What marks a life well-lived better than cake? The happiest, most celebratory moments are marked by it. I tick through brightly-colored memories in flavors of cake. Wedding cake. Birthday cake. Sunday morning coffeecake. Post-field hockey game apple cake. Chocolate lava cake after high school nights out. Funfetti cake from a mix after college nights out. Chiffon cake, frosted Yule logs at Christmas, simple yogurt cakes topped with fresh strawberries from the garden all summer.
Read moreEXTRA-MOIST BANANA BREAD
Some of you (Hello! You're lovely, you unknown readers out there, waking up on Sunday all over the world, making coffee in a tiny apartment in San Francisco or steeping tea in a sunlit, white-washed kitchen in Connecticut or dressing your smiling, chubby toddler in a messy bedroom somewhere or sleepily walking to a workout class on Columbus Avenue in Manhattan) have asked about the poetry. You've asked where I find it. The truth is that (outside of school) I've never read much poetry until this past year.
Read moreGIVING THANKS
The house at Thanksgiving is brimming with activity. The kitchen is warm: a 30-pound turkey roasts in the oven, its skin turning a burnished, crackly gold. A batch of my mom's famous butter fan rolls cool on a baking sheet. The compost bucket overflows with cooking scraps. I stand at the sink, plucking dirt-covered beets from a wire garden basket and scrubbing them under hot water. I peel them and cut them into thin slices, tossing them with olive oil and sea salt. We'll spread them in a thin layer on battered cookie sheets and cook them for barely 10 minutes until they crisp at the edges, like potato chips, and stay chewy in the center.
Read moreFROZEN BROWNIES
THINGS I LIKE
- Kir Royales: I am not a mixologist. In fact, I feel about cocktail-making the way many people feel about baking: given the proper recipe, I can follow along and make something delicious, but riffing and creating my own drink typically ends up with a mouthful of gin or a fizzy glass of something resembling a margarita's overly-sweet, uncool cousin. But a Kir Royale! Perfection every time. All you need to do is add a splash of cassis (splurge on the good stuff here) to a glass of sparkling wine. That's about as easy as drinking it.
Read moreAPPLE YOGURT CAKE
"I think this is the best one you've made," he said, gently scraping his fork against the white dessert plate. He gathers the crumbs in a pile and presses the fork against them—the cake is so moist that the last bits stick together and he scoops up the last bite. "The best cake?" "The best apple cake."
Truth be told, I do make a lot of apple cakes, so this judgement carries a lot of weight. A few years ago, we spent a crisp, sunny Sunday in October picking apples north of Manhattan in a little town in the Hudson Valley. Our kitchen was overflowing with apples: they filled up both crisper drawers, and spilled from a bulging canvas bag on the counter.
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