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 moreDARK CHOCOLATE ORANGE SOUR CREAM CAKE
If you grew up in England, or somewhere in proximity to British candy and grocery brands, you might have fond memories of eating Terry’s Chocolate Orange, a round orb of chocolate flavored with orange oil that “peels” apart in sections to mimic the shape of a real orange. I didn’t experience one until after college, when I used to frequent a tiny British sweets and tea shop in the West Village (which felt like stepping into the pages of a picture book set in a small town in 1950s England). I’d stand in the dim light of the shop, ogling the unfamiliar packages and wrappings: Cadbury flake bars and Rowentree fruit gums and McVitie’s Jaffa cakes and Fortnum & Mason lemon curd. Reading the names off the candy shelf sounded like something out of Harry Potter: fizzers and chewits and salted sweet cats and licorice sherbet sticks and peppermint creams.
Read moreCITRUS COCONUT OLIVE OIL CAKE (VEGAN!)
Is it spring yet? These past two weeks have been a roller coaster in terms of weather, and “mood stability” seems to mirror the skies outside for lots of us. (That’s called pathetic fallacy, right? My high school English teacher would be proud.) Two weekends ago, the temperature plummeted into the 20s. On Saturday, I ran an errand in the morning after my swim. The walk was just a few blocks, but I was shivering in my down jacket (with three layers underneath!). I stopped partway to get a steaming cup of hot cocoa and within minutes, my fingers were numb even holding the warm cup. I felt I’d never warm up, even after two hours in a warm car (seat heater on full blast, naturally) and a mug of split pea soup.
Read moreBLUEBERRY CRUMB CAKE
Look, I know. You’re confused. Did you accidentally stumble upon the archives of my website? Inadvertently hit a link from last July? Have I decamped from the chill of New York City to some verdant oasis in South America, where fat, juicy berries are growing feverishly through February?
No. I have not. I am here, and I am cold, and I am making blueberry cake if I want it, gosh darn it! Let me explain. I do believe in eating seasonally, for the most part. I’m not wildly obsessive about it, but I’m lucky to live in a place with truly exceptional farmers’ markets, so tailoring my produce consumption to actual growing seasons is pretty easy to do. But does that mean I won't touch a blueberry until June? It does not. In fact, in the spirit of full disclosure, I ate a handful this morning alongside a few spoonfuls of creamy ginger sheep’s milk yogurt.
Read moreAPPLE CUSTARD PIE
Sometimes life — and your experience of it — is really a matter of perspective. It never ceases to amaze me how you can plod along contentedly in a routine, happily sticking to the same schedule, and slowly convince yourself (without even realizing you’re doing so) that things will carry on in just the same way indefinitely. It’s not an unreasonable mental habit: you’re putting in the same inputs, and so you expect the same outputs.
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