Casados. It’s what someone might say of a couple replete with smooches and rings on the left hand. They’re casado. Married. Nathan and I said our vows in a rustic church filled to the hilt with family and friends from all over the globe. When planning the wedding, it was important that it feel like… Continue reading Casados
Category: Recipes
Butternut Squash Chili
Firsts carry a certain lightness where potential and possibility lead the way. I knew and Nathan knew after the first date that we’d found something rare and good in each other. Over Senegalese food, we bantered and talked for hours. Here was a guy whose eyes did not glaze over as I lightly rebuffed the… Continue reading Butternut Squash Chili
Gingered Chocolate Orange Muffcakes
I love a challenge. Well, let me preface that by saying maybe not the kind that makes a mathlete’s head whir and spin or even the kind you might see on Survivor. The other day on Twitter, Linda (aka SaltySeattle) initiated a baking party of Muffcakes, all to be posted on December 27th. While she… Continue reading Gingered Chocolate Orange Muffcakes
Bittersweet Chocolate Cake with Candied Cranberries
May his memory be for blessing. A year ago, I didn’t know that Christmas would be the last time I would see my Dad alive. A year ago, we sat around a humble dinner table decked out with Christmas finest and enjoyed a meal, a conversation, some laughs and some tears. He had come to… Continue reading Bittersweet Chocolate Cake with Candied Cranberries
Gingerbread with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
Boy, this year has flown by. Two months in as Beck and I have begun playing the adult version of house. You remember that game, right? As kids you meet and decide who’s going to play which role, and maybe even serve little china cups with make-believe tea. Perhaps your guests involve stuffed animals or… Continue reading Gingerbread with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
Silky Butternut Squash Soup
The fall hastened the coming of winter this year. Fall came and went overshadowed by the wedding. I think I missed November altogether this year. Thanksgiving became the whole of the month. Yikes. Month one of being married kept us busy unpacking and making our home from our individual bits. Winter in San Francisco is… Continue reading Silky Butternut Squash Soup
Mexican Wedding Cookies & a Cookie Swap
Over dinner one night in Oakland, I swapped stories and ideas with Luna. We share a love of tea and as such had decided it would be fun to meet up and bake at my new digs using tea. Weeks and a wedding later, the idea was revisited and began growing until I swapped out… Continue reading Mexican Wedding Cookies & a Cookie Swap
Pumpkin Cream Pie
There is so much to be thankful for. Many kids love the gifts that Christmas brings, but from a young age, I found myself enchanted with Thanksgiving. It quickly became my favorite holiday. This might have had something to do with the food. It might have had something to do with family. It might have… Continue reading Pumpkin Cream Pie
Chicken Sausage with Lentils and Salami
Two weeks before the time my finger would find a circlet of white gold wrapped around it, the chaos and nervous jitters had come and been communicated through. What remained were the small embellishments for the party celebrating a newly cemented us. Weddings often bring people together in unexpected ways and one of the pieces… Continue reading Chicken Sausage with Lentils and Salami
Snickerdoodles
The apartment is filled with the aroma of cinnamon and sugar mingling together in the air. Something about this smell is both comforting and reminiscent of childhood. It smells like home. I somehow lucked out, as I was the one who got to move into the apartment before the wedding. Over the past few years… Continue reading Snickerdoodles
Golden Borscht with Potato Crostini
It pays to have people in your life who entertain for a living. My friend Katy sings opera and can do a spot on perfect Scottish accent or Russian. I chalk it up to her time studying for a role in Eugene Onegin several years back. Regardless, her Russian accent inspired the nickname Olga, so… Continue reading Golden Borscht with Potato Crostini
Cassoulet
Fresh back from the honeymoon, I would love to say we filled the kitchen with cinnamon and butter and sugar emanating from a hot oven. Our lives were as they had been a la honeymoon equal parts tense and excited at the possibilities ahead. No, I’m not referring to the early days of marriage but… Continue reading Cassoulet