Class is in session (literally)

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The glorious untouched nature of filled supply kits, August 2014.

For all of you who have been wondering where have I been? (Yes, all zero of you. Hush, a girl can dream.)

The short answer is? Busy.

The slightly longer answer is I've been working (and sleeping and eating and sometimes even dreaming) my job. I'm a teacher. More importantly, I'm substitute teacher who is the unofficial "Maternity Leave Sub" at my school. This means for the past four semesters in a row inclusively, I have been working as a long-term sub for a teacher that has left to have a baby or some other reason.

As a long-term sub, you have most (if not all) of the responsibilities that you have as a full-time teacher and less of the pay! without the security of a permanent position. Fun times.

Still, I hope to talk about some of the hilariously tiring--and tiringly hilarious?--things that make teaching the largest part of my life. And to start blogging again, because I miss it.

So watch this space for teaching stuff, baking stuff, and anything else that comes to mind.

Happy Easter!

Glad to know that the Easter Bunny gives all kids (big and little) a basket!

Of frosting and friendship: Owl Cucpakes

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You can no doubt see where
the owl came from...

The college where I spent my undergrad years, amusingly, did not have an official mascot when I first attended. Since I had just left a high school where we were a color rather than some alliterative animal (Big Green was only marginally better than calling us "the Doors"), I didn't find it that odd. Still, as a writer for the sports section of the college paper, calling us the "Bryn Mawr College Mawrtyrs" had always seemed overly literal.

The owl had long been the school's unofficial mascot, joining the ranks of other Beanie Baby-esque animals wearing minuscule college t-shirts in the campus bookstore. In my junior year (if this is false, someone with a better memory please correct me) the college officially voted that the owl would be our official athletic mascot. It still blows my mind that next year will be my 10th college reunion. Weird.

Whooo wouldn't want one?

At a picnic potluck for college friends one spring day, I was tasked with bringing dessert. Deciding to embody the saying GO BIG OR GO HOME, I decided to make some adorable and thematic cupcakes. And so the Owl cupcakes were born.

This recipe is best made with friends, for manual labor if nothing else. Like all artistic cupcake decorating endeavors, please leave yourself plenty of time, as things as simple sounding as 'separate several dozen Oreos without breaking them' takes more time than you'd think. 

  Or at least more time than I'd think.

Recipe and more photos behind the cut!

A Blustery (and Bloggery) Day: SF Food Blogger Bake Sale 2013

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Closeup on cookies by Irvin (Eat the Love) and me, among others!

Ironically, I've meant to update my blog several times in the past few weeks (or even months), but here is a reason that I can't pass up: this month was the annual Food Blogger Bake Sale. Once again, we were outside Omnivore Books--I totally meant to pick up a copy of Shauna Sever's newest book about vanilla, independent bookstores need supporting!--and it was a windy and hilarious day of delicious baked goods, amusing conversation and, most importantly, happy customers enjoying the food we and other awesome food bloggers had made.


I made Dr. Seuss inspired cookies, adapted from a recipe I found online. They came out pretty cute, but be warned--the dough is very damp so it's very hard (or rather easy to do it wrong) to make perfect spirals.

Seussical Sugar Cookies, taken with love from Swirled Sugar Cookies.

Worth 9,000+ Words: Fall 2012 in Words and Pictures

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If you are a frequenter of my blog (granted, that would usually be if I updated frequently, which I sort of don't) you might notice there are several new entries that seem to have magically shown up in the past. Basically, I am trying to get into more of a normal blogging schedule--we'll start with any kind of schedule, normal or not and work from there.

But also, I have recently started to exercise more. While I have been playing pick up ultimate frisbee once or twice a week with the same group of crazy engineers-and-those-who-love-them (I use the word "love" loosely here. My friends are hilarious, yes, but the kind of odd only another odd person could love. ;o) ) since 2009, I've never been what you would call an exerciser. Part of the reason I enjoy ultimate frisbee (besides the hilarious people, the fun parties we throw, and the potential for hot gossip on the sidelines) is that the exercise has a purpose, the game of throwing and catching the frisbee makes all the running and dashing and soreness bearable.

Post-Dirty Girl. Ew.

However, one of my friends from college sent out an email a couple months back about participating in the Dirty Girl Mud Run, a 5K with obstacles and mud (shocker) that is all-girl, all athletic abilities, all mud, all the time. And I did it. And it was awesome.

My newest challenge? I have started the Couch to 5K running program, which basically pieces out a training regime in nine weeks that starts at running for a minute at a time... to the whole time.

Because I think that cooking and exercise often can go hand in hand (not literally, please do not run while baking, chaos will ensue), I'm thinking I will integrate my stab at healthy habits into this blog. If nothing else, it will give me more material to write about.

So never fear! The same hilarious write-up of recipes and Foodie Penpals will continue. I just might share random healthy/exercise/life tips as well. Cool?

Now, on to the promised pictures after the jump!

Sugar and Spice: Snickerdoodles

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Everyone has their favorite dessert. My dad loves German Chocolate cake (coconut creeps me out, which is why it's HIS favorite dessert not mine). My mom always wants root beer floats on her birthday. Me? Give me a good chocolate chip cookie and I'm yours.

My younger sister's favorite? 

Snickerdoodles.

Now don't get me wrong, I like snickerdoodles fine, they just don't light me up. However, as recipes go, this one is excellent, not only because it's pretty easy, but because by rolling the snickerdoodles in cinnamon sugar, they retain all that lovely winter/fall taste and have an excellent texture and visual appeal.

 Details after the jump!

Harnessing the Power of Social Media: Link to Instructables!

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So I discovered the coolness that is Instructables. It's an amazing website that allows people to share their step-by-step instructions about basically anything.

Need to know how to make rainbow cupcakes? Check.
Super Mario question block that lights up? Done.
Anything else you'd ever want to know... yes.

While I'm pretty sure I have posted about my love of peanut butter and peanut butter cookies, I was inspired to turn it into an Instructable. The website is very user-friendly and easy to use. Of course, I had to rock a ridiculous name for the entry, but hey, who wouldn't. Don't these look delicious? Click the link to see what I did it!

Peanut Butter Cookie Perfection

Signed, Sealed, Delivered: August Foodie Penpal Reveal!

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Note: This entry is back-dated as real life has intervened. My apologies!

This is the shortest entry ever (in my attempt to catch up to the present day, I didn't want to totally short shrift the awesomeness of Foodie Penpals in August. Here, in brief, is the awesome box that Ione gave me!

*The most adorable strainer ever. It's so cheerful and now sits on top of my microwave.

*Somersaults are these cracker type things that are made from sesame seeds and awesome. Super addictive, I give them to everyone who gets assigned to me as a Penpal now, it's hiliarious.

*Delicious cupcake mix and scone mix.

*Raspberry explosion of fun! Otherwise known as dark chocolate with raspberries, raspberry licorice and the aforementioned scones.

Interested in signing up? Here's the details:

Here’s a detailed explanation of the program:

-On the 5th of the month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you can choose to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
- Foodie Penpals is open to US, Canadian residents & UK residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. So, I’m going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!

Click here to find out more from Lindsey herself!

Happiness in a Box: July Foodie Penpal Reveal!

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I was reading the blog of my friend and fellow SF blogger Ariel (Having My Cake and Sharing It 2) and discovered this awesome food blogger "penpal" food swap, where every month you give and receive a box of food goodies from a blogger or reader. It's all set up by Lindsay at The Lean Green Bean, click on the image above to see more reveals and also learn how to join in the fun!

This was my first month and I got to send a bunch of funky stuff to Emily at The Vegtress, so I got to learn lots of cool things about finding healthy vegan foods to send. Go check out her blog, it is awesome!

I was lucky to get matched with Jessica who writes Fit Talker and wow, so much good stuff!

Better Late Than Never: Food Blogger Bake Sale Write-Up

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So you know when you have those to-do lists, and they have lots of important things like “Feed Cat!” and “Wash Dishes!” and then down past “Go to Work So You Can Have Money to Feed Cat and Have Food to Put on Dishes!” you have things like “Finally write the SOS Bake Sale Blog Post”? It turns out those tasks down at the bottom really don't get done.

In other words, belated post is highly belated. In fact, I STARTED writing this post on Memorial Day and… only finished it now. I’ll give you a moment to check the date stamp, and be impressed at my procrastinatory skills. ANYWAY. Here is the picture/recipe/write-up post you’ve all been waiting for! An edge of your seat thriller! Either way, read on after the jump about the awesome day, filled with food, fun, and fundraising.

Of Memories and Freshness: Pasta alla Formiana

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"It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato." - Lewis Grizzard

When I was in elementary school (somewhere between 1^st and 3^rd grade, the dates are hazy) my parents, sister and I lived in a house in Southern California that had been previously owned by my grandparents. It was a bizarre kind of doubling of childhood memories: I can remember sitting with squirming impatience on the piano bench at the long dinner table during family Thanksgiving, waiting for the moment when I would be released to sit on the back steps with my Great-Uncle, hoping he would teach me more words to “You Are My Sunshine”. On top of that is the breathless weight of lying in bed in my uniquely constructed bedroom, three walls of windows swallowing me in the hum and buzz of a summer night.

But the most lasting legacy of my grandparents’ inhabitance of that house came from a row of tomato plants that ran along the back fence. If you’ve never had a fresh-picked tomato that still carries the fuzzy green scent of its attatchment to the vine, you’re missing out: I can still taste the tartfresh slide of it against a piece of cheese and bread, the overwhelming tomato-ness of it standing up to the bite of yellow mustard.

(I never said my tastes as a child were gourmet. I still contend that yellow mustard is awesome, though I have since discovered the magic of Dijon and other varieties on a sandwich and elsewhere.)

More nostalgia and tomato-fueled deliciousness after the jump!

Breaking the Radio Silence

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I have a post in the works that actually involves food and the creation thereof that I will post today or worst case tomorrow. Apologies forever about the lengthy silence. If you've wondered what I've been up to, here's my life in visual form:

So there has been sadly little in the way of cooking, but the weather's warm, the stress is lessening, and hopefully my urge to write/bake/blog will start cranking back up again!

Stay tuned!

Bloggin' for a Cause: "Food Blogger Bake Sale" in San Francisco 5/14!

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The obligatory "where have you been and why haven't you been posting, for goodness sake" post will have to wait, because I have more important news. More important than explaining how my life and attention have been sucked away by demanding fourth graders and overwhelming job prospects?

Yes, much more important.

This Saturday the 14th is the 2nd annual Food Blogger bake sale. I sort of serendipitously discovered it last year and ended up going and making some great friends. Want to read about it? Go for it!

So I will be there this weekend, helping to raise money for Share Our Strength, an organization to help end childhood hunger in the US.

Food bloggers of the Bay Area will be on hand selling delicious things in two DELICIOUS locations:

18 Reasons
593 Guerrero St.
San Francisco, CA 94110
10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Kiehl's
2360 Fillmore St.
San Francisco, CA 94115
Noon-4 p.m.

If you stop by 18 Reasons, you will almost definitely run into me. Added bonus! For more information, go to the amazing website for this years bake sale, run by the talented and awesome Anita, Irvin, Shauna, and Annelisz.

Now if only I could decide what I'm going to make for the sale...

It's Not Easy Being Green: Zucchini Bread

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Pin It Now! There's a saying that friends help you move, and real friends help you move bodies. Turns out that real friends also tell you things like "hey, we'll be out of town next week, and we have lots of lovely vegetables that are tasty and delicious and will be rotten and gross by the time we get back. You should pick them!" [This is not quite what they said, but approximately it.]

So last week I dutifully trucked it over to my friend's house (she was in New York City with her husband and sons, poor thing] and returned with a kind of extreme bounty of produce.

Check out the harvest and an overabundance of zucchini bread after the jump!

Interruptions of a Parenthetical Nature: Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

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Pin It Now! When I'm feeling particularly on top of things (which is almost never) I craftily solve the problem of curbing the "must write a blog entry NOW" bug by typing it into my email as a draft to post later.

So I did that. On July 8th. I'll give you a moment to think about what the date is today. At least it wasn't an entire month? Just almost...

Either way, I am happy to finally give you the following recipe, and promise that my next one will be posted in a much more timely fashion :o)

Want to know more about the recipe I chose? Click below!

Sometimes you feel like a nut: Peanut Butter Cookies

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I fully admit, I am a huge lover of peanut butter. I was (er, am) that kid who eats peanut butter straight off the spoon--don't worry, I don't double dip. Towers of Ritz crackers with the peanut butter smooshed between them, toast where the peanut butter starts to liquify a little bit from the heat and the texture mixing of the crisp and the gooey is just... mmm.
I'm sorry, where was I?
Oh right, peanut butter. I hadn't baked something in quote a while, especially something new. And as fun as it would be for this blog to turn into "and then I made Dorie Greenspan's Katharine Hepburn brownies again" (I totally did over the weekend, they continue to blow my mind and my taste buds) I thought I'd push my comfort zone. Any pushing of a comfort zone that involves peanut butter is okay by me. Also, my younger sister weighed in one what I should make and thanks to her, the peanut butter cookies went from pretty awesome to OMG delicious.

Recipe details after the jump!

Mom, there’s a Kitchen in my Apartment!: Conquering Leftovers Anxiety

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When I was kid, meal time just happened: it seemed sort of this instantaneous event where my mother would summon my sister and I from our rooms and there would be delicious food sort of miraculously at the table. As I got older, I realized that this seemingly magic trick actually required work, whether it was chopping vegetables for a stirfry, cooking the meat, washing and ripping lettuce for a salad, etc. 

Now that I’m even older still (I’d say “grownup” but as an elementary school teacher, I still retain enough enthusiasm for things like Sesame Street and Disney that I don’t know how “adult” I actually am) it sometimes seems like such a vicious cycle: but I already ate dinner yesterday, why do I have to decide again about what I’m going to eat? So time consuming.

Weather Outside is Frightful: Bean and Red Chard Soup

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The weather's been wet and cold (shocking in San Francisco... can you feel my sarcasm?) so I felt compelled to make soup. Also because it's such a nicely portable food item when you need to bring lunch with you, which I frequently do as a substitute teacher.

I knew that my soup had to use chard because it is the one thing in my Farm Fresh to You box that I always get confused on how to use. I found this recipe on Epicurious--it puts me in mind of a similar soup that my aunt makes which involves sausage. Sadly, this is meat-less, but the chard and the beans and the pasta create a nice sense of bulk and OMG it is delicious.

Some Assembly Required: Apple Crumb Bars

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Ingredients, or, Mis about to be placed...

Because I remember the apple pies of my childhood so vividly (and really, it's kind of unreal how good the smell of apples with cinnamon and sugar cooking is), I knew I wanted to make something related. After meeting Anita at the bake sale, I knew I wanted to finally try something from her book, Field Guide to Cookies. So I decided to make apple crumb bars. Because it's like a portable apple pie!

Okay, first thing: if I teach you nothing else today, get everything together before you begin. I really think I need to make myself huge sign called "GOT MIS EN PLACE?" because seriously, shenanigans occur otherwise.

No Such Thing as Too Many Cooks: Bake Sale Snapshots

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Yours truly deep in some apparently serious conversation about brownies, or whoopie pies, or maybe explaining about Tomato Spice cupcakes. Hard to say. Pic taken by Irvin at Eat the Love, (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jackhonky/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Yesterday, I was out all day selling delicious, delicious goodies to raise money for Share Our Strength, goods all made my some tremendously talented food bloggers who can clearly both cook it as well as write about it (I was trying to make some metaphor here about putting the mixing bowl where their blog was, but it didn't quite work out. Imagine it successfully written here.)

I was so involved in writing up receipts and harassing engaging with customers that I sort of forgot to take any pictures. I'm new at this, ok?

Fortunately, others were much more on the ball, so you can see the amazing desserts and sweet treats that you missed out on. Speaking of missing out (or the opposite) I totally scored a new muffin tin at the bake sale! It's made by Chicago Metallic and I am soooooooo excited to use it. I love the weight of the pan--I can tell it will last me many muffins. Anyone have a suggestion of a recipe with which to christen my tin?

My Feet are Made of Clay: Katharine Hepburn Brownies

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Pin It Now! Bonus points if you can pinpoint the quote from the title--also, it be clear that you have unexpected depth* ;o) I have a special fondness for Katharine Hepburn that is doubled (exponentially) by the fact that she is a fellow graduate of Bryn Mawr, which builds nicely into my continued point.

Shortly after Ms. Hepburn's death, the New York Times published a letter to the editor where the writer detailed Katharine--in true Mawrter kicking-butt fashion--quelled the author's doubts about school and happened to make her some awesome brownies in the process. It's awesome, so go read Straight Talk From Miss Hepburn; Plus the Actress's Own Brownie Recipe.

Seriously, read it. Don't worry, I'll wait.

Read it? Good. Isn't she awesome? It's a Bryn Mawr graduate trait ;o)

I'm a huge fan of brownies (and cookies. cake. pie, too...) and always meant to make the lovely Ms. Hepburn's brownies. But then I lost the recipe. Bummer, forget that idea. Yet Fate intervened!

In Dorie Greenspan's absolutely breathtaking cookbook Baking: From My Home to Yours, she has a recipe that builds on the Hepburn brownie requirements: gooey, chocolatey, not too dense, yet adds some awesome refinements.