An Announcement and a Consolation Prize (Spoiler Alert: the Prize is Sourdough)

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Hi, friends! Yes, I'm still alive and no, I'm probably not going to start this blog back up – I just don't have time anymore, what with my full-time job, my budding freelance writing career, and the novel(s?) I'm trying to write while I continue to try to get my second memoir published. If you can believe it, that's only like 60% of what I have going on right now. 

But I'm not here to participate in the glorification of busy! To be honest, nobody should be as busy as I am. I wouldn't choose this life if there weren't so many things I can't resist getting involved in. What I am here to do is fill you in on a change in the FeedBurner tool that allowed some of you to get these new posts in your email inboxes. That feature is going away, so even if/when I do write the odd Linzers post you won't get an email about it after August 15th.

So what can you do about it? Well, you can check in here via the blog's homepage, but frankly I doubt I'll post again – maybe once a year or so, if at all. If you want to hear from me, and you weren't just in it for the recipes (which, fair enough if you were), you can subscribe to my newsletter: A Few Good Things. It's a lot about writing, a little about reading, and all about nontoxic positivity.

Adventures in Baking in Other People's Kitchens: Blueberry Olive Oil Cake

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Baking at my parents' house is always a bit of a...complicated adventure.  Whereas I'd slowly and methodically built up a system in the London home where I lived for four years – I knew which specialty pans and ingredients I did and didn't have, and what stocks were low in the baking cupboard – living here in someone else's house, and especially working in someone else's kitchen, has really been a challenge.  I never know what ingredients we have, in what quantities, and in what state of freshness (the other day I used molasses with a 'best before' in 2012, which is actually really recent for my mom's cupboards – it was fine).  And while the double oven gas Viking range is amazing, the rest of the supplies are sketchy at best: we have a mini muffin pan and a popover pan, but no normal muffin tins; a heart-shaped silicone cake pan but no loaf pans; and one usable cookie sheet.  One.

So when I offered to bake something with the blueberries that were lingering on their last legs in the fancy fridge drawers a few weeks ago, I figured it would be an experiment.  I wasn't really prepared for just how many things I would need to change, but I was at least ready to be flexible.  And thank goodness for that!

Slapdash Baking with Delicious Results: Banana Nutella Pecan Muffins

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I wasn't going to write a post about these muffins... They weren't anything special, as far as the process went, just something I threw together to get rid of some old bananas and buttermilk and feed a friend who needed comfort food in her life.  I didn't even plan on adding the nutella until the last minute – as is often the case when I make spur-of-the-moment baked goods, I was ad-libbing the whole time.  For once, I was baking to eat, rather than baking to blog.

Hence the terrible photographs.  I didn't take any pics until after we'd tried the muffins and declared them delicious – moist, banana-y, and chocolatey, with a nice crunch from the pecan bits – and multiple Facebook friends had read my status update and demanded the recipe. 

Less Healthy, Still Easy: Peppermint Cream Cookies

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One of my favorite things about the holidays – besides the family time and vacations and trees and frolicking – has always been the limited-edition flavor combos that companies put out, usually involving peppermint and chocolate in some combination or another.  I used to hoard peppermint bark and mint M&M's and dark chocolate York patties for weeks, long after my stocking had been packed away in the cedar chest with the rest of the holiday decorations.  But, my love of chocolate aside, my absolute favorite treats were always pure peppermint.  And I wasn't alone.

My friend Rachel practically swoons over the mint M&M's every year, and my college roommate, Emily, and I used to go to the grocery store in St Louis (Schnucks!) every December and buy huge tubs of Dryer's (or, in the Midwest, Edy's) peppermint ice cream while it was still on the shelves.  We'd stick one or two gallons in the back of the freezer and pull them out for a scoop (or a naughty late-night spoonful straight from the carton) well into the warmer months.  It was one of my favorite flavors, so much more pure than mint chip, and somehow so exotic because it was only in the shops for a short time (unfortunately, I later discovered that one of my fave ice creameries in SF, Swensen's, does a scrumptious peppermint ice cream, year-round, but luckily parking around there is a nightmare so it still retains its rarity, and thus its charm).

Just sweet enough: Vanilla Bean Cake

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There's a magical place back in my hometown of San Francisco.  There's wine for two dollars, amazing pre-made salads, and scrumptious frozen foods.  But the best thing Trader Joe's sells are the sweeties: rich, indulgent, massive bars of chocolate, salty-sweet mini peanut butter cups, and a boxed vanilla cake mix that's to die for.

Yup, I said it.  A boxed mix that's to die for.  It's fragrant and moist and vanilla-y without being too sweet, and it's one of the reasons I so rarely bake when I'm home– why tamper with something so delicious and easy?

When in doubt, throw in some chocolate!

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I made muffins for class the other day. I wanted to bake something, but I didn't know what.  I didn't really have time for cookies or cake or anything that required multiple steps, and one of my classmates is dairy-intolerant, which can be a difficult work-around with some baked goods, so I went with muffins.

I didn't really have a plan.  I had a basic muffin recipe, for which I swapped water for the milk, and I had some spotty bananas.  So I just kind of winged it.

Spotty bananas– a healthier way!

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First off, let me assuage your fears: no, I am not on a health kick, and no, this blog is not becoming weight-conscious or health-obsessed.  I just got back to London (don't get me started on the welcoming deluge) from a month in San Francisco– land of the latest organic/vegan/macrobiotic craze– with my crazy, points-counting family, so I've got health on the brain.  But don't worry, I'll be back to my buttery, sugary self in no time.

Now that we've got that out of the way, lets talk about what awaited me upon my return to the UK (besides the aforementioned rain): piles of books/clothes/general boy stuff on every surface in the flat; a closet full to bursting, into which I was hoping to unpack my stuffed suitcase; a fridge full of random meats and not much else; and bananas.  Spotty, old, fragrant bananas.

Points Counting and Panna Cotta

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 I have a bit of a baking dilemma: when I'm in London, I have very little equipment/space, but there are people around who will eat the things I make.  When I'm in San Francisco, at my parents' house, I have all the beautiful, fancy equipment and stainless steel countertops a girl could desire, but nobody will touch my creations.  Why is this?  Well, I blame weight watchers.

Dairy-free baking: I love a challenge!

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I'm on a roll lately with the homemade recipes.  This week has been a bit of a baking ringamarole, due mostly to my classmates and my end of term baked-goods promise; one of them requested butter cookies with royal icing (not the easiest job!), and another can't have dairy so I had to throw something else in the mix.

The antidote to a meltdown: pumpkin pie bread!

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Last week, I made up my very own recipe for the first time!  Oh, yeah, I've fiddled with recipes before, adding deliciousness or subbing when necessary, but I'd never just straight-up made up a recipe!  It was a very exciting moment for me.