One day soon, I might post a recipe that doesn’t start with sourdough. Or, alternatively, maybe I’ll turn every single thing I like to bake into a sourdough version. Who’s to say? Stick around for the ride! It’ll be a surprise! Much like life itself, right? One week it’s cold and chilly and feels like winter, and the next week I pass a guy wearing khaki shorts and Birkenstocks on my evening walk in the park. One month you can’t fall asleep without playing the NYT crossword, and the next month you want nothing more than get under the covers to read another page of your novel (I’ve just finished this one, am now starting this one, and this one is next). One day you love omelettes with a roughly 50/50 ratio of Gruyere cheese to egg, and the next day you are over Gruyere and would really appreciate some cheddar. Being alive is wild, man.
Read moreSOURDOUGH PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP LOAF
I was walking through the West Village yesterday. The sun was shining and the day was one of those brilliant, made-for-a-postcard ones—the sky a fierce cobalt blue and the sidewalk cafes and restaurants crowded with people drinking and laughing. A shiny, polished, new penny sort of fall day.
Read moreNUTELLA HALVA BABKA
My alarm goes off at 6:30 AM, but I’m already mostly awake. I’m letting my eyes adjust to the room and considering just how much effort it will take to peel back the comforter, get up, and open the heavy floor-length curtains that block the light from the French doors on one side of the bedroom.
I like to pull them open and stay in bed for a bit, watching the sky brighten slowly over the treetops, touching each of the brownstones on the street one by one.
Read moreCOFFEE SHOP LEMON LOAF
The days have rapidly grown colder in the past week. On Sunday, out on Long Island, it was still warm enough to end my morning run at the dock and sit, legs crossed, with my face tilted up to the sun. After a minute of some truly pathetic attempts at vigorous stretching, I took a deep breath and untied my shoes and shimmied down the ladder to dunk my head—whoosh—under the surface of the water, glinting like diamonds in the sunlight. It wasn’t terribly frigid yet, but it was cold enough to make me gasp, scrabbling for the edges of the ladder and climbing out to shake the droplets from my wet hair.
Read moreCoconut Streusel Coffee Cake
L.M. Montgomery wrote, “I’m so glad to live in a world where there are Octobers” and I couldn’t agree more. As with any change in season, the first few moments whisper new and old at the same time —they’re a shift from the previous weeks, but still so achingly familiar. I feel a stirring around every corner in October, my heart swelling when I step outside to take a run and the air feels as crisp as a brand new dollar bill. I look for autumn everywhere. There’s a little boy beside me in Duane Reade, earnestly eyeing the Halloween candy display. I almost lean down to say, “between you and me, Almond Joy really gets a bad rap” but I’ll let him spend years coveting miniature Snickers and Twix before he reaches that very mature conclusion.
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