What’s the mood in your kitchen these days? Are you experimenting more? Baking bread when you never did before? Making cakes for absolutely no reason and then, obviously, eating them all while pretending you’re really just “sampling” a few bites here and there until BOOM…the cake pan is scraped clean? Maybe you’re really quite sick of cooking altogether and feeling as if life is one giant parade of dirty dishes begging to be washed. Maybe you’re somewhere in the middle: just getting by, cooking the same general things, riffing more simply out of necessity and lack of normal grocery access. Maybe you’re getting adventurous with more time at home to finally cook your way through Ina Garten’s Instagram feed—massive cocktails and all—and discovering that you can, in fact, make anything from fresh gnocchi to biscuits to a killer chocolate cake all from scratch.
Read moreEGG YOLK CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
Let me preface this entire post by saying in an official capacity as a responsible human being (and employee of a flour company): DO NOT EAT RAW COOKIE DOUGH. But in my unofficial capacity as a real human being with thoughts and feelings and tastebuds: raw cookie dough is an unparalleled delicacy and should be awarded seventeen Michelin stars, if that were a thing.
Read moreSIMPLE STRAWBERRY CAKE
Guys! The sun is shining—in earnest—and as I write this, I’m looking out over the water at the white strip of sand that forms the edge of Shelter Island. The bay is placid today, the surface of the water blue and sparkling and ruffled only by an occasional breeze. This morning I took a walk wearing shorts, and though the sight of my extremely pale skin is always mildly alarming come May, the freeing sensation of not wearing another G-D pair of sweatpants is really quite splendid.
Read moreBASIC SOURDOUGH BREAD
If I subscribed to the “everyone else doing it” approach to life, I could have found myself in all sorts of scrapes. Had I been the type to follow along with the crowd blindly, my teenage years would have been littered with mishaps and missteps—I might have shoplifted tote bags from the boutique next to the soft pretzel stand in the mall, or decided that accepting a red Solo cup filled with something called “Jungle Juice” proffered by a boy with good hair in a faded Nantucket red baseball cap was a good idea.
Read moreNUT BUTTER BROWNIES
Where to begin, really? Since the beginning of March when I last wrote something here, the world has changed rather dramatically. Plot twist, as they say! Like many of you, I’m not quite able to articulate much about the present circumstances. (Thank goodness for emojis, I suppose.) There’s a lot I could say but none of it would come as much of a surprise to you—for once, we’re all experiencing a very similar mix of emotions, which creates an oddly powerful sense of solidarity.
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