Drunken Plums with Mustard-Caramel Sauce & Rosemary Shortbread (over ice cream!)

Believe it or not, I’m actually going to get right into the recipe today. Pretty incredible, right? No obnoxious detour into what we did this weekend (It was four freaking days long! What didn’t we do!) or how many YA novels I’ve made it through in the past two weeks (Five, you guys! I think that’s a record!) or how my awesome mom and godmom stopped by to gift me and Chris with a funky new cookbook and about 11 lbs of barbecued beef ribs (I have nothing to add! The awesomeness if pretty obvious!). Instead, I’ll just tell you how … Read More

Berry Tropical Sunrise Smoothie (guest starring: carrots!)

I smell Chinese food. No, not like the dead people thing. Like I am currently smelling Chinese food, and it’s driving me insane. One, because Chris is sitting across from me wolfing down white corn tortilla chips, which in no way can or should smell like Chinese food. And two, because I’m fairly certain I’ll begin gnawing on the Pottery Barn catalog if a platter of black bean chow fun does not find its way into my face in the next 60 seconds. Perhaps I’m being just a touch dramatic. And now I’m hardly sure where to go from here. … Read More

Minted Spring Pea Paté on Crostini (also, #HeatWave2013)

Today has been kind of ridiculous. To start, it’s almost triple-digits here in the Bay Area. Which means, oh, I dunno, it’s almost intolerably hot. I say almost, of course, because it’s actually quite lovely when you take into account the perfect excuse it makes for a beach day. Think tanning, picnic, young adult novels galore and ice cream. Marianne’s Ice Cream, just to be clear. Studded with toffee-coffee goodness and stacked doubly tall in not one but two crannied waffle cones. (The gang’s all here.) Just try and tell me how wonderful a Saturday that does not make. Go ahead. … Read More

Crispy Carnitas-Style Pork Belly & Spanish Rice

It’s no secret I like pork. It’s perhaps even more common knowledge that I like pork belly. But did you know that in the world o’ pig I’ve also got a soft spot for carnitas? Something about the juxtaposition of tender and juicy against crisp, nutty, brown. It’s pork simmered in pork fried in pork. That’s like a Hello Kitty pen-pencil wrapped in a Lisa Frank folder wrapped in a Trapper Keeper, ya dig? It just doesn’t get better. But wait. Maybe it does get better. Maybe the Trapper Keeper is actually a Caboodle. Full of scrunchies and adjustable neon … Read More

Pineapple & Spinach Green Smoothie

Good Tuesday, pretties! Hope everyone’s been having a lovurly week. Seven days post-vacay, I think we’ve finally recuperated from our extra-long weekend of glitz and gluttony in NYC — thanks in no small part to a few detox meals based almost solely around things that grow from the earth. (Apparently, the detox ended last night when I decided that a platter of meltingly tender carnitas-style pork belly with Spanish rice and refried beans makes for a balanced meal, but we’ll leave that for next Tuesday’s post. I will say now: no regrets whatsoever.) So what does one eat while trying … Read More