Last Minute and Low Supply: Vanilla Bean (Apricot) Shortbread Cookies

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(This will be a shorty because I've been asked for the recipe enough times in the last 24 hours to get me to write the post the day after these cookies were baked and consumed.  I know – bonkers fast for me!)

I went to a friend's Summer Solstice barbecue yesterday, and when I woke up late, a bit hungover after a night out, I suddenly realized that while I had offered to bake cookies for the party I had a seriously limited stock in my cabinets.  I knew I had butter (in fact, despite being tipsy the night before when I got home, I had even remembered to take a stick out of the freezer and let it soften on the counter), and I knew I had flour and sugar, but I was eggless, and my roommate who moved out recently took her raising agents with her, so I was pretty much at a loss for ideas on what to make.  BUT THEN!  Inspiration struck.  Shortbread doesn't have eggs or raising agents!

An Offering: Lemon Ricotta Muffins

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I come to you, much like a suburban neighbor, with an offering.  A basket of muffins (or a cyber-basket, really), handed sheepishly over the doorstep in the feeble hope that my neglect will go unnoticed in a rush of fluffy and crunchy textures and bright citrus and sweet almond flavors.  Trust me, one bite of these muffins and you won't even remember that I haven't posted in over a week (there are plenty of excuses, but for now let's just focus on the muffins).

Travel, Family, and Meyer Lemons – Does It Get Any Better?

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Look at that.  Just...look at that.

Now do you understand why I checked out for so long while I was gone?  I know, I know, there are bloggers far better than I, who schedule posts to go up while they're away – there are even some bloggers, like the Energizer Bunny Pioneer Woman, who write and post while on vacation!  Alas, I am not one of these bloggers.  I am weak, and as much as I may know I should write a post while I'm home in SF, I cannot resist the temptation of an offer to walk along Crissy Field instead.

However, I am not entirely useless – I also cannot resist an opportunity to bake, and the overflowing bowls and bags of Meyer lemons in my mother's house were just that.  Her trees in Napa were heavy with fruit, and she was running out of ideas for what to do with it.  So I bring home for you: Meyer Lemon Quickbread (and some bad phone pics, sorry).

New York, New York: City Cravings and Cold Sesame Noodles

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The BF and I are headed to New York this evening; I have a one-week layover on my way to a good friend's wedding, and he's coming along for the first two nights in one of our favorite cities in the world.  I'm so looking forward to it.  No work drama, no book stress, just pastrami and sushi and bagels and central park and wide sidewalks and all the other things I miss so much when I'm away from NYC.

One of the foods I crave heavily when I haven't been to the city in a while is cold sesame noodles.  If you've never tried them (and chances are if you've never been to New York, you haven't, as I've never seen them anywhere else), you should.  They're salty and peanutty and cool – a wonderful summer lunch dish, although I made these on a chilly day and they were just as satisfying.

Summer Lovin': Heirloom Tomato and Corn Salad

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I'm often heard to lament the woeful state of tomatoes in England.  Although London has made leaps and bounds on the food scene in the past ten years, there are a few things* you just cannot get here, and tomatoes are one of those things.  The little cherry ones are okay, but the big-'uns are just sad, flavorless lumps of dried-out depression.

Which is exactly why, when I have the opportunity to go home to the Bay Area for a month (as I just did), I eat as many tomatoes as I can get my hands on.  And my favorites, hands down, are the big, bright, juicy, luscious heirlooms that were just coming into season as my plane landed at SFO.

Martha's Magic: Lemon Cream Pie

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I love Martha Stewart's recipes.  My banana bread recipe comes from her book, and it's been a regular favorite of pretty much everyone who knows me for years.  In fact, my friend made it for her boyfriend the other day and she said he loved it, so the legend lives on!

Another English Classic: Elderflower and Raspberry Jelly

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I never knew what elderflower was as a child.  I figured that you could make alcohol with it, provided it was related to elderberries, because otherwise this scene didn't make much sense (to the extent that Monty Python really ever made sense), but I had no concept of what it tasted like.

So when I moved to England, and found elderflower-flavored things everywhere, I was a bit surprised.  I feel like in this day and age we like to think that we've at least heard of the big flavor combinations of the countries we're familiar with, but somehow I never noticed this one, even when I was living in England for 6 months in college.

Delicious Imperfection: Peach and Nectarine Tart

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It was supposed to be a lazy Sunday afternoon.  We'd had lunch at one of our favorite London restaurants (to celebrate my first full draft of my manuscript!), followed by a windy wander through Bermondsey, and the plan was to go home and relax / work.  But then I was struck with an unrelenting desire to bake a peach tart.

Admittedly, the desire began a couple of days before, when I was watching Come Dine With Me and one of the contestants made a peach and nectarine tart.  We didn't have the fruit on hand, so I filed it away for another day, but then we walked past an M&S on the way back from lunch and I decided to do it that day.  In a hurry.  Without a recipe... which kind of led to a semifail.  Let's go through it one part at a time.

On savory things

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*Update: The bf and I made this again today, and this time I managed to sneak a few photos of the ingredients before the sun (if it was there behind the clouds) went down.  Hopefully these will be a bit more convincing!  And in the name of bad-pic honesty, the old photos are still here, they've just been moved down to the bottom of the post.

One of the reasons I rarely post about the savory dishes I make is that, well, I don't make that many.  The bf does most of the cooking, because he enjoys it and I don't so much.  That is, I enjoy the cooking part, but prep annoys the hell out of me, whereas he loves it.  So I usually leave it to him.

But as I've mentioned before, his schedule has become more demanding in the past 6 months, so I've been stepping up more.  Which leads me to the other reason I don't often post my savory creations (besides the fact that they rarely involve more than chicken breasts and some veggie in a frying pan with olive oil and salt): I make dinner at night.

On ADHD and rice pudding

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I’ve always said I’m confident I can cook pretty much anything*, except pasta and rice.  Yes, you read that correctly.  For some reason, I always seem to either undercook or overcook those simple basics, yet I’m capable of making mini lemon soufflés in hollowed out lemon peels!  Seems really weird, I know.

Signs of summer: Strawberry Shortcake

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Is there anything that better represents summer (to Americans) than strawberry shortcake?  Now, I wasn't one of those lucky girls who had treats and sweets all summer long, but strawberry shortcake was one of the few sweet things my mom could get on board with.  My dad loved it, and we used to 'make' it for him for breakfast in bed on fathers day, with storebought shortcakes, canned whipped cream, and fresh berries.  I'm pretty sure it knocked our sloppy pancakes out of the park.

Vegetables! With butter...

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I was hoping to post about how I do, on occasion, eat things that don't involve butter/sugar/flour, but unfortunately these steamed artichokes were delicious dipped in a lemon-butter mishmash of my own making.  Still, they were green and healthy and savory, so that's something new and different for this blog!

Heat wave sweet crave solution

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It’s hot in London right now.  As my brother would say, hot as… well let’s just say, really hot and sticky.  Muggy.  Humid.  Still.  Not exactly comfort-food weather.  I spend all day grazing on chunks of cheese and nibbles of cucumber– anything cold and quick.