In the pantheon of packaged snack food, I consider Nilla wafers woefully under-represented. Or, under-appreciated, more specifically. If you walk down the snack food aisle (ha! remember leisurely doing grocery shopping without anxiety?), Nilla wafers are usually tucked down on a bottom shelf, placed suspiciously close to the organic granola and rolled oats section. They are overlooked in favor of splashier boxes and bags: Flamin’ Hot Cheetos! Cool Ranch Doritos! Pringles! Oreos! Parmesan Goldfish (don’t make that face at me, this is the best flavor and it’s not up for discussion)!
Read moreBITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE ESPRESSO SABLES
I start to drink coffee in earnest when I graduate from college. At my first job—as an intro-level advertising associate—I caffeinate like a real New Yorker: like a ritual, like sustenance as useful as dinner. I take the elevator up to the 20th floor of a sprawling, faded building smack in the middle of Times Square and drop my bag, stuffed with running shoes and a dog-eared novel and tangled headphones, onto my desk. I quickly make my way past rows of open cubicles to my friend Caroline’s desk: identical to mine with its jumble of candy-colored pens and tubes of chapsticks and piles of paper all askew, printed with months’ worth of status reports, their rows of Excel data marching endlessly across the white pages.
Read morePISTACHIO CARDAMOM CUPCAKES
It’s awfully nice to have things to look forward to. Anticipation is so much of what drives a pleasurable life—it’s the forward-thinking cousin of nostalgia. Because we aren’t able to eagerly await many of the normal events lately (travel, vacations, weddings, parties, meeting a random stranger, ANYTHING BASICALLY), we have to craft our own excitements.
Read moreHONEY CINNAMON POUND CAKE WITH FRESH PEACHES
I’ve been a voracious reader all of my life—books figure prominently in some of my early memories. I remember sitting outside the childhood bedroom I shared with my little sister after she’d gone to bed, my feet planted firmly on the uneven red-painted floorboards of the hallway, my back against the wall, intently reading as many pages as I could of James and the Giant Peach before my mom would gently nudge me into my room and ask me to close the book. Or lying on my stomach on the brick hearth in our living room in winter during some holiday gathering, curled up as close to the black mesh grate and flickering flames of the fire as I could comfortably stand, reading The Hobbit as adults wandered in and out of the room—chatting and drinking and carousing—while I turned the pages, rapt with attention and oblivious to the world around me, deep in some other land.
Read moreSWEET CORN BUNDT CAKE WITH SALTY BROWN BUTTER GLAZE
Careful observation of the world yields all sorts of wonder. In the past three days alone I’ve seen three lion’s mane jellyfish, one brilliant orange-colored bird the size of a swallow, and four blossoming trees with pink flowers the size of tea saucers.
The jellyfish are a prized—yet dreaded—sighting. Discovering their crimson bodies pulsating as they bob near the surface of the water, the long translucent strands of their tentacles trailing behind them, means no swimming for a bit. They look deceptively beautiful considering the damage they can inflict.
Read more