My first big-city job in San Francisco, right out of my masters program, was the perfect chance for me to indulge in all of the cliche offerings of city life. After an 80 minute commute – an hour on the CalTrain (aka “nap time”) and a 20 minute walk up 8 long city blocks, I started frequenting the corner Starbucks to pick up what quickly became my absolute favorite drink: a grande matcha latte with coconut milk, lightly sweetened. I know, I know, complicated Starbucks order (another cliche I got to add to my list!), but it certainly made those sunrise wake ups and long commutes a bit sunnier as…
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Gluten Free Lemon Poppyseed Drizzle Cake with Lemon Glaze
After more than my share of work travel over the past few weeks, it’s been lovely to be in one timezone and one season for more than five days, and this one, the home one, has spring juuuuust about poking through the San Francisco fog. In a minor celebration of the single ray of sunshine that dared trouble Carl (if you’re from out of town/country, SF named its fog…), I decided that lemon was the word and poppyseeds might as well tag along. This fantastic combo isn’t new, but boy is the fluffiness and moistness (sorry) of this delightful gluten free lemon poppyseed drizzle cake making it’s debut on the…
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Gluten Free Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
I gotta say, getting a good, chewy, gluten free cookie is a science. Definitely a science worth studying and perfecting, but who has that kind of time? I certainly didn’t until this three-day weekend and a full day of recipe research, development, taste-testing, and finally, resulting trays upon trays of what I’m now calling a scientific breakthrough: the perfectly chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. We’ve done it, ladies, gentlemen, and persons of the gluten free world, you can all go home and make yourself a batch and be thoroughly glad that you did. These cookies are BIG, BOLD, and BETTER than anything you’ll spend $7/cookie on in stores. They’re studded…
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Gluten Free Jammy Strawberry Brownies for Valentines Day
Food is a love language. And in the full spirit of Valentines Day, here is a pan full of the most decadent love language gluten free brownies around: jammy (with actual cherry and raspberry jam), bright with fresh strawberries, and deeply, darkly chocolate with, well, chocolate. Lots of it. I usually just toss together a quick pan of plan brownies (which are, by themselves, pretty darn wonderful too, so no need to add the topping here), and serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, but this week felt like it needed a bit of extra love, berry-style. It just so happened that I had two jars of my new…
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Gluten Free Raspberry Glazed Shortbread Cookies
That special day is right around the corner, and no matter who or what you spend it with (a partner, a puppy, a good book, or just yourself!), you most certainly deserve something packed with punchy raspberry notes and crumbling with browned butter and sugar. And in that spirit, here are probably the cutest cookies I’ve made thus far. I’ve never been a big sugar cookie person, and definitely not a glazed sugar cookie person, though I’ll admire the handiwork of a good glazer any day. Despite what I deemed a lackluster appeal of these simple cookies, they’re absolutely worth having in your repertoire and are sometimes the perfect pick…
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Gluten Free Browned Butter Millionaire Shortbread
If you’ve never heard of millionaire shortbread (or gluten free millionaire shortbread, for that matter), you’re in for a real treat. The fanciest, most indulgent treatiest treat out there (maybe not but they’re not called millionaire’s for nothing). The theme of these decked out shortbread bars is: why not? Why not slather half an inch of perfectly squidgy caramel over the perfect slab of shortbread, and why not, on top of that, smear the most luxurious dark chocolate you’ll ever snap into? Why not, as a millionaire would say. So why not be a millionaire for a day and make these incredibly rich, melt-in-your-mouth squares to complement your lavish post-college…
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Gluten Free Lamingtons for Australia Day
This recipe is bittersweet in light of the huge blow dealt by climate change to Australia and its animals, ecology, and people. Let this post be a a celebration of one of the most colorful, friendly, and wonderful countries and groups of people out there, and a digital hug from across the Pacific that might comfort those who’ve lost so much in the recent and ongoing fires and disastrous weather. Australia is dear to me for many reasons, not least of which is that Australia was the first country I traveled to outside of the US which left a cherished impact. When I was thirteen, I applied to be…
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Gluten Free Roasted Hazelnut and Chocolate Snow Cookies
One of my dearest friends now lives a million miles away in the fairy-tale land of Vienna, Austria. Her moving was terrible news, until I considered the fact that this undisputedly meant that I had to travel to said fairy-tale land to visit her at least once a year. Not a bad deal. The first time I visited it was the second week of December, and Vienna, let alone us, was entirely frozen. Nevertheless, the city has a marvelous way of distracting you from the bone-chilling cold by decking itself in heaps of holiday lights and decorations, and by constructing myriad Christmas markets (or Adventmarkt/Weihnachtsmarkt) that seem to magically appear…
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Gluten Free Brown Butter and Pecan Shortbread
When I was first diagnosed as Celiac in 2004, life as a 10 year old seemed immeasurably miserable: no more Oreos, sourdough toast, mac and cheese, Costco croissants, or hotel danishes. No more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! (my staple for packed lunches). It was a rough few months, to say the least, and those few months getting used to the new diet and figuring out what few items in the pantry I could still eat felt like a LIFETIME. Bowls of hot rice with butter felt like the best I could ever do, simply because the few brands in the US that were producing anything gluten free were woefully…
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Gluten Free Maple Hazelnut and Pear Upside Down Cake
If you’re like me, you’ve got two boxes of Harry & David’s “Fancy Gift Pears” sitting on your counter and you’ve already challenged your significant other to a competition for who can eat the most pear slices in one evening and there are still SO MANY PEARS LEFT. Thank you, mom, for these amazing pears, but what do we do with them now? We need to host a pear party. Or, look up recipes for pear desserts until inspiration strikes and you’re motivated enough to get off of the couch after work and toss this incredible cake in the oven. I promise you, it’s worth the effort. The main inspiration…
