Why is it we love cupcakes so much? By “we” I mean us girls because, let’s face it, they’re pretty girlie. I’ve never heard a guy say, “Oh! Let’s stop and get a half dozen cupcakes! Won’t that be fun!?” Nope. I’m fairly certain I will never hear those words out of Barnaby’s mouth.
I found these [...]

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Lemon curd is a quintessentially English treat. It reminds me of tea at Harrod’s in London when I was in the 5th grade. It’s delicious slathered over scones with cream or baked in a fruit tart. I especially love it when it makes you pucker.
The following recipe, from the cookbook Once Upon A Tart, [...]

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Nothing tops off a Summer Solstice dinner more perfectly than an apple tart. My friend’s mother, Val, made a simply divine one the other night, and I am still daydreaming about its goodness. I’m talking the-skies-opened-up-and-the-angels-sang good.
Although tarts seem like a relatively simple dessert, it’s the crust wherein lies the excruciating challenge. And to me, [...]

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The other night, on our way to dinner in the Sunset District of San Francisco, we stumbled upon a wonderful little Russian market. Being from Manhattan, where smoked fish abounds, Barnaby was immediately drawn to the shiny fish-filled glass encasement. He had the same look on his face that I get when I walk into [...]

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In 1973, at the age of 5, my family moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to Sunriver, a little resort town in Central Oregon just south of Bend. Sunriver is nestled at the feet of the beautiful Cascade mountains and hugged by both the Big and Little Deschutes rivers. My parents, who had visited [...]

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I stepped into Bakery Nouveau and, as I wiped the drool from my chin, my eyes fell upon them - gasp, mon dieu! - les macarons. These are not coconut macaroons, mon cher. While I adore a good coconut macaroon, Parisian macaroons are in another cookie league altogether. They are quite hard to find in [...]

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In 1994, my mom’s best friend, and my “spiritual” mother, Ann Wall Frank wrote a fabulously hilarious little cookbook titled Cooking For Your Evil Twin: Devilishly Tempting Recipes for the Modern Woman.
I was looking for a chocolate chip cookie recipe the other day and remembered Ann’s swoon-inducing decadent version. This is no Tollhouse cookie, my [...]

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I know I should, but I don’t always eat breakfast. So on those days when I get my morning latte at Starbuck’s I’m tempted to get a bran muffin; hoping it will be a healthy hold-me-until-lunch breakfast. It does hold me until lunch, but unfortunately, I’m pretty sure it’s loaded with sugar, which forgoes my [...]

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We are having near-hurricane weather here in the Bay Area so I’ve decided to stay indoors and break in the beautiful new shiny red Kitchen Aid mixer that Barnaby got me for Christmas. Let’s hope the power can stay on long enough.
We’re visiting a friend in Napa this weekend so I thought I’d whip up [...]

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