many parts of it reminded me so much of These Heathens (so much that I really do wonder if Jones used some of that material as inspiration for her novel). Kin is about two “motherless daughters” that grew up together in rural Louisiana as best friends, bonding over the fact that they were both orphaned before they even began to form memories. We witness their friendship as they set off on their own paths after high school, and what keeps them tethered to one another. This book is emotional, medium paced, and impactful. I really enjoyed it and can’t wait to talk about this weekend with my club!

Alan Opts Out, Courtney Maum

This is a funny, satirical book with the narration similar to that of Yesteryear (we aren’t supposed to like the main characters). It a funny commentary on capitalism and suburbia. It took a while for me to get into it, but once I did I was happy I stayed. It wasn’t the funniest or best book I’ve ever read, but a decently enjoyable book that served as a bit of a palate cleanser to close out July. I don’t think anyone needs to necessarily go out of their way to read this, but if you happen to pick it up I think you’ll enjoy it just enough to keep the pages turning.

If you made it this far, kudos! I’d love to hear about any books you loved lately, and can’t wait to chat more about reading in the August edition of Reading Rambles!

Bye!

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A little while back, Sol’s parents came to visit us and we went out to dinner at Osteria Mozza where we got to try mini rosemary olive oil cakes for the first time. Each of us loved it! His parents urged me to figure out how I can make them at home. My research and testing has brought me here, and I am happy to report that these are very easy to make at home!

My recipe is based off the one in Nancy Silverton’s book, The Mozza Cookbook. I borrowed the book from the library hoping the recipe would be in there, and it was! I’ve tweaked her recipe a bit to fit the needs of a home cook that doesn’t need to churn out 36 tea cakes at a time, and changed some quantities of the ingredients for ~performance reasons~.

This recipe is truly so easy and perfect for make ahead scenarios because the batter needs to rest in the fridge anyways until it’s time to bake. It’s simply made in two bowls with no special equipment required. It takes about 10 minutes maximum to whip up the batter. The genius of this recipe (not to my credit, but to Nancy’s) is preheating your oven with your cake tin inside. You brush olive oil inside the tins and let it heat up in the oven while it preheats so that when you’re ready to bake, the batter actually fries a little bit in the pan. Incredible! You’re left with a lightly crispy/crunchy exterior, and an ultra fluffy cake inside. Because they aren’t too sweet, it is dangerously easy to eat 3 or 4 in one sitting.

I initially tested this recipe in a tea cake tin with a 1 dozen capacity (so not really a tea cake as tea cakes are much smaller) which worked great for the most part, but I did have some sticking to the pan because of the flower shape. The cakes mostly survived but it wasn’t ideal. I decided to add a little more flour to my batter and test in a cupcake/muffin pan as that’s what most people have at home. This worked great! The muffin pan worked the same as the tea cake tin for timing in the oven, and the cakes popped out nice and easy with no issue. The cakes from the muffin pan are not as cute as the floral tea cake, but if you don’t want to buy another baking pan you are good to go with the muffin pan. I think this batter is veryyy similar to madeleines so you could also try it out in that pan! I’ll probably test that out next.

My version of the recipe calls for 1 Tablespoon of finely chopped fresh rosemary. Finely chopped is the key here. This is the only annoying part of the recipe, the rest of the steps are very simple — no mixer required!! When you’re chopping your rosemary, I want you to chop, chop, chop and when you think you’re done, chop again, and then one more time. Chop your rosemary and then measure out 1 Tablespoon. You don’t want to add too much or else things can take on a medicinal flavor.

I call for ‘good’ olive oil, but don’t use your best. This is getting baked at the end of the day so the flavor of the oil will be muted, but please don’t use your cheapest oil. I used Costco’s 100% Spanish Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I like the flavor of this oil on its own so that’s a good determinant for whatever you have at home. If you need to go out and buy some, Graza’s Sizzle or Drizzle are both really high quality at an affordable price, and typically on sale nowadays.

You can swap out the lemon zest for orange zest as the original recipe called for, but I used lemon simply because I didn’t want to have to go to the grocery store. You could use grapefruit or maybe even lime, too!

Without more rambling from me, the recipe is below! I hope you enjoy!! Thank you Nancy for creating such a great little cake.

Rosemary Olive Oil Cakes

Makes 1 dozen

Time: 15 min active, 1h-24h chill, 20-25 min bake

Ingredients

136g (1 cup spooned & leveled + 2 Tbsp) All Purpose Flour

150g (3/4 cup) sugar

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup whole milk, at room temp

3/4 cup good extra virgin olive oil

2 large eggs, at room temp

zest of 1 lemon

1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary

Steps

1. Weigh (or measure) your flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a small bowl. Sift these ingredients into a medium size mixing bowl. Set aside.

2. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the milk, olive oil and eggs until well combined.

3. Make a well in your medium bowl with the dry ingredients. Slowly combine the wet into the dry, whisking until the batter is completely smooth. Don’t overmix though, if it’s determined to remain lumpy, strain the batter with a sieve into a bowl.

4. Cover your batter and chill for at least 1 hour and up to 24 hours.

5. When you’re ready to bake, generously grease a tea cake tin or muffin pan by brushing with olive oil. It’s okay if some settles at the bottom. Place the tin on a center rack in your oven and preheat to 350F with the tin inside.

6. Once the oven is hot, take your batter out of the fridge and fold in the lemon zest and rosemary.

7. Carefully remove the pan from the oven and fill each tea cake to the top, or muffin pan about halfway full with the batter.

8. Place bake in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. The cakes should be visibly puffed in the center, very golden in color on the edges, springy to the touch and a cake tester should come out clean when poked into the center.

9. Let the cakes cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then use an offset spatula or butter knife to remove them onto a wire rack to cool (I typically can’t wait more than a few minutes before eating one after taking them out of the pan). Enjoy!!

The cakes are best right after they are made, but can be reheated in a 350F oven if desired. Keep stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days (but they will get spongier over time from the olive oil).

If you make these, please let me know how you like them!! Until next time (:

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Can you believe this heat? Is it hot where you live? I know the weather is ‘nothing’ topic typically used for small talk and awkward conversations, but I am truly sick of it and it’s not even August! Normally in July LA will get some heat that lasts for a few days and then we’ll get a break that dips back down to about 76-78, but not this summer. In my part of town it’s consistently been 86-91 every single day.

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All of you reading from the east coast and the south are probably rolling your eyes at me because California isn’t humid so the heat isn’t so bad, but we’ve got a good ol’ El Nino this year so it is in fact more humid than is typical. My air conditioner laughs at my futile attempts of cooling things down through my daily dance across the apartment where I’m closing the blinds on the east facing windows at 7am, over to the west side at 12pm and then opening everything up again at 8pm praying for the slightest breeze. I have my beautiful art deco 1920s apartment with single pane windows and no insulation to thank for my jaw dropping LADWP bill (we keep it at 76 in here, but I’ll have to go up to 78 after this most recent payment).

My answer to the heat? Cold food! I have been on a real ice cream kick this week and I don’t see myself slowing down. I’ve been loving Jeni’s Key Lime Pie ice cream sandwiches, and Trader Joe’s mini Hold the Cones (my tried and true), but really, any ice cream will make me happy.

All I want is a big, cold salad, but I’m still a little scared of lettuce given the cyclospora outbreak, so that’s on hold for another few weeks, but that damn parasite won’t stop me from enjoying peak summer produce! I have been loving pluots, plumcots and all the other plum hybrids out there this summer. A truly exceptional year for the plum-variety stone fruits. I’ve yet to have a good peach, but I’ll be patient (and hopeful). I just ate my first nectarine of the year (good, not great), and I finally got my hands on some adorable cucamelons (a callback to last weeks newsletter) which taste just like a cucumber, but have thick skin. Cherries have been abundant and on sale, but since they’re from the grocery store I’ve been a little weary about buying them the past couple weeks. I loved my early season cherries in June though! I just bought a multi-cherry pitter and see a pie on my horizon <3

How can I eat all this raw produce without fear of the ever-present cyclospora? Behold, the farmer’s market! I’m pretty sure this outbreak is such a problem because all of our food comes from the same few factories causing cross-contamination and such, but I have no fear at my local farmer’s market. The farms are just a few hours outside of LA, and are selling their produce at such a rapid rate that I think it significantly reduces the risk, but of course, you do you and salad at your own risk. I will not be missing out on peak stone fruit season, personally. It’s genuinely my favorite time of year.

Another summer delight I won’t be skipping? Summer tomatoes! Summer tomatoes and stone fruit are tied for me in terms of most exciting things to eat this season. There is nothing better than a perfect tomato sliced, hit with some flaky salt and a whisper of black pepper, drizzled with good olive oil and some balsamic vinegar. Chefs! Kiss! So simple, so perfect, and something I eat on sourdough toast almost daily this time of year. If you want to make use of summer tomatoes but are terrified of the parasite, I cannot urge you enough to make this tomato galette. It’s truly one of my favorite ways to use gorgeous heirloom tomatoes. (Cooking your produce to 135F will kill the parasite).

After years of waiting and searching, I finally got my hands on a copy of Chez Panisse Desserts from Omnivore Books (the best cookbook store of all time) and I finally understand why this book is so well-loved. It is a produce-lovers dream! Every recipe is seasonal and really lets the ingredients shine. I am so excited to make some dishes from it!! Also, if you don’t know, Chez Panisse is one of the best restaurants in the Bay Area (possibly the world) with many renowned chef’s having passed through their doors. Alice Waters (owner, chef) pretty much invented what we now know to be ‘California’ cuisine.

This was a true apartment kitchen ramble, and I don’t have much else to say other than it’s hot as hell, I’m no longer in fear of the parasite (except lettuce) and I can’t wait to bake and eat with all that the markets have to offer. Shop local!!

Talk to you next time. (:

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We left L.A. at 10:00 in the morning,

and hopped over to Highway 1 (aka the PCH) to start making our journey to Ojai. After 1.5 hours along the coast, through the mountains, and a stop for coffee, we arrived at 11:45 to the Ojai Meadow Preserve. This was a trail I’d read about online that’s quick, easy, but very pretty. Much to my dismay there wasn’t a parking lot so we drove around the corner to find a place to park, and we passed the cutest little ‘honor system’ farm stand. Of course, we had to take a look and my friend left them $5 for the two massive zucchinis they were selling. We stood in the heat, looking over at the start of the trail which seemed to be overgrown with tall grass and shrubs, and all I could think about were the many massive bug bites we’d be left with. We decided since we arrived a little later than anticipated and it was already so hot outside, let’s just skip the walk and go to our next stop.

In the residential yet rural roads of Ojai sits the Ojai Olive Oil Company.

We drove on roads taking us through acres of beautiful citrus groves until we reached the quaint olive oil farm, surrounded by lush olive trees. There was a very nice man directing us to the parking lot and the tasting room which held more than 10 types of olive oils and vinegars! We ordered the tasting and were handed a custom wooden board with little divots for each pour of the various olive oils and vinegars, and two big hunks of bread. We took our tasting outside to the picnic tables in the shade and tried our best to discern the difference between the 5 non-infused olive oils, and both landed on liking the same one (Andalucian) the best. The infused olive oils were all very good (expect I didn’t try the truffle one, I hate truffle), and I loved that they even had one that infused the local Ojai Pixie tangerine! My favorite part is the vinegars. I got to try an espresso vinegar for the first time which really was quite good and would probably pair very nicely with a steak. I ended up purchasing the Andalucian olive oil, a richly flavored finishing oil and the peach white balsamic, which is almost sweet enough to drink. I think it’ll be perfect in a salad dressing.

By 1 p.m. we were ready for lunch and drove back into town.

The architecture style of Ojai really reminds me of Santa Barbara with its Spanish influence and white paint. We parked the car and made our way over to Pinyon for lunch. We got a couple drinks and the margherita pizza which was the perfect size for the two of us. The pizzas are made right there in a wood fired pizza oven and had the perfect crust. Not too thick, not too thin, and nicely charred on the bottom. The staff was friendly and welcoming, and the whole restaurant is a shrine to frogs (I wish I asked why), especially the bathroom. It was a really nice (and air conditioned) spot for a casual lunch

There are so many shops in Ojai;

I think the best part are all of the quirky and unique stores. We went into an incredible stationary store that would truly be the best place if you’re looking to buy someone a gift. We also explored the (overpriced) vintage/antique store, a honey shop (where you could get a tasting, and three guys in their late teens seemed to be doing so), a culty yoga pants & expensive dinnerware store that also sold cat toys, and some fun clothing stores. There were so many others we didn’t even walk by, so I would love to go back to explore more. I was on a mission to go to Bart’s books, which in the summer afternoon heat felt miles away from where we parked (it’s a 15 minute walk), and so we made our journey over there, popping into these stores along the way. At one point we passed the Ojai Valley Museum and headed inside. This was a small, local museum currently exhibiting ‘Ojai Mystique’, a series of paintings by various artists of the local scenery. These were all very pretty, and we enjoyed the opportunity to sit on a bench in some air conditioning and admire the work. These pieces were also for sale, and while I loved some of them, I did not have a spare $25,000 on me to make the sale.

We braved the heat once more and finished the last leg of our walk to Bart’s Books, an indoor-outdoor bookstore full of new and used books across any theme or genre you could think of. If I wasn’t so dehydrated and heat-exhausted, I could spend a lot of time in here, it’s massive! Unfortunately, I started to get a bit light headed after a while and we had to make our way out to find something cold to drink.

Highly Likely was an unplanned stop, but one of the best parts of the day.

This all-day cafe/bar/restaurant has a few locations in Los Angeles that I’ve been to and loved, and I was so delighted to see one in Ojai. They have the most incredible interior design, and a great drinks menu. When we walked inside at around 4:00 p.m., we were hit with that sweet air conditioning and a nearly empty restaurant; it was peaceful. The only thing on the menu that was speaking to me at the time was an ice cold bottle of Mineragua sparkling water, and my friend got a cold brew. We sat at the bar stools with the massive marble countertop and genuinely comfortable bar stools (with cushioned seats, seat back and armrests!) and enjoyed this respite. We decided to kill some time in there until it was time for our early dinner reservation at 5:30, so we chatted and eventually pulled out our books and read. The bartender also chatted with us and we learned about some of the now-gone but well loved establishments of Ojai, like the old 24 hour diner where her and her friends used to love to go for pancakes at 3 a.m. after a night at the bar. We sat, we chatted and read until just after 5 and made our way to dinner.

Rory’s Place is a well-loved Ojai institution,

but I kind of think they’re scamming their customers a little bit!! We had a dinner reservation here at 5:30 p.m., as most would consider this early, and keep in mind they open at 5:00 p.m. (this fact will be important later). Our table was inside (as requested) and I loved the ambiance inside. They had a very cool (real, not LED) neon sign featuring oysters, and generally interesting artwork on the walls. We placed a drink order and started looking over the menu at what we wanted. As you could have guessed, this is one of those ‘small plates, family style’ restaurants where they like to recommend ordering 2-3 dishes per person (insane), and, of course, every dish is a minimum of $22.

I want to preface this story by saying the food was really good and I did enjoy all of the food, but let’s get into the drama. So we ordered three things. To start, we got the daily special of hamachi crudo. This was on a huge blackboard with the words HAMACHI CRUDO, CUCAMELON, STONE FRUIT. I was excited. We also ordered the japanese sweet potatoes (one of my favorites) that should come with finger lime, bonito flakes and miso butter. The last dish we ordered was a duck ragu that came with hand cut pappardelle, tomato, rosemary and pistachio breadcrumbs.

Our crudo comes and I just see regular cucumber on that plate, not cucamelon… Now, my friend and I were very excited to try the cucamelon as we had both never had this before! A cucamelon is a teeny tiny cucumber the size of a grape that looks like a watermelon. They’re really cute and I’ve always wanted to try one. I was very bummed to see some regular cucumber on the plate but didn’t think too much of it. The crudo was delicious either way.

Next came the sweet potato. What do you know, there’s no finger lime! Again, this was highly disappointing. Finger limes are one of the coolest pieces of produce out there. Again, something I have always wanted to try. Instead of a regular lime, the finger lime has little beads like caviar of the juice/flesh of the lime. Very cool ingredient!!! Sadly, this was missing from our dish and we were presented with a regular old wedge of lime. Really delicious plate, but I just couldn’t believe this now happened twice.

At this point, I had to say something. When they brought out our duck ragu I kindly asked the waiter if the kitchen was out of cucamelon. Sol thinks this is crazy, and I wasn’t complaining but I do strongly believe that at any restaurant (but especially an expensive one) the wait staff should be well aware of what’s supposed to be in a dish and what might be missing or substitutions made. I have worked in multiple restaurants in my lifetime, and never once did I not know what was going on with the food or menu, so I feel validated in this opinion I hold. Anyways, since we weren’t told when we ordered that they’d be out of cucamelon (and even that’s a generous amount of grace to give them since this was the special crudo of the day literally written on a blackboard and they only opened thirty minutes prior) I simply asked if they were and our waitress looked extremely confused and said she’d ask. It took her talking to two separate people before she came back and simply said that yes, they were out so they subbed cucumber. I said totally fine, but was it the same instance with the finger lime? She again went to the kitchen and then GASLIT US and said that the finger lime beads were on the dish and we must have missed it. Girlfriend, we had just a regular wedge of lime on our plate and I have photographic proof that there were no beads of finger lime on there. Now some of you may be horrified, on the edge of your seat wondering if I said that, and no, I did not. I don’t believe in berating the staff at a restaurant, but simply said ‘oh okay’ and moved on with my life.

The duck ragu was missing the pistachio breadcrumbs, and the homemade pasta was slightly bland and under salted, but I said nothing. The duck ragu itself was delicious and these issues are truly small potatoes in the end.

We ordered dessert, a passionfruit pavlova. Truthfully, this was the best bite of the meal and all components were present as promised by the menu! Wonderful! The pavlova was perfectly baked with a chewy, marshmallowy center, and the passionfruit mousse was the exact right level of tart. Divine!

The server brought our check quickly, and I was slightly perturbed at seeing not even a 10% discount! This sounds righteous, but if someone had called me out while I was a waitress on the fact that two dishes were missing specialty, exotic and expensive components, I probably would’ve comped their drink or dessert, and at the minimum taken off the tax. But, no, none of that here at Rory’s Place. What really irks me is that I know menus are priced in part based off their ingredients, and these ingredients that were missing are pricey (like around $30 per pound for finger limes) so it just feels dishonest to claim all these components on your menu and not even make your customers aware when they order that certain things may be missing. I really wouldn’t have been upset if she gave us a heads up that the kitchen was out of finger lime and it would be regular lime, but to gaslight us about that specifically is a pretty awful management practice. Also, not sure how you’ve run out of all these things when our reservation was within the first hour of opening, but hey, what do I know. We still tipped 20% because I am not one to relish on being a jerk to a server just trying to make a living, but I am so annoyed about this whole experience that I had to rant about it here! I also want to mention that even after admitting they were out of cucamelon, that component remained on the blackboard for the hamachi crudo which sadly leads me to believe they think their customers are dumb and don’t know any better. I probably won’t be back to Rory’s Place next time I’m in Ojai :(

On the walk back to the car, we had a caricature done

and it is cute upon first glance, but then the longer you stare at it the funnier it becomes. Truly, it looks like a nice, cute drawing, and then I really looked at it, and I realized that we look like we’re eating sour candy and I especially look like I’m in some pain and may burst into tears at any moment. This was a really nice end to our day, though. We sat in the park feeling the slight breeze while being drawn by this nice woman, and so many people came up to us to watch her work and chat a little bit before moving on with their evening. We made it back to the car and drove home. I was so exhausted by the end of the day when I got back home at 9 p.m., but happy to have had a day filled with so much activity. I didn’t even get a sunburn somehow!!

Hope you’re all enjoying your summer! Until next time!!

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First, make an invitation

Of course, the first step is making an invitation and getting a general headcount for attendees. I did this a few weeks in advance via Partiful! I was planning for roughly 15 people, but really planning for 20 just in case.

Make a menu

My favorite part of hosting is curating a menu and planning everything I’ll make. With summer officially in full swing, I was feeling very inspired by the farmer’s market so I planned my menu around the desire of wanting to feature a lot of fresh produce. This left me with a vision for a colorful and bright crudité platter and a birthday cake decorated with lots of fresh fruit. From there, I decided we needed a protein on the table, which came in the form of pastry pups from trader joes (mini hot dogs wrapped in puff pastry and topped with parmesan, truly divine) and a platter with cubed feta and castelvetrano olives. My friends are also obsessed with this ricotta crostini I make with olive oil, flaky salt, pepper and lemon zest so I knew I would include that, too. Leaning back into produce, I decided to make a watermelon cucumber salad, and, to round everything out, because it is a party, a potato chip tower consisting of layers featuring sour cream & onion chips, torn salami and hot honey. To go with the crudité I bought some green goddess dressing, ranch and also picked up some crackers and hummus.

I make my own birthday cake pretty much every year, which is truly something I love to do, and this year it may have been my best cake yet. I decided on making a vanilla sponge cake which was then soaked with a mixture of (homemade) strawberry syrup and prosecco, filled with layers of blueberry-sumac jam and mascarpone mousse, and finally finished with a swath of vanilla bean swiss meringue buttercream.

Buy some decorations (optional)

Fun, whimsical decorations are something that I love to lean into when it comes to a birthday party. This year I was really feeling a bright, colorful vibe so I bought some really cute triangle flags on twine, gold stars, and a pastel happy birthday banner. I also bought some streamers, but Sol and I couldn’t make the vision work so we’ll save those for another time. Obviously, decorating is completely optional, but it just makes me happy to see it.

Start grocery shopping

A week or so in advance of the party I started slowly picking up the shelf stable things I knew I’d need. Just anytime I was out grocery shopping I would add an item or two to my list that I knew I would need. This felt less stressful to me than doing one huge trip closer to the party because I consistently forget to buy things (even with my list) and then it requires multiple trips in one day or a last minute dash to the store the night of. I picked up the chips, crackers, drinks, paper plates, napkins, etc. in advance and slowly started building my nest of party supplies.

The week-of was when I bought the dairy I’d need for the cake and the ricotta crostini, and the dips I’d serve along with the crudité.

Luckily, I live very close to a farmer’s market that takes place on Wednesday afternoons/evenings, so after work on Wednesday (two days before the party) I was able to go and grab some really great produce for the cake and crudité platter. I got the most gorgeous little tomatoes, colorful cauliflower, snap peas, carrots, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and goldenberries.

Decorate, assign platters, and move furniture

The two days prior to the party I started getting all of my serving dishes out and labeling them for what each would be used for during the party. I find this to be a really helpful step to do in advance because I won’t be scrambling last minute trying to figure out what works best for each dish. I just label each dish with a sticky note for the dish it’ll be used for and stack them up on my dining table.

The day before, Sol helped me move all our furniture around to maximize space for everyone. He also helped me hang up all the decorations I bought and organize the serving platters as I would like them to look during the party on the table. I pretty much always get my table in order the day before a party/dinner party because it’s so easy to do, but saves me sooo much time on the day of.

Prep the fruit and veg

The day before, I sliced up my watermelon and stored that for the salad, and did the same thing in a separate container with the cucumber. For the crudité, I washed, peeled and sliced my carrots into sticks, cut my persian cucumbers into sticks and rinsed my snap peas. Everything got stored separate from one another in the fridge. The fruit for the cake got washed and dried and stored as well. Again, small steps that add up in preparation when so much needs to get done at the last minute!

Make the cake

Over the course of the week, I prepped and executed the cake. I made the blueberry-sumac jam the week prior since it would stay fresh for up to two weeks in the fridge, and that was super easy to knock out. Two days before the party, I made the vanilla sponge cake layers, the strawberry-prosecco soak, and the mascarpone mousse. The next day (on my actual birthday), I assembled the cake and chilled that while I made the buttercream, and then finished the whole thing with some piping. The afternoon of the party, I finished off the cake with the fresh produce and took some photos in the good lighting, and kept it in the fridge until party time!

Make everything else

The one thing that wasn’t great in my planning was everything else I was serving kind of had to be put together last minute. I arranged my veggies for the crudité a couple hours before serving, but the ricotta crostini shouldn’t sit out for super long in advance and I wanted the pastry pups to be warm so those two things had to happen simultaneously and at the last minute. Thankfully, Sol helped by getting all the ice we needed right before the party started. I also had to build the potato chip tower, get the dips on the table and finish off the watermelon cucumber salad! It was kind of a mad dash and I was running behind, but this is where LA traffic works to your benefit since everyone is usually a bit late. Some friends kindly arrived on time and helped me do all these little last minute things <3

Enjoy the party!

It’s party time!! Music is on, drink is in hand, and I’ve got my silly party hat on. I had a lot of fun and would consider the party a success!

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Now let’s start off with the basics. What is a lemon shaker pie? It’s simply a pie made with whole lemons, some sugar and eggs. This pie was invented by the Shakers, a religious community who we have to thank for the invention of the clothespin. The Shakers believe in making use of the entirety of something, hence the use of whole lemons in this pie.

The pie is simple, you slice a whole lemon paper-thin, let it sit in some sugar for a few hours, whisk some eggs, combine it all, pour into a pie crust and top with another pie crust. Bake, et voila, you have a lemon shaker pie. The sugar softens the rind and pith of the lemon and sweetens the whole thing making it palatable and utterly delicious. It’s sweet, a little sour, a bit bitter in some bites, and with an ultra-flaky crust, absolute heaven. Because of the eggs in the filling, it’s also very custard-y.

I made this on Sunday staring at the large bowl of lemons I needed to start making use of, and lacking the desire to go to the grocery store to buy any ingredients, I started flipping through my cookbooks searching for inspiration and direction. In Elisabeth Pruett’s and Chad Robertson’s Tartine, there’s the shaker lemon pie and seeing just a handful of ingredients I already had on hand, I was decided.

Making pie is so meditative for me, especially one as simple as this. Letting the lemons sit in the sugar for a few hours while I make the pie dough and let it rest, watching the sugar and lemon juice slowly combine with one another into something new, and crimping the crust all just put my mind at ease. It’s almost harmonious floating through these tasks.

This recipe turned out something delicious and incredible, but I do have some notes and tweaks to it. First of all, it calls for a 350 bake temp which seemed suspiciously low to me for a pie, but I usually follow the directions exactly the first time around to get a good basis of what I’m working with. My instincts were correct. 350F for 40 minutes, as the recipe indicated, was too low and too short. A pie is usually baked at a pretty high temperature to produce a lovely puffed and flaky crust. The blast of high heat on a pie dough literally aerates the pie, evaporating the water and melting the better, causing those gorgeous, flaky layers we all know and love. After the 40 minutes, I turned my oven up to 365 and let the pie go for another 15 minutes, but it was still too blonde to my liking. I like a crust that’s deeply golden brown. Unfortunately, I had an appointment to make so I had no choice but to accept this gently golden brown crust and take the pie out of the oven. The second issue I have with the recipe is the amount of sugar called for. For 1/2 pound of lemons (or 225 grams), the recipe calls for 2 cups of sugar (or 400 grams). That’s nearly twice as much sugar to lemon. Again, I followed the recipe to see how it would turn out. I really liked the pie, but it was definitely a little bit too sweet for me. I still basically licked my plate clean, but the thought came to mind that it was sweeter than I thought it would be (and wanted it to be).

I knew I’d seen a couple other lemon shaker pie recipes in my cookbooks, so I went on a hunt to see how those other recipes are made. The closest one is in Alison Roman’s Sweet Enough. Her ratio of lemons to sugar is actually 300g whole lemons with 260g sugar - a totally flipped ratio! There’s more lemon than sugar in her recipe, and the weights are actually quite close to one another. I’m going to try her recipe next time and see how it tastes. I imagine the sour and bitter notes will come through significantly more, which I’d certainly be glad to welcome. She also puts a little flour in her filling, probably to help it set up, but the Tartine recipe didn’t come out too loose for me so I think this is an interesting deviation. She too bakes hers at 350F, but her bake time is called for up to 1 hour and 20 minutes, twice as long as the Tartine recipe! This feels a bit more in the right direction. I had written in my Tartine recipe to try 400F for 15 minutes next time and then drop to 375F for the remainder, but maybe 350F for twice as long really is the key.

The other recipe for something similar to a lemon shaker pie I have in my cookbook collection is in Claire Saffitz’s What’s for Dessert (sadly, this recipe isn’t online anywhere so I can’t link it). Her recipe is for a Roasted Lemon Tart inspired by the classic lemon shaker pie. She calls for 313 grams of lemon and only 237 grams of sugar. Much closer to the Sweet Enough ratios, but still a substantial deviation yet again from what I followed in Tartine. Instead of having the sliced whole lemon sit in sugar for a few hours to soften, Claire’s recipe has you roast the lemon slices on a sheet pan sprinkled with a bit of sugar until they’re deeply caramelized. The caramelized lemon gets chopped up and mixed with the remaining sugar and combined with beaten eggs and butter, creating something even more custardy and smooth. This sounds truly incredible, but of course is more laborious and costly.

I really think I’ll have to try the other two recipes from Sweet Enough and What’s for Dessert to see what my favorite of the three is! This whole endeavor is exactly why I love cookbooks and have such joy collecting them. I love seeing the different ratios of ingredients and methods used across different authors and chefs that are creating essentially the same thing.

If you’ve ever made a lemon shaker pie, or have a favorite recipe, please send it my way!!

Until next time!

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I call out the savoriness of it because when I told Sol I was making a carrot galette he was skeptical of it being savory, so thought I’d clarify in the recipe title. This a pretty simple recipe consisting of pie dough (or store-bought puff pastry, yum), a spiced scallion cream cheese base with parmesan, and some carrots on top - bonus points for herbs like rosemary or thyme if you’ve got it, but not necessary if you don’t. This comes together really quick and in my opinion, looks impressive (especially when made with rainbow carrots).

The only thing that’s a little “special” (aka, annoying) with this recipe is I would vastly prefer if you buy skinnier, petite carrots. Those carrots that are enormous and bulky lack that carrot-y flavor, and will be too thick to cook in time with this recipe. If that’s all you’ve got and want to use them up, have no fear! I recommend cutting them lengthwise into more sections like quarters or even eights so that they can be tender when you’re ready to eat. They won’t lend much sweetness to the overall dish, but that’s totally fine. This is really just a vehicle for the scallion cream cheese & parmesan mixture underneath.

When choosing your pastry, I kindly request you either make your own or buy some puff pastry. I’m sorry, but store bought pie dough (I’m looking at you Pillsbury) tastes like plastic. It’s bad. Frozen puff pastry is great!! I like the Dufour brand because it’s 100% butter, but Trader Joe’s is also tasty. If your pastry comes in the shape of a square/rectangle, don’t drive yourself crazy trying to roll that out into a circle, simply roll it out into a larger rectangle roughly anywhere from 7x11 to 9x13 inches. This recipe is made to be easy and carefree. It feels very Barefoot Contessa to me. I had some whole wheat pie dough in the freezer already, which is my preference for those savory leaning pastries, but my go to ‘regular’ pie dough is this one. I’m sure something with spelt, rye or buckwheat would also be really tasty here. You can pretty much do whatever you want!

The inspiration behind this came from me feeling like I really needed to eat a cooked veg after eating a salad for 3 meals in a row, but none of my usual roasted veggie options excited me. I truly love Dorie Greenspan’s Potato-Parm tart, but was looking for something more nutritious than potato and thought a carrot would be pretty good in that setting. I also decided to move away from her tart method and go the galette route because I was simply curious if it would work - it did! The galette method is just a little less work since you don’t have to pre-bake the crust. Lastly, I changed her recipe a bit by adding a wee 1/4 tsp of calabrian chili paste to the cream cheese filling for some background heat. This worked out really well, and I even think you could take the filling further by adding some roasted & smashed garlic cloves (I’m talking about garlic confit here) and/or lemon zest.

Without further ado, the recipe is below for you! Hope you enjoy!!

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First, I want a summer bucket list for when I’m feeling bored, that way I’ll have something to refer to (your girl loves a list, what can I say). Second, this will help me actually plan my summer!!

Without further ado, here’s my summer bucket list for 2026!

• Bake a blueberry pie — check! made one on memorial day! (i hope to make a couple more this summer)

• Take Kona to Rosie’s Dog Beach in Long Beach

• Have a picnic at the park

• Try a new ice cream shop

• Visit the county fair

• Make a raspberry crumb cake

• Bake a peach pie

• Take a day trip to Ojai

• Host a game night

• Go to the aquarium

• Stop at a fruit stand during a road trip

• Find a way to grill some ribs

• Read a book outside

• Go to a LACMA Jazz Night, preferably with pizza and a bottle of wine

• Make some cornbread

• Go for a long, shady hike

• Visit the farmer’s markets often

• Play beach volleyball

• Host a movie night

• Take a weekend trip somewhere

• Visit a new bookstore

Let me know what’s on your summer bucket list this year!!

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My trip started with a flight from LAX to MEX, landing around 5pm. The first thing I noticed was the massive amount of construction going on at this airport. Getting off a flight tired, dehydrated and lost while listening to jackhammering and sawing wasn’t the greatest welcome I’ve experienced, so just be prepared for that if you’re heading over in the next month or two. My friend and I finally figured out how I could get from Terminal 2 and meet her in Terminal 1, and we hopped in a taxi and went on our way into the city! The craziest thing I’ve ever seen are the Ubers getting towed with PEOPLE INSIDE because apparently Ubers aren’t allowed to pick up passengers outside the terminal, so, don’t do that when you get there. Just take the overpriced taxi. Also, the traffic is 10x worse than the traffic in LA so give yourself plenty of time to get around.

Our hotel was in Reforma, a financial district type neighborhood in CDMX. While it was very nice and felt very safe, this neighborhood didn’t have a ton for us. Our hotel was down the street from the Deloitte office (the company I work for, lol). There weren’t too many restaurants or shops to explore, so we were constantly Ubering or walking to our destinations for the day. We did have one spot nearby, Tacos Domingo, that was a great first meal after we got to the hotel. The branding was super cute inside, and the staff was so friendly. I loved my gringa taco with chicken! I liked this spot so much I bought a hat and a t shirt from them as my first souvenirs.

We started the trip off at Casa Azul, Frida Kahlo’s childhood home that she later shared with her husband Diego Rivera. This was actually much smaller than I expected, but a very cool museum nonetheless. My favorite part was the special exhibit that recently opened on Frida’s dresses. I had no idea about her difficult medical history including polio and an accident that snapped her spine and pierced her uterus. Truly harrowing, but it was incredible to see how those experiences could clearly be seen as influences on her art.

The neighborhood where Casa Azul is, Coyoacan, is so calm and relaxing. They also have a huge marketplace on Saturday’s that I wish we had time to check out. If you want a slower paced place to stay, this seems like a great neighborhood.

From Casa Azul, we went to the Museum of Anthropology. This was interesting with tons of pottery to see in here. We also saw an exhibit on tombs and some skeletons - spooky! The restaurant on site was pretty good and much needed after all our walking so far that day. I would have loved to gone to the other museums in the area, like the Museum of Modern Art, but my legs simply wouldn’t allow for another big chunk of walking, so back to the hotel for a brief break we went.

After a break, we ventured back out to the city to get a pastry from Panaderia Rosetta, a very famous bakery known for their rol de guayaba. The location closer to our hotel was all out of the guava rolls, but we did get an envuelto estragon - a laminated pastry close to a kouign-amann with tarragon flecked throughout. I loved this. It wasn’t too sweet, perfectly buttery, and crispy too. We walked around Roma Norte, got caught in a rain storm fully drenching my pants, and made it to the main location of the bakery after a quick stop at a glassware store on the way. At this location of Panaderia Rosetta, we managed to get the elusive guava roll. This was, unfortunately, disappointing. The pastry was limp and had clearly been sitting out for a while. The filling and pastry needed some salt and probably a touch more sugar because the whole thing was also bland. I think this location is probably churning out more pastry than they’re really equipped for and the quality is compromised. The other locations pastry was really great.

We had one dinner reservation planned for the trip at Ticuchi. The vibe inside this restaurant is like a bat cave. It’s basically pitch black in there, aside from a skylight in the ceiling (which isn’t doing much at night) and a single candlestick on each table. I could hardly read the menu. The chairs are actually low stools where we were seated, and our dinner table only came up to knee height so it was a little awkward sitting there, basically hunched over the menu and our food. We ordered the guacamole to start which was really good. The avocados were so fresh. Yum! We also ordered the elotitos which was baby corn, lime dressing and sumac. Unfortunately, this had wayyy too much sumac making the entire dish overly sour and difficult to enjoy. It was pretty good when I scooped some guac on top, though. I ordered a shrimp sopes, but the shrimp that arrived are ones I had never seen before in my life. They were so teeny tiny, about the size of a fingernail, bright red, and hard like pebbles. They had all their legs on too. I've truly never seen anything like it, and unfortunately was not a fan, so it was a plain sope for dinner for me. Dessert was amazing though. It was basically a riff on a baked alaska with a cake (maybe vanilla, unsure), passionfruit ice cream and toasted meringue on top. I loved this! Sadly, I think we misordered and may have arrived on an off night for the kitchen because I only heard phenomenal reviews about this spot, but it fell a little short for me.

The next day was all about our tour to the pyramids of Teotihuacan. Our tour bus picked us up early in the morning and drove us over to the pyramids, with our first stop including a tequila and mezcal tasting at 9 am - this is not really my thing (I hate tequila, and especially mezcal) so I enjoyed watching everyone else taste theirs and admiring the cute little cat that hung around us. We also learned about the plant fibers used in the weaving of their blankets and linens, and all the different ways obsidian is used. After this, we headed over to the pyramids site and explored the area. We even climbed up the pyramid (as far as they’d let us) which truly had an incredible view. There are two pyramids, one for the sun and one for the moon, and we were able to see both of them. After walking all through this site, we headed to a cave for lunch. Unsurprising of a tourist trap, the food was quite bland. I took a quick little nap on the bus ride home, and when we were dropped off from the bus, we immediately got caught in the worst storm of the trip. It was windy as hell, the rain was coming down in sheets, and there was thunder and lightening. We had to duck into this fancy shoe store to wait out the rain, and it was painfully awkward, but I’m glad they let us hang out in there for the 10-15 while we waited for the storm to pass. After all this, we were exhausted and went back to the hotel where we highly considered ordering room service. In the end, we were brave and got dressed and had dinner downstairs at the hotel instead. I ordered a much needed bowl of chicken and rice soup and a couple enchiladas. The meal was comforting and simple, just what I needed after a long day fighting the elements. I slept 10 hours that night.

On our last day didn’t have much planned beside a churro cooking class. We took our time and had a slow morning, with a breakfast at a cute little restaurant. After, we walked to the Parque Mexico in Condesa, admiring all the dogs people were walking. This is the part of the city to make some money as a professional dog walker! There was also a festival de bibimbap going on in the park which really made us laugh because it wasn’t a korean festival but specifically one for bibimbap (which I also love). We also walked around the neighborhood and did some shopping where I bought a cute little vase and a new long skirt with some gorgeous lace on the bottom.

Our churro class was through AirBnb experiences, and it was great! There were 8 of us, and our host, Chris, made the whole thing fun and educational. I had only ever made churros once before, the french way through a choux base, but this method was totally different (and way easier, tbh). Everyone’s churros turned out great and we had a chocolate sauce spiced with chile de arbol on the side and a steaming mug of cafe de olla, a spiced coffee. So good!

From here, we went to the mercado de artesanías la ciudadela which is a huge marketplace with tons of different vendors selling pottery, linens, leather and more. It was a little overwhelming, but I managed to find quite a few gems to take home. I simply couldn’t leave some of the pottery behind! I wish I had a second suitcase so I could have taken more home. The one thing I’m bummed I didn’t have a chance to find and bring back was some spices, vanilla and chocolate. We just didn’t come across anyone selling this stuff except for once early on in the trip, and I wrongly assumed there would be other people selling these things later on! :(

Dinner was at the famous taqueria, Orinoco, and it was soooooo good. This was my favorite meal of the entire trip. I got one regular taco al pastor and the gringa al pastor which came with cheese and avocado, plus cilantro and onion. They also came with a side of fried baby potatoes which I liked to use to sample all 5 of the salsa that came with everything. This was the most flavorful taco I’ve ever had, and really hit the spot. The perfect last meal before our flight early the next day.

Overall, I really enjoyed the trip! There are so many things to do, see and eat that I wish we extended our trip by one more day. I would have loved to go to Xochimilco (the canals) and some of the other museums and restaurants. I’d recommend staying in Condesa or Roma Norte for neighborhoods with tons of little shops and restaurants to explore, but Coyoacan is nice for a quiet getaway. The city is so lush and vibrant. Would recommend, and would return!

If you’ve been to CDMX before, let me know your favorite spots so I can add them to my list for next time. Til next time!

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My prep begins first and foremost with the guest list. My dinner table can seat up to 8 people max, so I start from there and begin sending out invites. Thankfully, everyone I invited was able to make it! I like to do this a couple weeks in advance. Once I know my headcount, I can start menu planning (my favorite part). My main priority is choosing as many dishes as possible that can be prepared in advance, and then a main that’s relatively hands-off so I’m not stuck in the kitchen the whole time when I should be hanging with guests.

Once I’ve picked my dishes, I create a small to-do list for each day leading up to the event. This way, I don’t have to spend the entire day of the dinner party trying to do a million things at once and inevitably forget something crucial. Yes, I’m type A! The dinner party was at 7pm on Saturday, so I tend to work backwards from there when creating my schedule.

The Menu

To start: focaccia with whipped lemon ricotta

Salad: little gem & herb salad with a garlicky white bean spread

Main: lemon and herb roasted shrimp with rice

Dessert: carrot cake with brown butter cream cheese frosting

The Make Ahead Dishes

Thurdsay

One of my favorite foods is ricotta in it’s many forms. I opted for a whipped lemon ricotta because I can make it a few days ahead of time and it takes literally 2 minutes to make in the food processor. I did this on Thursday evening, and just kept it in an airtight container until I needed to serve it, which was when I added my garnishes.

I chose focaccia to accompany the whipped lemon ricotta, so Thursday night was also when I made my focaccia dough. This dough can hang in the fridge for up to 72 hours and develops a better flavor the longer it can bulk ferment in the fridge. This also takes approximately 5 minutes to put together.

The last thing that got done on Thursday night was baking my cake layers for my carrot cake. I like to bake the layers no more than 3 days in advance and wrap them in plastic while still warm so they stay super moist in the fridge until I’m ready to assemble.

Friday

The other dish that was made ahead was a garlicky white bean spread I made to go underneath a lemony little gem salad I would make. Again, this takes about 3 minutes to make thanks to my food processor so I made this on Friday.

The brown butter cream cheese frosting was made on Friday and the whole cake was assembled and decorated right after, ready to go for Saturday night.

Saturday

The focaccia was baked off Saturday morning and left to cool until I was ready to slice it up that evening.

I also made the rice to go along with the shrimp that morning and refrigerated it until I was ready to reheat it before serving. So easy!

Lastly, I prepped my shrimp dish by arranging the shrimp in their roasting pans and pouring over the garlic and herb butter they roast in, and chilled that as well until I was ready to serve. The shrimp only takes about 15 minutes in the oven so this was perfect because I could preheat the oven once people began arriving and pop it in the oven when we started with the salad. Sadly, I did burn my hand while pulling the shrimp out of the oven so be more careful than I was!

The Full To-Do List

Thursday

• Make focaccia dough (PM)

• Make whipped ricotta (PM)

• Bake cake layers (PM)

Friday

• Final grocery shopping

• Frost cake

• Set table

• Chill wine

Saturday

• Make rice (AM)

• Bake focaccia (AM)

• Prep shrimp & sauce (AM)

• Prep salad greens (PM)

I really can’t imagine trying to do everything in one day, so my biggest recommendation for hosting and being able to actually enjoy yourself is to do some prep work where you can! Nothing was really that time consuming or stressful, so it was very easy to knock out a few easy tasks each day to make the day of that much easier. Also, choose dishes that can be made ahead in some way. Your guests came over to hang with you, so being there as much as you can instead of in the kitchen is fun for everyone!

Saturday night was tons of fun and I think everyone enjoyed themselves and the food!

If you’ve got hosting tips and tricks I’d love to hear about it!!

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One of my most favorite activities when I’m visiting my hometown is a visit to Half Price Books. I’ll wander over to the cookbook section and flip through all the gems people have sold or donated. I can spend a few hours in this section of the store alone. You’ll find me sitting on the floor with a large stack of books by my side, skimming through the pages to see if I can justify squeezing yet another book onto my already overfilled bookshelf. There’s nothing I love more than finding a book I’ve been wanting to buy, and being able to get it at a massive discount. Bonus points if the previous owners have bookmarked some recipes so I know where to start!

There are a few titles I’m always looking for and hoping to find used (more on this later), so if any of you ever come across Chez Panisse Desserts please snag it for me!! I love trying to find vintage Martha Stewart books, anything by Ina Garten, and cookbooks published prior to the 50s (these are actually quite rare). My mom and I once found a small book on the recipes on San Francisco that is one of the most unique cookbooks I’ve come across (it may even be worth some money!). It’s fun to go on these little hunts and seeing what’s available, hoping to find some special books.

So many of my friends and family members don’t really understand why I love cookbooks. They always say, “I just Google a recipe for whatever I’m looking for,” which I completely understand, but I truly cannot stand Googling recipes most of the time. There are just too many choices out there. It’s overwhelming for me. I personally love choosing a cookbook or an author and letting the recipe collections in the books inspire and guide me. It’s fun to come up with a menu from one cookbook, or a few! The vast depths of the internet is a last resort for me if none of my books are meeting my needs for what I want to make.

I buy books from authors I trust, and know with near certainty that if the ingredients look appealing, it will probably work out quite alright. Also, cookbooks don’t have a wall of ads and you don’t have to Accept Cookies while you’re flipping through them.

If you take anything from this post and stop reading here, let me leave you by saying please for the love of god stop cooking from tiktok/reels recipes… half of these are AI slop anyways. If a creator is showing you a recipe they developed, read through and ask yourself if any of that actually makes sense. This is a good practice for any recipe you plan to make, even if it’s in a book.

When it comes to buying books, I love buying ones that push me to try something new in the kitchen. One of my favorites is Amrikan, an Indian cookbook that I’ve really enjoyed cooking from. Making chicken tikka masala made me realize this method and result is just like my mom’s goulash. Chicken in a peppery sauce that’s traditionally served with a bread or carb. So many cultures have similar dishes, and I love looking through recipes and seeing these similarities across the globe. Dessert books that use unique ingredients or show me new methods for something I bake often is always exciting, like in Fat + Flour teaching me about the Cold Butter Method for cookies!

Another great thing about cooking from a book is you can write your little notes and improvements in them with ease in the margins. No need to save down a link with a comment in your Notes app that you’ll have to search to find. So many of my books have notes, even if it’s just “very good!” along the top, or “add lemon” near the end of the steps. It’s also so satisfying to flip through my books and see how many recipes I’ve made from it. My Dessert Person book is truly a notebook of itself at this point and is such a prized possession of mine - definitely something I’d save in a fire.

Cooking and baking is an activity that requires most (if not all) of my attention, and using a book ensures it’s a screen free activity. I can shut my brain off and truly focus on the task in front of me. I truly appreciate the time and effort that the author put into creating the book, and I feel like I pay them a little respect each time I crack a spine open and flip to a new recipe. It’s no small feat to write a cookbook, taking years from pitch to pub day. As a society, I think we should celebrate these efforts and ideas so we can continue having these nice things.

One of the ways I decide if I should really spend the $30-$45 on a new cookbook is I’ll try to borrow it from the library first (either physically or an e-book) so I can spend some time with it. I’ll try to cook from it at least once, but ideally a few times, and really determine if this is something that I’ll return to time and time again. I also love going to my local cookbook store, Now Serving, and giving some of the recipes a genuine read through to see if it’s right for me.

If you’re someone that cooks or bakes somewhat regularly, I urge you to put the phone down and start writing out your favorite recipes in a notebook and build out that repertoire! I have a little A5 binder that has all of my favorite recipes from the internet or books I’ve borrowed so that I can always go back to them easily. All of my recipes on substack live in there too.

Obviously, these are things that bring me joy and work for me, but do what works best for you. I know there are apps out there that catalog all the recipes in your cookbooks, but one of my favorite activities is flipping through my books or hunting in the indexes for a certain ingredient I want to use, and comparing all the recipes in front of me. This is especially fun during my holiday cookie box prep. Sometimes, things don’t always need to be maxed out on efficiency and we can enjoy just taking our time discovering and researching.

And now, a list of my favorite books:

Dessert Person, Claire Saffitz

Sift, Nicola Lamb

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, Samin Nosrat

Baking with Dorie, Dorie Greenspan

The Book on Pie, Erin Jeanne McDowell

Tartine, Elisabeth Prueitt & Chad Robertson

Where Cooking Begins, Carla Lalli

Amrikan, Khushbu Shah

Go-To Dinners, Ina Garten

Appetizers, Martha Stewart

Six Seasons, Joshua McFadden

Cook this Book, Molly Baz

The Silver Palate Cookbook, Julee Rosso & Sheila Lukins

If you have any favorites, share them with me!! Talk to you next time. :)

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The humble scone remains one of my go-to baked goods to make. They’re especially perfect for when I’m in the mood for something that isn’t too sweet, but still satisfying. They come together really easily and are endlessly customizable. Hence, how I came up with the pecan frangipane scone.

I’m sure many of you are thinking to yourself “what the hell is frangipane?” Well, frangipane is typically an almond cream made up of ground almonds, butter, egg and a little bit of flour. I made this version with pecans and brown butter for a little boost of flavor and complexity. Frangipane is that stuff your beloved almond croissants are stuffed with.

I made this pecan frangipane for my apple pie a few months back, but the recipe makes twice as much frangipane as you need (because you need to make a certain amount for the size of food processor you have) so I stuck the excess in my freezer to be transformed another day. That day has since occurred, and I decided to play on my jammy tea scones but omitting the tea and swapping jam for frangipane and voila, the pecan frangipane scone was born.

This is a messy recipe because the frangipane will inevitably ooze out of the sides and maybe break through the dough in some areas, but do not fret! This is the joy of baking. It can be a bit of a sensory nightmare, but just tell yourself you actually love how tactile the whole process is and all will be well!

The pecan frangipane recipe I link (which is within my apple pie recipe) makes 2 cups of frangipane, but you only need 1/2 cup here, so, that leaves you with opportunity to make 2 batches of pecan frangipane scones whenever the mood strikes plus an apple pie (which uses one cup) or a whopping quadruple batch of scones so your freezer can then be stocked with 48 scones ready and waiting. Choose your own journey! The frangipane itself freezes well in a container for about 3-4 months (it won’t go bad, but it may taste freezer-y after a while).

These scones (or any scones) are a perfect make-ahead breakfast option. I made these for my friends that were coming over early on the morning of the LA marathon so we could go be spectators for our other friend that was running. They were perfect! The day before, I pulled out my frangipane from the freezer about an hour before I wanted to get to work (it never freezes into a hard block), made the scones and left them on my lined sheet pan in the fridge covered with plastic until I was ready to bake them off in the morning. It worked great and my house was filled with the most wonderful scent of roasted pecans and cinnamon-sugar.

The recipe is below, and I hope you enjoy!! Relish in the joy of the scone! These are perfect with coffee :)

Pecan Frangipane Scones

Time: ~1 hour | Makes: 8 large scones

Ingredients

• 50g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar

• 300g (2.5 cups) AP Flour

• 1.5 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp kosher salt

• 3/4 tsp baking soda

• 113g (8 tbsp, 1/2 cup, 1 stick) unsalted butter, cold & cubed

• 75g (1/3 cup) sour cream, cold

• 75g (1/3 cup) heavy cream, cold, plus more as needed

• 1 large egg, cold

• 1/2 cup pecan frangipane

• cinnamon sugar, for topping (optional, but not really)

Steps

1. In a large bowl, whisk the sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda.

2. “Cut” the butter into the dry ingredients with either a pastry cutter, or by smushing the butter into the dry ingredients repeatedly, until the butter pieces are no larger than pea sized.

3. In a 2 cup liquid measuring cup or bowl, whisk together the sour cream (or creme fraiche), heavy cream, and egg just until homogenous. Pour over the dry ingredients + butter in the large bowl.

4. Use a fork to mix everything together in the bowl. Once mostly combined, dump onto a clean work surface and knead briefly until no dry spots remain.

5. Dust flour under the dough and over top. Use a rolling pin to shape the dough into a square roughly 8 - 10 inches. Spread half of the frangipane over top and fold the dough. Roll out a bit to flatten. Spread the remaining half of the frangipane and fold into the other direction, back into a square. This will be messy, but roll the dough into a 10 inch square.

6. Cut the 10 inch square into 4 even pieces and cut each of those on the diagonal in half to create 8 scones.

7. Line a sheet pan with parchment and place all scones on the pan, spacing them evenly. Chill the whole sheet pan uncovered and preheat the oven to 425F. Give yourself at least 20 minutes for your oven to heat up, even if it claims to be ready just give it time because it takes longer than you think. You could also put the tray in the freezer for 1 hour, then move the scones to a freezer safe bag to bake at a future date - add a few minutes to the bake time.

8. Once the oven is hot, brush the scones with a little more heavy cream and sprinkle generously with the cinnamon-sugar. Bake for 20-22 minutes, until very golden, nicely puffed and smelling good. Enjoy!

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I’ve acquired not one, but two new cookbooks so far from the spring release (I’m keeping an eye out for Ham El-Waylly’s new book Hello, Home Cooking later this month) and they’ve really helped me get the creative juices flowing, something I’ve been struggling with lately because of work stress bogging me down, so I’m leaning in when inspiration strikes!

The first book I got was Ella Quittner’s Obsessed with the Best, one which has the most stunning typeface and photography I’ve seen in a long while. Ella’s whole thing is testing recipes dozens of times to determine “the best” (in her opinion, of course) and now she has a book! It’s filled the brim with great recipes for meals, sides, snacks and desserts. I’m definitely trying her rye chocolate chip cookie asap, but I’m also seeing a vodka sauce & meatball dinner in my future! The lemon-butter shrimp recipe looks so tasty, too, so I’ll be making that too in the coming months. Random, but the cabbage recipes in here also caught my eye. Any other cabbage heads reading this?? Lastly, from this book, there’s an insane recipe for carrot cake that uses a homemade carrot puree in both the cake and a carrot caramel(!!!!). Carrot cake is my favorite so I’m really looking forward to forcing my book club to eat this at one of our next meetings.

The second book I bought is Will This Make You Happy by Tanya Bush, a narrative cookbook filled with beautiful prose and inspiring recipes. I’m always on the hunt for a good madeleine recipe (thank you Gigi for sharing yours with me!) and I want to try the one in here too. I also bought some bananas over the weekend with the sole purpose of trying out the cinnamon swirl banana bread recipe, which looks divine.

Spring is all about produce and specifically PEAS! I love peas. I grew up eating snap peas picked up from farm stands in Half Moon Bay, so they hold a lot of nostalgia for me. I love nothing more than when I can get some really good sweet peas in the shell at the farmer’s market, and bonus points if some of them are flowering! While I can eat a pound sitting down, I also love when I can make a pasta with some freshly shelled peas and a creamy ricotta sauce, and maybe a little crisped up pancetta, too. I’ll be looking towards both Six Seasons and Six Seasons of Pasta by Joshua McFadden for more springtime inspiration for lunch and dinner. It’s so exciting to come out of the dreary months of winter (I know all of you not in LA are rolling your eyes at me for consider my winters to be dreary) and feel those first signs of spring. It truly is a breath of fresh air and a surge of energy for me.

This year, I’m hoping to mess around with more homemade pasta, especially ravioli. I’m in the mood to whip up some sort of tasty filling with whatever looks good at the farmer’s market and somehow stuff a fresh ravioli (or 20) with it. Stay tuned!

Last week I wrote about my newly acquired appreciation for the salad at home so obviously I’m going to make some sort of outrageous, overflowing salad with fresh greens, herbs and anything else I can find. Also, I think a massive sandwich on some fancy bread (ciabatta, baguette) with a unique mustard, special cheese and loads of produce and pickles, preferably eaten outside in the sunshine, will provide me with peak springtime happiness.

Those first signs of spring feel so hopeful, and I’m really looking forward to what the next few months bring!

If you have any spring recipes at the top of your list, share them!! I want to hear allll about it (:

‘Til next time <3

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You’re probably wondering why I’ve decided to dedicate an entire post to a rambling about vinegar, and well, I think it’s a worthy conversation for us to have! I was making myself a salad over the weekend, a dish I’m actually not a fan of making typically, but I persevered nonetheless and realized that I kind of enjoy making salads now… How could this suddenly be? While chewing on my arugula leaves and relishing in the generous amounts of shaved parmesan I added, the answer came to me. My fun, fancy and fruity vinegars have completely transformed my salad game! They’ve turned my meh and edible enough salads into something I find myself craving and looking forward to. No small feat! Now I don’t dread the endless chopping - finally!

My first venture into fruity vinegars started a couple years back at a little olive oil and vinegar shop in Laguna Beach, the Temecula Olive Oil Company. Meandering about the small (but expensive) town, my friend and I popped into the store and were treated to a lovely oil and vinegar tasting. I was immediately obsessed with the pomegranate vinegar I tried and took a bottle home (along with some infused olive oils, of course). I could not stop using that vinegar for my salads!! It was perfectly fruity yet punchy and actually made my food interesting to eat with very little effort. Any time I thought a dish needed a little something extra, but wasn’t sure what, my pomegranate vinegar came to the rescue! I quickly finished the bottle and sourced another one from a different brand. This was when I realized I’ve just been blind to the wide world of fruit-based vinegars, and I couldn’t be happier to have made it out from the rock I was living under.

About a year ago, my mom bought me the most delicious, almost sweet, lemon balsamic vinegar from Sapore Messo which has, once again, blown me away. This vinegar specifically is a little thicker than others, nearly syrupy. It’s the perfect addition when you want to add a little sweetness to a dish without actually making it too saccharine. It’s still a vinegar! I imagine this would be great over some vanilla ice cream or with some macerated strawberries and whipped cream, but it truly does assist in making the perfect arugula salad dressing.

These fruit vinegars would be delicious in frostings to tame the sweetness and add a little punch of flavor without being overwhelming, so I look forward to testing that out! I could see this being nice as part of a glaze to finish off a cake, too, and you can’t go wrong with adding these to a marinade.

I’m now the proud owner of pomegranate, sicilian lemon, and peach balsamic vinegars! They bring me such joy and every time I make a salad with any of them, I always get compliments and questions about what’s in it. Nobody ever thinks the secret is one of these vinegars! I’m hoping to add a raspberry one to my collection next.

If you’re wondering where you can get your hands on your own cool vinegars, check out your farmer’s market! Usually there’s at least one vendor there that sells some local oil & vinegar, and I highly, highly recommend trying those out first before heading to whole foods or god forbid ordering something online from amazon! The whole point is to discover unique products near you, to then share with your friends and family. Enjoy the hunt! Try out some delayed gratification in this world where everything is instant!

If you have any secret ingredients that really step up your flavor game, please share them!! I’m very curious about the wide world of Edmond Fallet mustards (tarragon, black currant??) so if that’s something you love using I’m dying to know more.

Until next time, bye!!

p.s. the links are just links i don’t have commissions with anyone :)

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I love scones more than most Americans, probably. I don’t know what it is about them, but they’re one of my favorite things to eat and bake, a rare occurrence! I love a scone that is just sweet enough and not dry; that’s key! A good scone is buttery, flaky and perfect for breakfast or a little snack during the day.

They’re one of my favorite things to bake because I don’t have to remember to do anything beforehand. No setting out butter or eggs to reach room temp. You don’t even need to remember to preheat the oven! They can be made ahead and kept in the freezer, unbaked, until you’re ready for a fresh scone right out of the oven if you so please. Scones also don’t require any special tools whatsoever making them very beginner friendly! Scones are for everyone! Make ‘em sweet, make ‘em savory, make them your own with whatever mix-ins you have on hand, or enjoy some plain ones!

That’s how I ended up with today’s recipe. I looked at the stack of oranges in my fruit bowl, the dried cranberries in my pantry and the creme fraiche in my fridge, and said, well, a scone could use up all those things! All I had to do was tweak my base scone recipe ever so slightly, and voila, just what I wanted came out of the oven warm and fragrant with the scent of vanilla and orange wafting through the kitchen.

There are very few rules to the making of scones, but I must request you use good butter for them. Scones, like biscuits and pie dough, are truly far better when made with tasty butter. I’m a big Kerrygold fan as many of you know, but I know it’s expensive so I can also recommend the organic sweet cream butter from Trader Joe’s which I used this time around with great success, but really, european or irish style will never let you down. They know a thing or two about their butter.

Serve scones with jam, whipped cream, curd or clotted cream (whatever that is) and treat yourself to the presentation of a nice plate if you’ve got one. It really makes the whole experience feel that much more elevated.

Without further ado, here’s the recipe! Enjoy!

Cranberry-Orange Scones

Time: ~1 hour | Makes: 8 large scones

Ingredients

for the scones:

• zest of 1 small-medium orange

• 50g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar

• 300g (2.5 cups) AP Flour

• 1.5 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp kosher salt

• 3/4 tsp baking soda

• 113g (8 tbsp, 1/2 cup, 1 stick) unsalted butter, cold & cubed

• 3oz dried cranberries (sweetened or unsweetened, it’s your call)

• 75g (1/3 cup) sour cream or creme fraiche, cold

• 75g (1/3 cup) heavy cream, cold, plus more as needed

• 1 large egg, cold

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• juice from 1/2 small-medium orange (the one you would have just zested)

• couple drops orange extract (optional, i happened to have some laying around)

• couple drops orange blossom water (again, optional, i happened to have some laying around)

for the glaze (optional)

• juice from 1/2 orange (the other half of the orange you squeezed)

• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

• 1/2-1 cup powdered sugar

• pinch of salt

Steps

1. In a large bowl, use your fingers to rub together the sugar and orange zest until fragrant and resembling wet sand. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda.

2. “Cut” the butter into the dry ingredients with either a pastry cutter, or by smushing the butter into the dry ingredients repeatedly, until the butter pieces are no larger than pea sized. Fold the cranberries through until well coated by the flour.

3. In a 2 cup liquid measuring cup or bowl, whisk together the sour cream (or creme fraiche), heavy cream, egg, vanilla, orange juice, orange extract (if using) and orange blossom water (if using) just until homogenous. Pour over the dry ingredients in the large bowl.

4. Use a fork to mix everything together in the bowl. Once mostly combined, dump onto a clean work surface and knead briefly until no dry spots remain.

5. Dust flour under the dough and over top. Use a rolling pin to shape the dough into a square roughly 8 - 10 inches. Cut the square into four pieces and stack them on one another. Use the rolling pin to smash it down and roll into another 10 inch square. Repeat cutting, stacking and rolling into a 10 inch square one more time.

6. Cut the 10 inch square into 4 even pieces and cut each of those on the diagonal in half to create 8 scones.

7. Line a sheet pan with parchment and place all scones on the pan, spacing them evenly. Chill the whole sheet pan uncovered and preheat the oven to 425F. Give yourself at least 20 minutes for your oven to heat up, even if it claims to be ready just give it time because it takes longer than you think. You could also put the tray in the freezer for 1 hour, then move the scones to a freezer safe bag to bake at a future date - add a few minutes to the bake time.

8. Once the oven is hot, brush the scones with a little more heavy cream and bake for 20 minutes, until very golden and nicely puffed and smelling good.

9. Let cool completely and prepare the (optional) glaze by whisking together the orange juice, vanilla, powdered sugar and salt until smooth and at your desired consistency; I needed about 3/4 cup powdered sugar for an opaque glaze.

10. Drizzle scones with glaze when cooled and enjoy. Store in a covered container at room temp for a few days, but they’re best the day they are made (and slightly warm).

    ---

    I hope you enjoy your scones!! Until next time (:

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Dinner Ideas

Roast Chicken - nothing is more perfect for a special dinner than a roast chicken. it’s actually quite easy, but always feels like something more.

Shrimp Scampi - one of my favorite meals that comes together quickly!

3-Cheese Stuffed Shells - this is sol’s favorite meal, so i had to include it on the list!

DIY Pizza Night - buy some balls of dough from the grocery store or see if your local pizza place will sell you some, get your favorite toppings and go to town. this is both cheap and fun!

Beef Bourguignon - this is for all of you dealing with a freezing winter right now. i imagine this is a cozy, welcome meal to share with your favorite person and a nice bottle of wine.

Dessert Ideas

Earl Grey & Chocolate Swiss Roll - shameless plug for the perfect low-lift showstopper dessert i just posted the recipe for last week. if your valentine loves tea and chocolate, this one’s for them.

Tartine’s Deluxe Double-Chocolate Cookies - i just made these for the SuperBowl party i attended and they were incredible. tender, not too sweet nor rich, and utterly perfect.

Creme Brulee - the drama of a torch! creme brulee is actually quite easy to make, requiring very little labor, and makes the end of every meal feel extra special. go the extra mile and spread a little chocolate in the bottom before pouring in your custard. if you’re looking something along these lines, but not so basic, might i suggest trying out my easy spiced orange rice pudding brulee? still minimal effort, but much more interesting in texture and flavor!

Pina Colada Pie - maybe you and your valentine need to close your eyes and escape to a tropical paradise for a few minutes. this pie will do that for you!

Mini Baked Alaska’s - again, the drama of a torch! baked alaska is truly so cool and always impressive. and very customizable as well so you can choose your favorite ice cream!

I hope you all enjoy this weekend filled with love and joy!! Happy V-Day!

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I am a huge fan of a swiss roll / roulade cake. Such a fan, my birthday cake last year was one! Truthfully, they’re very easy to make and put together, taking very little time and they can be made well in advance. There’s hardly any decorating needed for these types of cakes because they themselves are showstoppers with that iconic swirl! A simple dusting of powdered sugar is really all you need, but you can go above and beyond with whipped cream, frosting or anything else. I have fond memories of a pumpkin roll cake with a cream cheese filling that my Nanny Betty used to make every year during the holidays. She made so many of these cakes each year and gave them out to everyone. On one of the last visits I had with her, she walked me through her entire pumpkin roll process and I always think of her when I make any swiss roll cake, pumpkin or not.

Today’s swiss roll contains three different components. We start by prepping our earl grey & milk chocolate whipped cream (to die for). That cream gets spread onto our chocolate sponge cake (literally bakes in 10 minutes). Lastly, a simple chocolate ganache gets spread over top (which is totally optional). What we end up with is a combination of two of my favorite flavors: earl grey & chocolate!

This idea came to me as I was looking through my cookbooks and saw an earl grey and chocolate cake recipe in Delectable by Claudia Fleming. Fleming’s recipe creates an absolute showstopper of a cake consisting of four devil’s food cake layers, an earl grey whipped cream and a chocolate buttercream. I used that as inspiration for this, and I chose the swiss roll format because it doesn’t make an enormous amount of cake, comes together quickly and is highly approachable. I took her earl grey whipped cream recipe and edited it down to make enough for the swiss roll. It’s truly phenomenal!

This recipe takes a little bit of preparation because the cream filling needs to chill for a minimum of 4 hours, but ideally overnight and up to 24 hours. The plus? This recipe lends itself incredibly well to be broken up into chunks and made ahead over the span of a day or two. The sponge cake can be made and left to cool on the counter for up to 24 hours as well!

Without further ado, the recipe is below! I hope you enjoy it!!

Earl Grey & Chocolate Swiss Roll

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Earl Grey & Chocolate Swiss Roll

Serves 8-10

Time: 1 hour active time, 6-24h inactive time

Ingredients

Earl Grey Cream

• 51g milk chocolate, roughly chopped or broken into pieces

• 1 cup heavy cream

• 3 bags of earl grey tea, cut open the bags to pour the leaves directly into the cream

Chocolate Sponge Cake

• 50g all-purpose flour

• 21g cornstarch

• 21g cocoa powder (dutch process)

• 6 large eggs, separated, at room temperature

• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 1/4 tsp salt

• 133g sugar

Chocolate Glaze (optional)

• 1/2 cup heavy cream

• 113g semisweet chocolate

• 1 tsp light corn syrup

Steps

Make the earl grey cream (at least 4 hours in advance, but preferably the night before)

1. Place the chocolate in a medium size heat-proof bowl.

2. Heat the tea leaves and cream in a small pot over medium/medium-low heat until it just begins to simmer with little bubbles around the edges. You may need to stir/swirl a few times to prevent a skin from forming on top.

3. Pour the cream and tea over the chocolate and let it sit for 2 minutes. Whisk until smooth.

4. Let sit, uncovered at room temperature, for 30 minutes.

5. Strain the cream into another bowl or container and cover directly with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming. Chill in the fridge for 4-24 hours.

Make the chocolate sponge cake

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 400F. Line a rimmed baking sheet that’s around 12x17 inches w/ parchment paper. Lightly grease the baking sheet and edges of the pan. I like to flip over the paper so it sticks to the pan easily and again grease the top of the parchment (which was just previously the bottom of the parchment).

2. Prepare a large, clean kitchen towel by laying it out flat and dusting powdered sugar generously and evenly all over the top.

3. Sift the flour, cornstarch and cocoa powder together into a small bowl.

4. In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, vanilla and salt.

5. In a stand mixer fit with the whisk attachment (or a large bowl and your hand mixer) whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar together on medium-high speed until foamy. Slowly stream in the sugar and continue beating until the meringue holds medium, glossy peaks. do not over-whip the meringue! an over-beaten meringue will cause the cake to be too dry, and it will be hard to incorporate all the ingredients.

6. Spoon about a quarter of the meringue into the large bowl with the beaten yolks; whisk to combine until well blended (no need to be gentle, we are lightening the yolks). Using a flexible spatula, scrape the remaining meringue into the large yolk bowl and add the dry ingredients on top. Gently fold everything together, being sure to get any pockets of flour along the bottom of the bowl, until evenly combined.

7. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth out evenly across the surface.

8. Bake the cake for 9-10 minutes (yes, really, that’s it!) until it’s dry to the touch and looks matte on the surface. The cake also should have visibly risen.

9. Set the cake pan down and use a butter knife to carefully release the cake from the edges of the pan on all sides.

10. Immediately turn the cake over onto the prepared kitchen towel aligning the long side of the pan with the long side of the towel. You will get a little powdered sugar kickback! Fun! Remove the parchment paper.

11. If you want a longer cake with less spiral, start at the long end of your towel. If you want a shorter cake with more spiral, start at the short end of your towel. Either way, roll the cake up snugly and fold the ends of the towel under itself. Let cool on the counter for 2-24 hours.

Fill the cake

1. Remove the chilled earl grey cream from the fridge and whip to stiff peaks either in a stand mixer with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl with a hand mixer.

2. Unroll the cooled cake onto a large cutting board. Fill the cake with the cream, spreading it evenly across the surface. Roll the cake up the same way you did initially. Some cream will end up on your cutting board, consider this a chef snack.

3. Scrape off the excess cream from the roll and cutting board, and place the cake on a small wire rack set over a baking sheet (I have a quarter sheet rack and pan that works well for this, but use what you have). Chill the cake for a minimum of 30 minutes. At this point, you can keep the cake in the fridge for up to a day, but cover it with plastic wrap if this is your choice. You could also place the cake in the freezer for an hour instead, then wrap generously with plastic, and keep frozen for a month until needed.

Make the chocolate glaze

1. Place the chocolate and the corn syrup in a medium heat-proof bowl.

2. Heat the cream in a small pot over medium/medium-low heat until it reaches a gentle simmer with little bubbles along the side, stirring and swirling as needed to avoid a skin.

3. Pour the cream over the chocolate and let it sit for 2 minutes. Whisk until smooth.

Finish the cake

1. When the glaze is done, remove the cake from the fridge and pour the glaze evenly over top. Use a spatula or spoon to evenly spread the glaze along the top and sides of the cake.

2. Chill the cake for at least 20 minutes. Slice off the two ends for a clean look and serve! The cake can hang in the fridge for a day as well.

Okay, that now looks like a lot of steps but I promise this cake is really easy and quick! Most of the time is inactive cooling and chilling, but if you start on a Friday night, the cake will be done by Saturday afternoon!

Thanks for staying along for the lengthy recipe ride. Talk to you all next time!!

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