Black Lives Matter. Breonna Taylor was 26 when she was murdered. If any of you are parents, let me ask you – if your child was killed by police, what would you do? How would you feel? While she was sleeping. I’d hope you’d want your child, presumably one of the people you hold most dear in this world, to sleep safely every night of their lives. What explanation would placate you if you were told your child was now dead, having been shot to death by people (police – those meant to “protect and serve”) entering her home while she slept and firing into her sleeping body? Would there…
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Gluten Free Neapolitan Cupcakes
Anyone else remember getting giant tubs of cheap Neapolitan ice cream at the grocery store as a kid? Some were definitely better than others, and half the time I’m pretty sure I just scooped through the chocolate layer, leaving the less exciting vanilla to the right. But it was glorious – simply having the choice of not one, not two, but THREE ice cream flavors in one bucket? Incredible. And a good strawberry ice cream can’t be beat – the ones with threads of real strawberries throughout, heightened by the heaps of pink dye that made this seem like the perfect summer treat. Bowls or cones, whatever you chose, were…
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Gluten Free Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes
It’s officially winter in San Francisco again – or, as we call it, “summer.” We seem to exist in a perpetual state of fog, sudden breezes that make a wool coat sound like a great idea in July, and brief, spotty, but glorious moments of sun and blue sky. In the midst of everything else going on this year, it’s key to take a moment to appreciate those sun-soaked moments, and then to plan for your next cozy night in in August with heaps of blankets and a good Netflix show (Dark, and Dear White People are fantastic). For those cooler days, these gluten free Mexican Hot Chocolate cupcakes give…
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Gluten Free Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Cupcakes
Now these cupcakes may have a very adult name, but they don’t have to be just for the adults! These gluten free chocolate bourbon pecan cupcakes are a Southerner’s daydream. Soft and moist chocolate cupcakes with bourbon added, so when they bake the alcohol cooks off but the bourbon flavor stays behind. I have to say, I’m not a bourbon girl myself, but these cupcakes have just the right amount of the flavor, and none of the bight! They’re topped with decadent and much too rich butter pecan buttercream frosting!Other than being sprinkled on top for decoration, the brown sugar roasted pecans are mixed with homemade caramel into this buttercream.…
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Gluten Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Mud Cookies
These cookies are for Hope. You know those friends who, even after years of losing track of each other, you fall back into friendship with so easily it’s like coming home? Hope is one of those friends. We hadn’t even seen each other since high school, back when we were both feeling a bit stuck in a rut in tiny Oregon towns, finding our outlet in community theater productions (I think we met on the set of West Side Story, so many years ago) and figuring out who we were. Fast forward nearly ten years and after watching her lay a foundation in actually writing, singing, and producing her own…
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Gluten Free Caramel Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
The macadamia nut is such a divine little bauble. What a nut! Buttery, with a slight tang and a delicate crunch that most nuts just dream of. And, unbeknownst to me (until about 10 minutes ago), they’re indigenous to Australia! Typically, when I think of these expensive, tiny, orbs, I think of neatly-packed Hawaiian Host boxes with sleeves of caramel and chocolate-enrobed salted, roasted macadamia nuts – the classic gift that numerous friends in college would bring back from Maui after winter breaks at home on the islands. But no! Like so many foods, the origin and original champion of these nuts was not the region that eventually made them…
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Gluten Free Chocolate Hazelnut (Nutella) Cupcakes
I have many more thoughts on hazelnuts now than I did three years ago. Despite growing up in Oregon, a region that proudly proclaimed this fragrant tree product its official state nut in 1989, I had little dealings with hazelnuts until I was about 17 and tried one of my all-time favorite ice creams at Zoey’s in downtown Ashland – the “Oregon Trail” (dark chocolate swirled with roasted hazelnuts and marionberry jam). My relationship to hazelnuts grew when, in college, I’d often scoop whole spoonfuls out of Costco-sized Nutella jars sitting temptingly in the dorm dining hall. But as many food relationships do when you become an “adult,” mine with…
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Gluten Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
I have a close relationship with peanut butter. In second and third grade, I packed my own lunch. Both of my parents grew up with the necessity to make most things themselves – their parents were broke students and young parents, trying to make ends meet by donating blood, as my Grandpa John did, and betting the other guys at the Red Cross that he could fill the pouch faster than they could (he won most of the time). When my parents were, as their parents had been, broke, raising two kids and post-dating checks at the grocery store so that they wouldn’t be cashed until after payday, they taught…
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Gluten Free S’mores Cupcakes
If you also have childhood memories of summer camping trips complete with seemingly endless (one hour) drives into the mountains, squished into the backseat with your sibling(s) and one of the handful of dry goods boxes or coolers meant to sustain you and your family for a weekend inn the woods, then this post is for you. S’mores were a particular favorite for us and our many cousins on family reunion campouts where we all hovered around ember-stage fire pits with roasting sticks in hopes of getting just the right golden tinge around our fluffy white glob of sugar. There were those, of course, who insisted that they loved their…
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Gluten Free Mexican Chocolate Cake
Chocolate may be able to stand on its own two legs just fine without any flavorings, but you’ve got to hand it to the Olmec, Aztecs, and Mayans for unlocking not only the fact that chocolate is, well, great, but producing the first fermented chocolate drinks and adding in complimentary notes like cinnamon, nutmeg, and chili. According to the good ol’ wikipedia, the Olmec were the first to turn the strangely-fruity cocoa beans (surrounded by a white fleshy pulp – which actually tastes great) into alcoholic drinks (good idea, Olmec) as early as 1750 BCE (a hell of a long time ago) around present-day Veracruz, Mexico. From that pivotal moment…
