FARMHOUSE BUTTERMILK CAKE

May 23, 2020 Posie Brien

A really great name makes something good even better, don’t you think?

Consider finding the perfect shade of delicate petal pink nail polish, only to discover it’s called “No Pre-Nup” (which coincidentally happens to pair quite nicely with a color the soft pink of a ballet shoe called “High Maintenance”). And isn’t it more fun to crack open a cold can of craft beer knowing it’s called “Audrey Hopburn” (Great Lakes Brewery’s IPA) or “Beehave” (Greenport Harbor Brewing Co.’s honey summer ale). Watching the Kentucky Derby is infinitely more exciting if you’re cheering on a horse named “Riding Miss Daisy” or “Atswhatimtalkinbout”.

BERRY GLAZED BUNDT CAKE

May 13, 2020 Posie Brien

The other evening I started writing a list of things I miss lately—but upon returning to it, I’ve decided on a different approach. Rather than talk about them wistfully, as if they’re too far gone, I’m going to talk about how much I like them. I’m going to catalog them as beautiful, shimmering, bright moments to look forward to, because they are all small things that I’ll happily encounter soon enough.

LEMON GOOEY BUTTER CAKE

May 13, 2020 Posie Brien

Is it really dinner if there isn’t any dessert?

Rational adult answer: Yes, yes, it certainly is. Honest adult answer: Frankly, no. Not at all. Dessert is the “closure” to a meal, and if romantic comedies have taught us anything, we all need closure.

Sure, I’ve usually got frozen cookie dough balls waiting at the ready in our freezer to be baked off at the last minute (and by baked off I mean eaten frozen and raw by twos and threes in his case, or in my case, dug through and mined for the chocolate chips. Oops). And yes, there's generally a pint of ice cream tucked behind the frozen peas.

SOURDOUGH FOCACCIA

May 9, 2020 Posie Brien

A few things I’ve learned lately—some small and some big—might be useful to pass along to the world at large (that’s you). We’re always learning, aren’t we? At least, I hope we are. I hope I’m able to remain open to adapting, to changing, to letting in new ideas and habits and ways of being. I hope I become more and more flexible as I move through the world. If nothing else, the present crisis has forced me—and most of us—into this by necessity. We can’t hold onto, or replicate, the same patterns of our lives, and so we adapt to new ones.

Cardamom Sourdough Banana Bread

May 8, 2020 Posie Brien

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.

Eating and adventuring.

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