We were driving back from Emeryville on Friday, after eating some extremely delicious sandwiches from the Vesta Flatbread truck. I was torturing poor Sean with my recent fascination with 1970s radio hits (the 60s, 70s, and 80s radio station on Pandora is my new favorite thing). KC and the Sunshine Band came on the radio, and all I could think of were Jell-O commercials. And then, then I wanted pudding. My brain works in mysterious ways.
Continue reading Chocolate Pudding with a Little Kick
My Grandparents both passed away this last April. Their deaths were unexpected: Both were pretty healthy for being 80 years old, and had just returned from spending the winter with my parents in San Diego, which they’ve been doing every year for the last 15 years. My Grandma had a stroke one spring afternoon while out tending her garden, and a week later, my Grandpa passed away of a heart attack. It’s a blessing that neither of them suffered, that they didn’t have to endure years of failing health and illness, that they lived together in their home until the end, and that they were surrounded by family in the days and weeks before they passed. But these blessings come with the sadnesses of unanticipated loss: There are so many things I never got to ask them, never got to learn, never got to understand about their histories, and their lives together.
Like most people, a lot of my family memories revolve around shared meals and food: beer cheese soup and summer sausage sandwiches every Christmas Eve; baking pies with Grandma in the summer and anticipating the scraps of dough, baked with cinnamon and sugar, as a treat; watching Grandpa grind potatoes with his old hand-cranked grinder for his famous potato pancakes; dusting Grandma’s funnel cakes, fresh out of the fryer, with powdered sugar; spreading peanut butter and honey over fried bread dough and calling it dinner. And even though I have countless kitchen memories shared with them, when I came across my Grandma’s ring of faded and smudged recipe cards in her kitchen last spring, I realized how many more family stories there were to share that I am never going to know about. Grandma’s recipes were the only thing I really wanted when my aunts and uncles started cleaning out their house.
Continue reading Grandpa’s Favorite Spice Cake
The first chili of the season, back in September, was so insanely spicy it was almost inedible. It caused our dinner guests to request hair dryers and towels, they were sweating so profusely. It was accidental burn-your-face-off chili because I had never used chipotles before, and added in about twelve of them. Yeah.
I decided it was time for another batch of chili this week. The temperatures have been below freezing for the past 2 weeks, and tomorrow we’re supposed to be hit by the first monster storm of the winter. Even without the chipotle overdose, my chili tends to be on the hotter side, and this time around I wanted to see if I was even capable of toning it down a bit. I also tried out a new secret ingredient, and went 100% vegetarian, so housemate #2, Alex, could indulge and warm up with us. I have to say, I think this is one of my better versions–without the excess of spice, you could actually taste the other things in there! Of course, I’m sure I’ll never reproduce it exactly this way again. I don’t think I’ve ever made the same chili twice. But this one will go down in my memory as one of the best.
Continue reading February Chili, warming up before the storm
Slashfood is featuring a cookie a week until Christmas, and I am all over that. I used to think I was no good at baking, but after my pumpkin cheesecake and oatmeal cookies and two loaves of whole-wheat break with nary a problem, I’m starting to revise this opinion. This week’s cookie: Chocolate Peppermint Drops.
Continue reading We are Chocolate Peppermint Cookies, and you will be happy if you eat us!