i feel like a really big asshole about the fact that until about a month ago, the only thing i knew about libya i learned from back to the future. ummmmmmm. which is to say that i knew nothing. 

but then when mum visited she brought me that new nifty exotic spice situation from trader joe's which has a spice blend in it called pipelchuma, and it is libyan! so i did some research and learned from janna that it is typical in libyan jewish cuisine. and it was the first i had ever heard about libyan jews, so i did a little more research and it turns out they're in rome and israel now. (hi from tuscany, by the way! speaking of italy...)

pipelchuma translates to "pepper garlic" and it usually consists of hot peppers, caraway, cumin, and garlic, making it pretty similar to harissa. except omg ottolenghi's pipelchuma calls for 20 garlic cloves, compared with harissa's 3. dannnng. 

i began my pipelchuma journey by sprinkling it onto scrambled eggs, ever so daintily for fear that it would be way too spicy, but the trader joe's one is really quite manageable for my wimpy tastebuds. so then i went straight to mixing it with mayo because all good things in life involve mayo.

pipelchuma mayo is so good: it brings me back to being severely drunk at lucky burger on the lower east side, eating all of the french fries and chipotle mayo that my college self desired. dammit, why do i keep this stuff on my blog. is it gonna get me in trouble one day? 

so drawing on my chipotle mayo/french fry memory, i roasted some of the potatoes from our garden (we grew potatoes this year! so dirty but so fun!) and made a potato salad so that i could strengthen my identity as an upper midwesterner. and of course when you call it a "salad" you have every right to eat it for dinner even if it is just cut up oven fries covered in mayo. i topped mine with micro greens too because i've been growing micro greens* and i suddenly feel less terrible about killing all of my basil. 

pipelchuma roasted potato salad with radish micro greens

makes 4 servings

ingredients

lots of kosher salt

2 pounds red potatoes, cut into 1/2" cubes

2 tb unsalted butter, melted

black pepper

1/2 c mayo

2 tb white vinegar

1 tsp sugar

2 tsp pipelchuma spice blend (this will make it  kind of spicy. add 1 or 1 1/2 tsp if you want it on the milder side)

1 large shallot, finely chopped

a handful of micro greens

clues

preheat the oven to 450ºf. line a baking sheet with parchment and set it aside.

bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil (i use about 3 tablespoons of salt), add the potatoes, and cook for 6 minutes. strain them and place them in an ice bath for 5 minutes. strain them, pat them dry, and then toss them with the melted butter. season them with salt and pepper, scatter them about your baking sheet and roast them for 45 minutes, tossing halfway through.

in a large bowl, whisk together the mayo, vinegar, sugar, and pipelchuma. (i use the same bowl for the ice bath, tossing the potatoes in butter, mixing the mayo, and for serving, and sometimes for eating, cause i'm lazy/resourceful/crunchy like that.) when the potatoes are done roasting, toss them in the mayo with the shallot. taste and adjust seasonings as desired. top with micro greens. enjoy!

-yeh!

*i'm growing these micro greens c/o the coolest company ever, green towers, which just started a  grow-your-own micro greens subscription service. every month they send you planter trays and all you need to do is water them and within days you'll have micro greens!!! and your gardening self-esteem will have tripled. use the code "mynameisyeh" for 20% off your order!

how are we all feeling about it being autumn?! good? great?! are you wearing a sweater yet? i am. in fact i haven't really taken mine off since last fall because i am a fall/winter human with a large air conditioning bill and a fierce loyalty to soup weather. 

i am still in tuscany this week, but when i return home i plan on becoming the most fall-centric version of myself. my truest self. and i will light "harvest" scented candles and make pumpkin risotto and bake even more treats than i do now. i am so excited about it.

to celebrate the changing of the seasons, i've got cake! chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting that gets a little something *extra* by way of baileys irish cream. baileys always screams fall and winter to me because it's so tasty in hot drinks (although come to think of it, my first foray into the world of baileys was when jaclyn and i would splash some over ice cream while watching the o.c. during our breaks from college)... so i guess that proves that it's good both hot and cold, but here it is at a temperature in the middle, on cake:

chocolate cupcakes with bailey's cream cheese frosting

makes 24 cupcakes

ingredients

cupcakes:

2 c sugar 

1 1/2 c flour 

1 c unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

2 large eggs

1 c whole milk

1 tb vanilla extract

1/2 c oil

3/4 c boiling water

Frosting:

1 c unsalted butter, softened

1 c cream cheese, softened

4 c powdered sugar

a pinch of kosher salt

2 tsp vanilla

1/4 c baileys irish cream

clues

make the cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350. Line 24 cupcake tins and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients. In a separate, medium bowl, whisk together all of the wet ingredients except for the boiling water. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Whisk in the boiling water.

Pour the batter into the cupcake pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Begin checking for doneness at 18 minutes.

Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes and then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the frosting:

Using an electric mixer, cream together the butter and cream cheese. Gradually mix in the powdered sugar, and then add the salt and add the vanilla. Beat to combine and then beat in the baileys.

Assembly:

pipe blobs of frosting onto the tops of the cupcakes and decorate as desired. here, i've used small round cutouts of marzipan that i've kneaded with gel food coloring.

enjoy!

-yeh!

thank you baileys for sponsoring this post. all opinions are mine!

i’ve done these things one too many times now, and i think i’ve finally learned some lessons:

1. scheduled a trip to europe where half of it occurs on a sunday.
2. scheduled a trip to a warm sunny place where i tell all of my travel companions in advance, ooooh fuck it! let’s not plan anything and just chill by the beach with chips, beer, and brightly colored literature all day. 

both of those are fun for about five minutes and both of those i did this weekend in malta after my week in tuscany. lol. i mean it was great because i was with brian and alana in literally king's landing, and then later on we were saved by a cake recommendation c/o meike followed by a mean spaghetti pie. it was also sooo sunny! but in general, i think in my older post-college age i am learning that i need to plan things when i go places and not take the lazy route. even if it's the one and only touristy tour that operates on a sunday. rather, especially if it's that because those are actually kind of fun?

am i making any sense? i got off the plane two hours ago and i'm extraordinarily jet-lagged and still emotional from watching insurgent and pitch perfect 2 separated only by the emerson string quartet's recording of verklärte nacht. delta is nailing their in-flight entertainment these days.

it's well before eight and i'm going to bed. tomorrow is sugar beet harvest eve and the excitement is in the air!!! and then this weekend i have the first photoshoot for my book, so these next few days i plan to be nervous, excited, stressed, doing pilates, and furiously recipe testing.

how was your weekend???

-yeh!

you wouldn't know it based on how much of a hermit i am now, but when i was a wee one spending my summers at sleep-away camp, i had an absolute favorite activity: outdoor cooking! all of the teachers were fresh out of the israeli army and they had cool tricks for making things like noodle kugel in a fire and the unexpected camper favorite, egg in a potato. i don't know if that was the official name, but that's exactly what it was. we'd sit around in a circle hallowing out our potatoes and then we'd put slices of american cheese in the bottom, crack in an egg, and then wrap it up with foil and throw it in the fire. i remember it taking a really long time to cook and getting really impatient and probably eating a raw potato, but it was still really good and super fun!

so because eggboy loves making fires (we just watched the francis mallman episode of chef's table and i think he has a new hero...), we had a fireside supper the other night, just the two of us, with some visits from macaroni. did i mention that macaroni are big enough to free range now?? we let them out in the morning and then they forage and hang out with the kitties during the day and then at night, they just magically return home to their coop! it is the cutest little thing. i am perplexed about what to do with all of the poop that's in our yard now, but maybe it'll function as good fertilizer??

anyway, this egg in a potato is a very fun activity. it's not the most precise way of cooking a potato and an egg--sometimes you pull it out of the fire and find a perfectly cooked egg but your potato still needs cooking, other times the potato is perfect but the egg's a bit too firm--but it'll still be tasty! top it with a bunch of cheese, make sure to bring a cute tiny bottle of hot sauce and a miniature tin of salt, and when it's ready to eat, run to your garden, yank out a few herbs, and garnish the suckers like the classy outdoor cook that you are.

egg in a potato

ingredients

medium potatoes

salt

cheese

eggs

pepper

hot sauce, optional

fresh herbs, optional

clues

start a fire!

chop off the end of a potato (keep this end part, it is the potato's hat) and then use a spoon to hollow out enough space to fit an egg and some cheese. reserve the potato innards for another use, like potato soup, or feed them to your chickies. 

salt the insides of the potato and then crack in your egg and top it with cheese. place the potato's hat back on and then wrap it firmly in aluminum foil. carefully put the potato on the outskirts of the fire. use tongs to retrieve it after about 20 minutes. carefully open up the foil and then check for doneness--the egg whites should be cooked, the potato should be easily poke-able with a fork, and the yolks can be either runny or firm. if the whites are still runny and/or the potato isn't cooked through, rewrap the potato and put it back in the fire for a few more minutes.

when the potato is ready, top it with salt, pepper, hot sauce, and fresh herbs, if desired. let it cool slightly and enjoy!

-yeh!

thank you, american egg board, for sponsoring this post! if you haven't checked out their eggcyclopedia, you should, it has a bunch of interesting facts! like, did know that brown egg layers typically eat more and their eggs are typically bigger? or that the fresher the egg, the less it'll spread in the pan when you fry it?? there's also less of a chance that a fresh egg yolk will accidentally break. hehe i'm becoming an eggspert.

sugar beet harvest is more than halfway done! i couldn't believe it when eggboy told me this news yesterday. he's expecting it to be over by friday, making it a contender for the smoothest harvest in my three-harvest history on the farm. it is at once a joy, because once it ends there will be more eggboy time for me (!!), and a shame because i've been liking the weirdness of the harvest schedule and the excitement of having all of the extra workers and their significant others around.

a typical day for eggboy this past week has been a midnight to noon shift in the fields and then another few hours being a man about the farm. a typical day for me this past week has been:

6am: wake up! before the sun! eggboy is long gone, which is kind of lonely at first but then i realize that 1) he has left me coffee and it's already cooled to a temperature where i can chug it at the speed of light, and 2) i can do all of the beyoncé dance workout videos on youtube without anyone seeing me.

7am: let out the chickies! this is normally eggboy's job but i've been doing it this week and getting a perfect shot of cold crisp air in the morning as i shout with glee, good morrrrrrning chickies! as if they are all at summer camp and i am the camp director wishing everyone a swell morning over the p.a. then i count them to make sure they're all there. and then i take in the creamsicle sunrise. 

sometime before noon: make a baked good for all of the drivers to enjoy when they get off their shifts and then run it out to the sweet table that i've set up in the workshop. this is extra fun! it makes me feel like i have a little bakery.

sometime between noon and 5pm: have lunch with eggboy. by this time he is exhausted and trying to adjust his eyes to going to sleep, so he wears sunglasses. and i don't know if he lost his or what but he's been wearing my iris apfel ones and it's completely absurd.

5pm: tuck eggboy into bed, do a little more work, and then parrrrrrrtay. either with all of my new cookbooks and prime time television, or with the other "harvest widows," as i think we're called. but i hate that name. so i'm just gonna say emily and sheila. 

nightfall: put the chickies to bed. another job that eggboy normally does but that i've been doing this week. it's a little scary to walk the five feet outside into the dark spooky nighttime but it's making me a stronger lady. 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻

meals this week have been a lot of things that don't have to be eaten immediately. sweets that can sit out in the shop at my little pop-up bakery, soups kept on the stove, quiche (lots of quiche)... and salads of various types. this broccoli rabe + chicken salad is inspired by a tasty situation that i had multiple times at lemonade in los angeles this summer. theirs was pineappleish and coconuty with some green beans scattered within, but when you zoomed out the main takeaway was that it was crunchy, salty, sweet, and vegetabley. so good. so while my version is sweetened with honey, flavored with a variation of mum's magic sesame sauce, and greened up with broccoli rabe, all of the elements i loved about that lemonade salad are there. yeah, it's essentially fancy chicken nuggets cut up and tossed with sautéed broccoli rabe. and yeah, it is perfect either hot or cold. so make some for supper and then pack the leftovers for lunch! 

Garlic Sesame Broccoli Rabe with Panko Crusted Chicken

makes 4 servings

ingredients

Chicken:

2 large eggs
1/4 cup honey mustard
3/4 tsp kosher salt
10 oz boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into strips
3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds

Broccoli rabe:

Salt, to taste
10 oz broccoli rabe, chopped into 1-inch pieces
2 tb flavorless oil, like canola
4 cloves garlic, minced

Dressing:

1 tb soy sauce
1 tb sesame oil
1 tb honey
2 tb tahini
a pinch of crushed red pepper

clues

Chicken:

Preheat the oven to 375. Line a baking sheet with parchment and set it aside. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, honey mustard, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and submerge the chicken. Cover and let marinate for 5 minutes at room temperature. 

In a separate dish, mix together the remaining 1/4 teaspoon of salt, the bread crumbs, and the toasted sesame seeds. When the chicken is done marinating, using tongs, work a few strips at a time to transfer it to the bread crumb mixture. Coat all sides of the chicken in the bread crumbs, and then transfer it to the baking sheet. 

Lightly spray the tops of the chicken strips with cooking spray and then bake for 20 minutes, until lightly browned and cooked through. 

Let cool slightly and then chop into 1-inch pieces.

Broccoli rabe:

While the chicken is baking, prepare the broccoli rabe. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add the broccoli rabe. Cook for 1-2 minutes and then drain, rinsing under cold water to stop the cooking process. Pat the broccoli rabe dry.

Heat the 2 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute, and then add the broccoli rabe with a pinch of salt and cook, stirring, for 5 more minutes. Taste and add additional salt if desired.

Assembly:

Whisk together all of the dressing ingredients.

Place the broccoli rabe and chicken in a large bowl and drizzle on the dressing. Toss to coat. Serve warm or cold. Enjoy!

-yeh!

thank you, andy boy broccoli rabe, for sponsoring this post!

i am so excited to announce the release of this extraordinarily fun thing that i have been working on with one of my very favorite design shops, brown parcel press:

a 2016 cake calendar!!!!

cue the music! cue the disco ball! cue being able to have your cake and eat it too because this calendar comes with recipes for funfetti cake, chocolate macaroon cake, rosemary pony cake, and never-before-seen strawberry basil mini cakes! (wait, oh shit, they have been seen before, but their recipe has not!)

this is the first time i've ever done a collaboration like this (hopefully not the last!) and i'm sooo happy that it got to be with megan because she is the bee's knees and monstrously talented and she uses the good paper. 🙌🏻 if i've written you a greeting card in the past year, chances are good that it was on her avocado toast card or sunny side up egg card. i love them so much! 

this is also the first time i've hawked a physical product since junior high when i had to sell gallon tubs of pre-made cookie dough to fundraise for my synchronized ice skating team so forgive me if i'm clumsy at telling you to buy things (i'll consider it practice for my book???) but all of the details for buying this calendar are right this way.

and to answer a question that you may or may not have had: no way josé, it is not too early to start buying your chrismukkah gifts!! 

-yeh!!!!! 

i went to portland for 1.5 seconds this weekend! what a neat-o, beautiful place. i had only been to the pacific northwest once before, a very very long time ago for like the 1997 eugene bach festival or something, so my clearest reference point for what the pacific northwest looks like was actually that zach efron movie, charlie st. cloud. it is a very weird movie but it has a wildly hunky dark moody forest-y hilly scenery, and i got to experience that in person this weekend! i totally now get why my entire instagram feed is so in love with the p.n.w. 

and it was the loveliest backdrop for the hello sessions, a new blog conference that i hope was the first of many because joy and melissa did such a great job with it! when i wasn't food styling and schmoozing with the hello sessioners, i was snooping around the pearl district, touching all of the cookbooks in the middle eastern section of powell's, eating tasty quiche, and searching for the perfect full body sweater. i found an ok one, it was just a little bit too wooly scratchy.

and then! on saturday night, i ventured out into oregon wine country for an amazing meal hosted by chelsey and maggie in the newspaper printing warehouse that's been in chelsey's family for four generations. it was so cool. and tasty (thanks to letumeat!) and local. i loved it.

now i am back on the farm, adjusting to post-harvest life and working on my hotdish skills. 

how was your weekend?!

i have some big news i need to share: i've surrendered to baked donuts. for quite some time, i was on the fence about them: are they really donuts? or are they just donut shaped muffins? are they hiding something? or are they real, honest desserts?

my skepticism was more or less 100% brought on by the fact that i didn't yet own a donut pan, so even if i wanted to, i couldn't join in on the fun. but all of that has changed, thanks to the good people at king arthur flour. i'm a new woman. and i have found that the shape of a donut, the ratio of surface area to glaze, and the instagrammability (😂 sorry, i had to) indeed makes the experience of a baked donut different than that of a muffin. so to begin this new baked donut phase of my life, we have a classic soft apple cider donut that goes the non-traditional route of having a white glaze. nothing against the traditional cinnamon sugar coating, i just love the texture and sweetness of a glaze and its ability to keep the sprinkles on.

glazed apple cider donuts

makes 10-12

ingredients

1/2 c sugar

1 1/4 c all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp kosher salt

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tb apple pie spice

1 large egg

1/2 c whole milk

1/4 c flavorless oil, like canola

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 c boiled cider or thawed apple juice concentrate

glaze:

1 c powdered sugar mixed with 5 tb heavy cream

decorations:

sprinkles + cinnamon sugar

clues

preheat the oven to 375ºf. grease a 12-cavity donut pan and set it aside.

in a large bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients. in a separate medium bowl, whisk together all wet ingredients. add the wet ingredients to the dry mixture and stir to combine.

Fill a piping bag with the batter and pipe the batter into the donut pans, filling each cavity halfway.

Bake for 12 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a donut comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Remove to a rack and cool completely.

To decorate the donuts, dip them halfway into the glaze and then allow excess glaze to drip off. Sprinkle the tops with sprinkles and/or cinnamon sugar and enjoy!

i used the following king arthur products in this recipe: boiled cider, all-purpose flour, apple pie spice, donut pans, vanilla extract, cinnamon vanilla sugar, caramel sugar, rainbow sugar, and perhaps the quirkiest sugar i ever did taste, butternut sugar! these are all ingredients that i would recommend and i am so excited to be partnering with them on this post and on some upcoming posts! thanks so much, king arthur! 

-yeh!

hello from austin where i am in bed at 8 and living my best life, eating a room service quesadilla, extra guacamole, extra unidentified white sauce, and hoping with all of my might that pitch perfect 2 is on demand. i really really really wanted to go out tonight and eat at all of the restaurants in jeanine's austin guide but i am completely pooped after this weekend because i have been in chicago, busy celebrating (wait for it) mum's 60th birthday!!!!!!!! it was so fun. relatives came from out of town, stoopie cooked a middle eastern feast, i made a chocolate mint cake, and we showered my mama with love!! i miss everyone so much already.

now i gotta get *in the zone* for a fun video i'm shooting with whole foods tomorrow! but first, let's talk about some stuff i'm loving these days:

-the bulk pistachio bags. making things with pistachios is fun, but making things with pistachios without ever feeling like you're going to run out is infinitely more fun. i've been working on a pistachio cake for my book, and i just learned how to milk a nut! it is so great, i can't believe i went this long without milking nuts before. (see below for gena hemshaw's nut milk recipe!)

-homemade halva. i don't think i ever really told you about my homemade halva struggle, but there was a very long and hard one and a lot of tahini was lost but finally the new york times posted michael solomonov's recipe and it worked and i feel like i can accomplish anything now. even a juice cleanse. no, just kidding, not a juice cleanse.

-this lauren winter jumpsuit. my friend lydia introduced me to lauren's work and i am so obsessed with this jumpsuit for one main reason: it is a beautiful elegant dinner-appropriate garment that completely disguises the fact that you feel like you are in your comfiest pajammies. i love it so very much.

-pilates. ever since rebecca led a mat class for alana and me last month, i have been hooked. it makes me feel sooo good and tall. i've been trying out a bunch of different youtube videos but have yet to find a clear winner... do you have a favorite online pilates video??

-sitting at the town coffee shop. ok! i've been leaving the house more and more these days. about once a week, i go to the town coffee shop, sit on my computer, and type up recipes/eavesdrop on conversations about the town gossip and what not. it makes me feel so alive. and then after that i sometimes stop at the co-op to look at the farro and pet the squash.

-fresh's cocoa body exfoliator. it makes me feel like a tootsie roll from head to toe.

-this is ground's mod laptop case. until I found this is ground, I thought that my days of organizing school supplies with such systematic glee was just a thing of my Hello Kitty pencil case past. but now! i get so much more pleasure out of bringing my work on the road, to the coffee shop, to my couch, etc. there is a designated spot for everything i need and it looks so darn cool.

-how to get away with murder. it's borderline scary for my taste, so i can't watch it without eggboy but we love it.

-quin candy. i had my first taste in portland the other day and since then i have not been able to stop. i feel like a monster when i eat it because no matter how forcefully i tell myself that this is the last piece, it is never the last piece. i've had their pretzel chews, mint chews, and fruity chews and they are all the best.

-my chickens. duh. we're ready for them to start laying eggs though. come on, macaroni!!!!! hurry up!!!!! 

here is the recipe that inspired me to try making nut milk! i've seen recipes for it many times before, but after looking through gena hemshaw/food52's new vegan cookbook (and picking up a nice big bag of pistachios), i finally got to work! it is such a tasty treat. it's like a milkshake but better because you can have more of it without feeling like butt afterwards. i like the weird sensation of drinking unstrained nut milk, it almost feels like you're drinking milk after having dunked a bunch of oreos in it and the oreo crumbs are at the bottom. but if you'd like to strain it, go ahead! i also like adding a little splash of almond extract. thank you, gena, for inspiring me to try this new tasty thing!!!! 

pistachio milk

makes 3 cups

ingredients

1 c pistachios, soaked in water for 8-12 hours and drained

4 cups water

1/4 c maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of salt

clues

put all the ingredients in a blender and blend on high speed until completely smooth, 2-3 minutes.

cover the mouth of a large container with two layers of cheesecloth, leaving a well in the cheesecloth (a new paint strainer bag or a nut milk bag will also work well). Secure with a rubber band, then pour in the blended mixture. you might need to do this in batches, gently pushing some of the pulp to the side or spooning it out and discarding it. after pouring all of the mixture in, let it sit for about 10 minutes. loosen the cheesecloth from the rim of the container and gently squeeze to extract as much liquid as possible.

stored in an airtight container in the fridge, it will keep for 2-3 days. shake well before using.

-yeh!

happy back to the future day, everyone!!! on a scale from monday to birthday, i am registering at thanksgiving-level excitement right now because the back to the future trilogy have long been my favorite movies. i have even been rooting for the cubs this year because how crazy would that be if they won the world series after the movie predicted it?!?1?!!! i made a list of ways to celebrate back to the future day and here is another list about my favorite back to the future food scenes because they are my favorite food scenes in the history of movies. i'm probably going to have huey lewis and the news on repeat today. how are you celebrating?!

i've just returned from my quick trip to austin where i crammed in so many social situations that i barely recognized myself. or maybe that was because of the fake eyelashes that were glued onto my face (that i very clumsily yanked off at the dinner table in front of jeanine and jack because i left my tact in minnesota). i had surprise drinks accompanied by very intense cookie conversation with kristen and sarah, the most amazing vegetables and funfetti ice cream sandwiches at launderette with jeanine and jack, brisket bourbon (!!!) with amy, and the loveliest breakfast at texas french bread with landen. and a bunch of chocolate on set for the super secret chocolatey video that i made with whole foods that'll be on the internet soon!

now that i'm back, i am ready to think about halloween. i am ready to plan our costumes, take advantage of the pumpkins that magically appeared on their own in our garden, and pick all of the apples from our trees which are bursting with glee! i have lots of excitement.

i recently developed two halloweeny recipes for le creuset and their line of metal bakeware. the first is a little savory twist on a caramel apple that involves candied bacon because caramel should always be salted (right?) and bacon is a great way to eat salt (right??). you can find that recipe over on le creuset's site.

and the second recipe is pumpkin slice and bake cookies! they make me wanna put on footie pajamas and turn on full house because slice and bake cookies were the cookies of my michelle tanner-ed youth. you too? excellent. 

these take a little bit of added effort to make, but they are so much fun. essentially you make one long orange oval with a stem on top and then wrap it in chocolate dough, so when you slice a cross section of it, you've got a pumpkin shape! the orange dough in this recipe is vanilla flavored, but if you'd like to throw some pumpkin spice in the mix, that would be super tasty too.

pumpkin slice and bake cookies

makes 16-18

ingredients

For the orange center:

1 c all-purpose flour
3/4 c powdered sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c unsalted butter, cold and cubed
1 large egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla
20 drops red liquid food coloring
20 drops yellow liquid food coloring

For the outer chocolate section:

3/4 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 c powdered sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c unsalted butter, cold and cubed
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla

clues

First, make the dough for the orange pumpkin center. In a food processor, pulse together the flour, powdered sugar and salt. Add the butter and continue to pulse until it is a mealy texture.

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolk, vanilla and food coloring. With the food processor running, drizzle in the egg yolk mixture and process until it becomes a dough. Turn it out onto a clean work surface.

Shape the dough into a 9-inch long round log, then flatten slightly so it becomes an oval shape. Slice off a small bit of the dough on the end, and roll it out into a long skinny snake. Place this on top of the oval so that in a cross section, it becomes the pumpkin’s stem. Place the dough in the freezer while you make the chocolate dough.

To make the chocolate dough, pulse together the flour, cocoa powder, powdered sugar and salt. Add the butter and continue to pulse until it is a mealy texture.

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolk and vanilla. With the food processor running, drizzle in the egg yolk mixture and process until it becomes a dough. Turn it out onto a clean work surface.

Roll the dough into 9-inch long skinny snakes. Stick these snakes around the perimeter of the orange dough, then roll the entire log a bit to smooth it out. Wrap the log in plastic wrap and freeze 20 – 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350ºF and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Slice the log into 1/2-inch-thick disks, and place them on a baking sheet one inch apart. Bake for about 15 minutes. Let cool slightly on the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. enjoy!

this recipe is part of sara's virtual pumpkin party!!! check out her blog for all of the other good lookin pumpkin recipes that populated the internet today! i am especially excited about the savory recipes, like steph's pumpkin and pork stuffed shells and sarah's harissa pumpkin gnocchi.

-yeh!

thank you for sponsoring this post, le creuset!!!!

hi, tuscany is no joke. there really are rolling vineyards everywhere you look, the focaccia does have grapes in it, and people actually do sit outside for beautiful timeless lunches with wine and prosciutto and dreamy conversation. that stuff's not just in the movies, it's all real. and really tasty.

my tuscan days began with crisp morning walks through the vineyards with alana or hilltop pilates class with rebecca and ended with pitch perfect 2 c/o brandiego (and his pitch perfect 2 obsession which gives me inspiration in my everyday). in between, we harvested grapes, visited montalcino for a vertical davinci brunello tasting and a gelato photoshoot, stood in the birthplace of leonardo da vinci, ate tons and tons of pizza, blended chianti, and made friends with some cows and their cheesemaker owner. note to self: make more friends with cows and their cheesemaker owners. we slept in a handsome yellow casale that was built in the 1600s.

on our last day, alana and i ate tuscan rice pastries with the wonderful emiko before zooming off to malta!

it was so magical and exactly what i imagined tuscany would be. i arrived craving pizza and pasta and left with, yes, a belly full of pizza and pasta, but also: enough wine knowledge to not look like a complete doofus when i taste a new wine, a deep affection for cannellini beans, farro and panzanella goals, and new amazing blogger friends.

every day since returning i've wondered just how expensive it would be to take up a wine hobby. so there's that. does anyone wanna coach me through this?

-yeh!

as a davinci wine storyteller, this post was created in partnership with davinci wine! davinci was started in vinci in 1961 when 30 winegrowers created a farming coop. today, davinci includes 200 winegrowers in tuscany whose grapes produce varietals like chianti, chianti riserva, pinot grigio, and brunello. 

we have rules in our house about friday night pizza night:

1. we have to eat pizza every friday (duh)

2. things that have traditional pizza ingredients but aren't necessarily technically pizza count. so, like, cheese on toast with a tomato slice counts. spaghetti with tomato sauce and parmesan cheese counts. a grilled cheese with ketchup counts. this is weird, i am aware.

3. if eggboy and i are apart on a friday or if we're somewhere on a friday night where there is no pizza, we either try to plan ahead and have pizza for friday lunch or makeup for it and have pizza on saturday or sunday.

4. frozen pizza is ok. take-out is ok. planning a day ahead and starting a batch of jim lahey's no-knead pizza dough on thursday night is ideal though. i should have a reoccurring reminder on my phone for this.

5. if we're apart for a week or more, all bets are off. eat as much pizza as you want, when you want, standing over the sink, while watching reality t.v. anytime, anywhere. sending blurry pizza eating selfies and surpluses of pizza emoji are noted bonuses.  

my pizza night in tuscany was a category five pizza night: it was on a monday. a monday! and it was at sunset, with a view of the rolling tuscan hills and a big hunky pizza oven that was part of our home for the week. rebecca, alana, brandiego, and i used herbs from the garden and tons of other tasty things to build soo much pizza, it was fantastic. with some inspiration from the surrounding vineyards, i made a little riff on this prosciutto + grape pizza. it had a grape smiley face.

today, as a little reunion for our tuscany trip, the other davinci storytellers and i are posting pizza recipes inspired by our trip! since i already posted the grape pizza that i made at our party, my recipe today is inspired by the amazing cannellini beans that i ate in tuscany. they were so good and fresh, i think we were there during bean season. beans have never really been at the top of my favorite foods list (unless they were blended into hummus), but with the way these tuscan ones were prepared, with plenty of rosemary, garlic, and olive oil, i saw them in a whole new way. so in the place of sauce, this pizza has a cannellini bean puree, and it's then topped with a basic soffritto and some crispy pancetta. 

and ok, i am well aware that it is not the most supermodel-y lookin pizza, no amount of casually dropped rosemary sprigs or fresh parm or even white truffle oil from the tiny tuscan town of san miniato can fix that. but listen up! it tastes like grandma's chicken soup went on a pizza and it's good. 

cannellini and soffritto pizza with pancetta and parmesan

serves 4

ingredients

1 can cannellini beans, strained and rinsed
1/2 sprig of fresh rosemary (stem removed), plus more for garnish
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for finishing the pizza
Kosher salt and pepper
5 ounces chopped pancetta
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1/2 large onion, finely chopped
1 batch Jim Lahey’s pizza dough (divided into 2 parts, not 4), or pizza dough of your choice
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

white truffle oil, optional

clues

Preheat the oven to 500ºF.

In a food processor, combine the beans, rosemary, garlic, olive oil, a good pinch of salt and a few turns of pepper and blend until smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings as desired.

In a medium skillet, cook the pancetta until crispy. Remove it to a plate, keeping the fat in the pan. You’ll want a thin coating of fat on the pan to cook the vegetables, so pour some off if needed, or if the pan is a bit dry, supplement the pancetta fat with a drizzle of olive oil. Heat the fat over medium high heat and add the vegetables with a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring, for 7-10 minutes, until the vegetables have softened. Salt and pepper to taste.

On a baking sheet or pizza peel, flatten out half of the pizza dough. Top it with half of the bean mixture, pancetta, vegetables, and parmesan and bake until the crust is splotchy with brown spots. Begin checking for doneness at 5 minutes. Repeat with the other half of the pizza dough and toppings.

Finish the pizzas with fresh rosemary, a drizzle of olive oil or white truffle oil, and more parmesan and enjoy with a glass of davinci chianti!

-yeh!

as a davinci wine storyteller, this post was created in partnership with davinci wine! 

happy halloween, friends!! are you excited or totally indifferent about the holiday? i've been pretty indifferent these past few years, but this year through a perfect storm combination of having an easy costume that i am so excited about*, not one but two invites to halloween parties, and the general urge to chill my bum off after a fun yet nutso month of traveling, i am more than ready to celebrate.

*i will be a cupcake wars contestant and eggboy will be the carpenter man that builds my cupcake display. in other words, i'll carry around a plate of cupcakes and make new friends and eggboy will wear a plaid flannel shirt like he does every other day anyway. in other other words, we will literally just walk out of the house.

i plan on spending the rest of my weekend celebrating the end of daylight savings time. is that something that people do? is it an excuse to make a cake and spend the day in pajamas? can it be? ok good.

and check this out, my eggs in a basket dressed up for halloween: as yogurt toast! i know, easiest costume ever. the toast equivalent to a bed sheet ghost, but we love it all the same! if you haven't jumped on the eggs + yogurt train yet, please get on this immediately. and if you haven't jumped on the yogurt toast train yet, please also get on this immediately. and then you will see how yogurt covered eggs in a basket was meant to be. the creaminess of the yolk and the yogurt balanced by a crispy buttery piece of toast makes for a very comforting, filling breakfast that will keep you energized for all of your trick-or-treating! i like sprinkling mine with my nice za'atar, olive oil, and the newest edition to my spice collection, berbere, which is common in ethiopian cuisine. but you can top yours with anything you'd like. keep it simple with salt, pepper, and hot sauce, or maybe go crazy and add caramelized onions. yum!

yogurt covered eggs in a basket

makes 1

ingredients

a slice of bread

butter

an egg

a big plop of plain yogurt (full-fat, low-fat, or fat free)

salt and pepper, to taste

any additional toppings as desired, like za'atar, berbere, hot sauce, caramelized onions, olive oil, etc.

clues

Cut a 2 1/2 or 3-inch circle out of your bread and spread both sides with a thin layer of butter. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium high heat and toast the bread and its circle on one side until brown. Flip them over, and then crack the egg into the hole. 

Cover the pan and cook until the egg whites are firm but the yolk is still runny. Remove the bread and its circle from the heat and spread with a thick layer of yogurt. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and any other toppings that you'd like and enjoy!

-yeh!

thank you so much to the american egg board for sponsoring this post! head over to their site to check out eggspert tips like when and why to use room temperature eggs, how to substitute various sizes of eggs, and best storing practices for eggs. i'll be especially thankful for the size substitution chart when my chickies start cranking out eggs of all sizes but my baking recipes still all call for large eggs!

we ate velveeta and talked about messiaen. i offered a cupcake to the police man at the sobriety checkpoint and he declined it. i think i wore my apron cupcake wars costume for 10 minutes before taking it off, and then we said goodnight to the cows as we left emily and evan's. it was great! how was your halloween?? get any good candy? i got a jumbo tootsie roll. it was v nostalgic and chewy. almost as nostalgic as the velveeta.

tonight we have our first curling class!!!! i cannot contain my excitement. i've never done curled before. our town has a curling place (rink? stadium? school? i don't know what you call it) and after missing the beginner's level sign up last year, we jumped on signing up this year because how could you not try it at least once when you live in the north pole? do any of you curl? quick, give me some tips. i have no idea what i've gotten myself into.

here is a recipe that i contributed to food52's new baking book! it is an updated version of these little guys. they're nutty, not too sweet, and nestled in this book alongside all sorts of fun recipes, like marian's tomato soup cake and phyllis' brown butter cupcake brownies. these cupcakes are paired with matcha frosting in the book (you can find that recipe here) but for my halloween costume i stuck with a basic vanilla buttercream (like the one here) and decorated them on the theme of... sprinkles and teddybears? i don't know, i had trouble thinking up a good cupcake wars theme and there was marzipan and a teddybear cookie cutter sitting right next to me.

black sesame cupcakes

makes 12

ingredients

1 1/4 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tb unsweetened cocoa
6 tb black sesame seeds, toasted and ground in a spice grinder to a fine crumb
1/2 c unsalted buter, softened
1/4 c tahini
3/4 c sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 c milk

clues

Preheat oven to 350ºf. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners and set aside.

Whisk together all dry ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream together butter, tahini, and sugar until pale and creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Add the vanilla. Reduce the speed to low and then gradually mix in the dry ingredients and then beat in the milk. Scoop into the cupcake tins and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Begin checking for doneness at 18 minutes. 

Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

frost as desired with matcha buttercream (this recipe makes enough for 24 cupcakes, so you only need half!) or vanilla buttercream. enjoy!

-yeh!

it is fiiiiiiinally snowing!!!!

and it's been coming down *hard* all day. it's amazing! best day ever. i'm wearing fleece and christmas commercials are on the tv and i've just frosted a bunch of sugar cookies, so happy holidays??? when do we open presents??

part of me wants to put my jammies on, hunker down while tim allen dad bods around in his santa claus outfit, and not emerge until the springtime, but (!) i've got curling again tonight! so hunkering down will have to wait.

ohmygosh, curling is so much fun. on tuesday we went over the basics of releasing the stone down the ice, which i loved because i got to put my yoga lunges and balancing practices to use. tonight we're going to sweep more. we did some of that toward the end of class on tuesday and i kept feeling like i was going to fall on my face but the good part was that it kept me warmer because, my goodness, that rink is cold. i think i'll wear long underwear tonight...

how many of you completed your hawaij assignment this week?? isn't hawaij bananas?!! if you're just joining us, hawaij is a yemeni spice blend and it is pronounced "huh-why-adge." there are two types: hawaij for soup and hawaij for coffee, and the kind we're focusing on today is the coffee blend. (although you should definitely get with some hawaij for soup, too.) hawaij for coffee typically includes ginger and cardamom, and then any number of other spices in that flavor realm, like cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, maybe anise or fennel... in other words it is basically what would happen if pumpkin spice got swallowed up by cardamom. and hawaij isn't basic yet, so obsess over it shamelessly while you can! 

hawaij is perfect when it's sprinkled into coffee grounds (it's like cardamom coffee on steroids), and coffee goes well with donuts. so here, have some hawaij coffee donuts! they're very cozy. very tasty. very winter.

hawaij coffee donuts

makes 12

ingredients

1 c sugar
1 3/4 c flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tb hawaij (recipe below)
1 large egg
6 tb buttermilk
6 tb oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c coffee, hot or cold or room temp

glaze:

1 c confectioners’ sugar
2 tb coffee
1 tb milk
1/2 tsp hawaij

assembly:

cardamom pods, sprinkles, anise or fennel seeds, optional

hawaij:

1 tb ground ginger

1 tb ground cardamom

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

mix together all ingredients. this will make a little more than you need for this recipe. leftovers can be sprinkled in coffee!

clues

preheat the oven to 375ºf. grease a 12-cavity donut pan and set it aside.

in a large bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients. in a separate medium bowl, whisk together all* wet ingredients. add the wet ingredients to the dry mixture and stir to combine.

*important: if the coffee is hot, do not mix it in with the wet ingredients at first. you don't want it cooking the egg! instead, mix it in at the end, after you've combined the rest of the wet ingredients and dry ingredients.

fill a piping bag with the batter and pipe the batter into the donut pans, filling each cavity halfway. this batter is a bit thin, so this could get a little messy. i stick a finger over the piping bag hole while i'm transitioning between donut cavities and when piping, it's important to go fast since the batter comes out pretty quickly.

bake for 12 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a donut comes out clean. cool in the pan for 5 minutes. remove to a rack and cool completely.

to make the glaze, mix together all ingredients until smooth. if it seems too thick, add more coffee little by little.

to decorate the donuts, dip them halfway into the glaze and then allow excess glaze to drip off. sprinkle the tops with any desired decorations and enjoy!

-yeh!

i was a smelly homebody this weekend! i wrote and procrastinated and then wrote and procrastinated some more, and then at night we emerged to go eat salads at our brand spankin new awesome town brewery because we are hip millennials and our brewery is so cool. (now that we have a brewery, what else do we need in order for you to come visit us? a fried chicken place? a cookbook store? i'll work on it.)

i have some personal news and that's that i don't think i'm a future village champion curler of america. or maybe i'm just judging it too quickly? but ok, imagine this: because i was a former mathlete and know a thing or two about angles and curves, i was elected to be the skip, which is the position that stands down at the far end of the ice to give aiming directions while everyone else (i.e. all of your friends who you signed up with) waits to throw the stone (i.e. hangs out and laughs and forms inside jokes and strengthens their friend bonds). so there i was, spending my three units of social time for the week trying to make small talk about the fabled beer vending machine that's hidden deep in the back room of the curling barn with a total stranger and failing miserably and watching my friends at a very long distance laughing and having the best time ever. so i quit.

conveniently, the class session ended that day so i didn't need to be dramatic about quitting mid-season and letting my team down, not that i was of any real value anyway, but i'm glad i tried! it was a really fascinating learning experience and maybe i'll take it back up again once i find a teammate who is socially confident enough to not get fomo while watching a bunch of people whom they can't interact with have fun. could i put out a craigslist ad for a skip? female, 26, seeks platonic friendship with introverted calculus whiz who can lunge well. 

errmm...for now i think i'll devote all my free time to master of none. what a great show! 

i wanted to make you a grape salad as a nostalgic nod to #grapegate for thanksgiving. but i came up with this farro salad with roasted grapes, because 1) ohmygahh grapes deserve better than to be dressed in an outfit of sour cream, and 2) i'm going through a farro stage. it's such a fancy yet hearty grain! i've been using it lately where i would normally use israeli couscous or rice. (my first foray into farrotto happened over the weekend and it was a success.) this salad is great warm or at room temperature, and the rosemary, toasted almonds, and roasted grapes lend some wonderful fall flavors. i've been putting some fresh mozzarella in mine, but if you're looking for a vegan dish for your thanksgiving table, this will totally hold up without the cheese. and speaking of vegan thanksgivings, um, i think i'm gonna make a squashducken...????

rosemary farro with roasted grapes, shallots, and almonds

serves 4-6

ingredients

1 pound grapes from california

1/4 c olive oil, divided

kosher salt and black pepper

1 c farro, rinsed and drained

1 sprig rosemary

1 large shallot or 2 small ones, finely chopped

1 1/2 tb white wine vinegar

1/2 c toasted almonds, roughly chopped

4 oz fresh mozzarella pearls, optional

clues

preheat the oven to 425ºf. line a baking sheet with parchment and spread out the grapes (remove them from their stems). drizzle them with 1 tablespoon olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper and roast for 30 minutes.

in a large pot, cover the farro with water, add the rosemary sprig and a good pinch of salt, bring it to a boil, and then reduce the heat to simmer for 30 minutes, until tender. drain it and place it in a large bowl. (discard the rosemary sprig.)

while the farro is simmering, place the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a small pot with the shallot and simmer it over medium heat. remove it from the heat once the farro is done cooking and stir in the vinegar. 

add the grapes, almonds, and mozzarella (if using) to the bowl with the farro and drizzle it with the shallot mixture. toss to combine. salt and pepper to taste. serve warm or at room temperature. enjoy!

-yeh!

this post is sponsored by grapes from california. all opinions are my own!

i think macaroni are going to start laying eggies soon. i can feel it in mah bones! (lol no i can't, what does that even mean?) or at least i really really really want them to, so that on a day like today when i go to make a savory bread pudding and then fail the first time but need more eggs to try it again, i don't have to brave the vicious snow flurries and drive to town. 

while i'm at it, you know what else would be great during this nutso cookbook recipe testing phase? a little cow that produces just the right amount of milk, olive oil on tap, and a sesame tree.. err.. bush? with a tahini mill. 

that's all!

like a good cashmere sweater, this cake is a solid choice for when you want to feel comfortable, cozy, and just a little bit glamorous. it's very reliable and making it is easy peasy *pumpkin* peasy. here i'm using king arthur flour's pumpkin pie spice, which is amazing and cuts down on time measuring out each individual spice. and this cake is fluffier than your average pumpkin loaf, so it's extra receptive to a nice smattering of cream cheese frosting. i recommend putting this at the center of a little fall party or your thanksgiving table (because as you know, i err on the side of #teamcake over #teampie). to make things even easier, you can bake the layers now and freeze them until thanksgiving! simply wrap your cooled layers tightly in plastic wrap, freeze, and then defrost slightly before frosting.

pumpkin layer cake

makes one 2-layer 8-inch cake

ingredients

cake:

1 3/4 c sugar
2 1/2 c unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tb pumpkin pie spice
2 large eggs
1 c buttermilk
1 c pumpkin puree
1/2 c vegetable or canola oil
1 tb vanilla extract
3/4 c water

frosting:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

assembly:

caramel, optional

pumpkin seeds, optional

clues

cake:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease and line the bottoms of two 8-inch cake pans and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and pumpkin pie spice. In a separate, medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, pumpkin, oil, vanilla, and water. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir to combine.

Pour the batter into the cake pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Begin checking for doneness at 28 minutes.

Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes and then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.

frosting:

using an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter and cream cheese until smooth. gradually add the confectioners' sugar and beat to combine. beat in the extracts and salt. this will make enough to frost your cake with a naked/crumb coat effect. if you'd like it to be fully, um, clothed, make another half batch of frosting.

assembly:

when the layers are cooled, level the tops (if you want you can just level the top of the bottom layer) and then stack them up with a layer of frosting in between. frost all over with an offset spatula.

if you'd like to cover it in caramel, freeze your the frosted cake until the frosting is solid and cold, melt the caramel on the stove or in the microwave and stir it for a bit so that it cools slightly (you want it pourable but not too hot that it'll melt the frosting). pour it over the cake. do this right before you serve it and don't store it in a warm room otherwise it will all ooze off and get all over your counter, i know from experience. 😁 add pumpkin seeds if desired!

i used the following king arthur products in this recipe: all-purpose flour, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla extract, and this huge amazing block of caramel. thank you so much, king arthur, for sponsoring this post!

-yeh!

and a little guide to fixing holiday dessert fails!

have we ever had a real honest discussion about bundt cakes and how i've never made a successful one and how it was even once a dark joke with yossy and sarah and me? and how all i ever wanted for my wedding was a gaggle of mini bundts on my dessert table and even though that is a gross exaggeration, i tried so hard to have red velvet mini bundts and failed miserably and had to reroute those suckers at the very last minute before saying my vows? the bundt struggle is real, as is the struggle with so many other holiday desserts and i've been doing some thinking: it's time we did some good old fashioned mental preparation for the holidays. 

sure, dessert fails aren't totally specific to the holidays, but any time you're making a dessert for a special occasion, you have the added pressure of *time*, and the challenge gets worse. like, just last month, i got an email about a failed batch of halloween cookies and by the time i could sit down and write a reply, i realized that halloween was half over and knew my advice probably wouldn't do much good at that point. so because the holidays are upon us and because i'm expecting all of you to do a bunch of baking this season, i've put together a little list of tricks that will help you save and repurpose any desserts that have gone south. it's my little way of keeping it together during the holidays, or as the good folks at hallmark say, #keepsakeit together.

if your bundt cake or any other cake breaks while it's coming out of the pan: crumble it all up, distribute the crumbles into individual jars and top them with a dollop of frosting and sprinkles (this is what i did with my wedding bundts!) or you can make cake truffles.

if your gingerbread walls fall apart: you can do what i did during the great gingerbread house catastrophe of 1997, in which we accidentally bought the fluffy flimsy frosting instead of the holds-like-glue frosting: use cardboard for the walls and glue them together with a hot glue gun. decorate with candy as if nothing happened... not even a monstrous tantrum...

if your cheesecake cracks down the middle: happens to me all the time. ugh! do what eva does and dump a bunch of berries on it! or cover the top in frosting or caramel. yum.

if your pie fails in any of the million ways that pies do: chop it up and fold it into some ice cream for a pie sundae or a pie milkshake. you were planning on serving it with ice cream anyway, right?

if your meringues deflate in the oven: break all of them up to make an eton mess!

if your cookies break or burn or you spend your afternoon building sugar cookie mini cakes and then a storm (or cat?) blows through and they all fall down: ok, i made you this sugar cookie mini cake recipe so that i could demonstrate what to do! these little guys are inspired by this cute ornament (seriously with all of the mini cakes that i've made why have i not made cookie mini cakes?? thank you, cookie ornament, for inspiring me to do this!) and for the record, no, a kitty did not come and tip all of these over. we're just talking theoretically here... see below for the recipe and my solution for fixing cookies gone wrong:

sugar cookie mini cakes

makes 6

ingredients

Cookies:

3 c all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1 c unsalted butter, softened
1 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 large egg
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Frosting:

1 c unsalted butter, softened
2 c confectioners’ sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
A pinch of kosher salt

Sprinkles, for decorating

clues

Cookies:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl with an electric mixer or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar on medium high until pale and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium and add the extracts and egg and mix to combine.  Reduce the speed to low and then gradually add the dry ingredients and mix to combine. Pour the dough out onto a clean work surface and give it a few kneads to bring it all together. Divide it in half, wrap half of it plastic wrap, and refrigerate it while you roll out the first half. (Alternatively, you can make the dough in advance, wrap all of it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it overnight.)

Dust your work surface and a rolling pin with confectioners’ sugar and roll out the dough to 1/4” thickness. Cut out five increasing sizes of circles, 1 1/2"-3" (i use these biscuit cutters) and use a small offset spatula to transfer them to a baking sheet, 1" apart. Re-roll scraps and repeat with the remaining half of the dough. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the bottoms are lightly browned. Let the cookies cool on the pans for 5 minutes and then transfer them a wire rack to cool completely.

Frosting:

In a large bowl with an electric mixer or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter until soft and creamy. Gradually add the sugar and mix to combine. Mix in the extracts and salt. Add food coloring, if desired.

Assembly:

Transfer the frosting to a piping bag. Stack up the circles, largest on bottom, with a thin layer of frosting between them and decorate with sprinkles.

...ok so now you're la-dee-da going about your day after you spent hours building these and this happens:

never fear, make a good old northern midwest cookie salad! crunch up your cookies, fold them into whipped cream, add some fruit if you'd like, top with sprinkles (important!) and make some obscure fargo reference while you serve it in cute trifle cups. and hint: if your cookies failed by way of over baking, let your salad sit in the fridge for a good few hours (or overnight) before serving to allow the cookies to soften in the whipped cream. boom! cookie failure has been reversed. 

congratulations, you are now a holiday dessert resuscitator! now go forth and bake and enjoy your holiday season. 

-yeh!

thank you, hallmark! for sponsoring this post!! check out hallmark's microsite to see how others #keepsakeit together for the holidays! 

greetings from deep fried foods week! i have been spending my days in ratty old painting clothes, frying up all of the recipes for my book and the upcoming hanukkah season over and over and over again, and listening to justin bieber.

(because i am a fan of justin bieber now. omg. i don't even call him justin bieber, it's just bieber and eggboy doesn't approve. but! i like his new album! and when i listen to it i feel similarly to how i felt in 2009 about owl city: fun, ready to dance, and maybe in the mood for some internet shopping because in 2009 i did all of my holiday shopping on 5th avenue with owl city fireflying in my t-mobile sidekick earbuds, or something... i've also been really really into that disclosure/lorde song that they ***nailed*** on snl last weekend.)

ok, so now you know the vibe of my kitchen these days. fry stuff, eat it, make every attempt to dance it all off, repeat. watch master of none. don't think about skinny jeans. i know it was a really dumb decision from a health standpoint to book all of my fried food into one week (i ate latkes and schnitzel yesterday, that's it), but from a cleanup perspective, all is going well up in here! 

i recently learned a really great new thing about frying. last month i took a trip to the california olive ranch (those are their olives being harvested in the photos!) and among my biggest takeaways from the trip, in addition to the v fun times spent with lindsey and grace, was that the smoke point of good fresh olive oil is actually high enough to allow deep frying. like 425º high. i've always thought that canola and vegetable oil were best for frying, but finally i got home and fried some cauliflower and potato chips in ca olive ranch's olive oil and it worked. no smoke at all. it was like magic, only then i googled it and by the looks of how many articles there are about it, i think i am one of the last people to learn this... whatever! i get to eat all of the chips by myself with less guilt now.

this chip recipe is the easiest recipe ever. it's just fried sweet potatoes dusted with baharat, which is a middle eastern spicy situation that's got a little bit of cumin and some mad fall flavors going on, like cinnamon and nutmeg. it's super wonderful and these chips are likely something i'll make again after thanksgiving with any leftover sweet potatoes that didn't make it into the casserole.

olive oil baharat sweet potato chips

ingredients

good olive oil, for frying (like california olive ranch)

1 large sweet potato, thinly sliced with a mandoline

kosher salt

1 tsp baharat, or to taste

1/4 tsp sugar

garlic and onion yogurt sauce, for dipping

clues

in a heavy pot fitted with a thermometer, heat about 2" olive oil to 360º. fry the potato slices in batches until browned and crispy, 1 1/2-2 minutes. transfer them to a paper towel. sprinkle with salt, baharat, and sugar, and enjoy!

-yeh!

thank you so much to the california olive ranch for sponsoring this post! their olive oil is some of the best olive oil i've ever had and i am so excited to be partnering with them on posts over the next year!

yay, thanksgiving week! clappy hands, clappy hands. i was going to be sad about our fun-filled weekend* coming to an end, but then i realized that another weekend is going to start the day after tomorrow. yay!!! 

*pizza night on the town with eggsister and eggsisterman! a ride on a ferris wheel! the new hunger games! cookies! tacos and nacho with fellow chicken parent friends! ooh and adele on snl. yessss.

so i'm gonna go hurry off to get my thanksgiving grocery shopping ducks in a row so that i can have first pick of the brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes.

this is a super simple recipe that works best when it's made with day-old cornbread (ahem, as in leftover-from-thanksgiving cornbread). corn, caramelized onions, and cream cheese are all things that can hang so nicely on the borderline of sweet and savory, and you know me, i *love* a savory breakfast, so i like finishing this off with a sprinkling of salt, pepper, and paprika or harissa powder. but! if you want to take this in a sweet direction, there is no shame in nixing the onions here and topping this with powdered sugar or syrup! 

cornbread french toast with caramelized onions and cream cheese

this makes enough for about 2 slices of cornbread, but it can easily be doubled/tripled/etc.

ingredients

unsalted butter, for the pan

1/2 small onion, thinly sliced

1 large egg

2 tb whole milk

two 1/2" slices day old cornbread

salt and pepper

2 dollops of cream cheese

hot sauce or any spicy seasonings, optional, to taste

clues

heat a small pat of butter over medium heat and cook the onions, stirring occasionally, until they're very soft and brown.

meanwhile, heat another pat of butter in a skillet over medium-medium high. beat the egg and milk in a bowl and soak both sides of the cornbread in it (i keep mine in for 15 seconds per side, but depending on how sturdy/fluffy your cornbread is, you might find it needs more or less time), brown both sides in the skillet, season both sides with salt and pepper, and then top with onions, a dollop of cream cheese, and a sprinkling of hot stuff, if using. enjoy!

-yeh!

thank you so much to the american egg board for sponsoring this post! check out their site for information on things like all of those symbols on egg packaging and how to decipher the numbers are printed next to a sell by date. (do you know what a julian date is?!) their site also has tons of fun egg recipes which i'll certainly need once macaroni start laying. follow #recipeeggchange for recipes and holiday hacks to use in the kitchen this season!

pictured: pan // towel // bowl

ok, hi!!! this isn't *thanksgiving content* this is just a list of things that i am excited about. you can read it now or when everyone else is tryptophan napping (and you're not because you b.y.o.-ed a squashducken) or when your husband is outside hanging christmas lights from the chicken coop even though half of them are burnt out. i don't know. 

eggboy's birthday! and eggdad's too! // they are both early next week so we are celebrating this weekend and eggboy has requested corned beef hash, which i have never made before! do you have any tips? so far all i got is the name and number of the town diner, in case i screw it all up.

my quin candy advent calendar // it's been sitting in my kitchen for about a week now, tempting me every time i walk by. thankfully there are bonus days thrown in there, so i've broken into those already, but now i've gotta wait until december 1 to actually start the countdown.

pizza night x 2 // since today is the friday of this week's work week, we get to have pizza. and since real friday is also still friday, we get to have pizza again. yippee!! amy thielen's cracker crust pizza has been one of our favorite's lately and we've been grinding up some of the wheat that eggboy grows to put in the dough. very tasty! very farm to belly.

these cute-as-a-button cake stands // they are the ones in these pictures and they are from aheirloom and yessss, your mini cakes deserve their own mini stands.

i'm gonna be in the tv making gingerbread cookies all weekend! // turn on food network or hgtv on saturday night at 8pm (eastern time) and i'll be making these little guys at some point during the hour! 

the turquoise raymond loewy skillet // i mean, look at it, it's stunning. it makes me want to be one of those people who are into design and who can authoritatively say things like, "ah yes, i love a good mid-century modern design." or something.

the spring awakening revival // it is my favorite musical and it recently returned to broadway with a cast that's a mix of hearing and deaf actors. watch this video, it is so beautiful. 

cake in a crate // my old friend from juilliard and his ladyfriend recently started the coolest ever company that is basically like blue apron but for vegan/gluten-free/refined sugar-free cakes! i tried it out over the summer and it is great. all of the ingredients come in cute individual packages (a.k.a. my true weakness in life) and the recipes are super tasty. i am especially excited about it right now because these here hazelnut mini cakes are now one of the crates that they're offering! 

...so these are vegan and gluten-free??? yesyesyes! they are super squishy and nutty and a little bit coconutty, and of course chocolaty because what is a hazelnut without its friend, chocolate? they are so easy to make and they whip up in a heartbeat and in case you're snowed in or you don't want to put on pants to go to the store or you just like cute awesome things, here, have cake in a crate send you all of the ingredients! 

hazelnut mini cakes

makes 12

Ingredients

Cake

1 1/4 c Gluten-free all-purpose flour
2/3 cup hazelnuts, toasted and finely ground
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2/3 c maple syrup
1/3 c coconut oil, melted but not hot
2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 c full fat coconut milk

Ganache

3/4 c chocolate chips
2 tb coconut oil
1 tb coconut milk
2 tb maple syrup

Assembly

Crushed toasted hazelnuts
Sprinkles

Clues

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin and set it aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, hazelnuts, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. In a separate, medium bowl, whisk together the syrup, coconut oil, vanilla, and coconut milk. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and then pour into the muffin tins. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean; begin checking for doneness at 16 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the ganache, place the chocolate chips and coconut oil in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave in 30-second increments, stirring after each, until the chocolate is fully melted. Stir in the coconut milk and syrup, and then continue stirring for a few minutes until the ganache cools slightly. 

To decorate, pour the ganache over the cakes so that it drips down the sides. Top with hazelnuts and sprinkles as desired. Enjoy! 

-yeh!