Toad-in-a-hole (with basil oil)

My neighbor Randy made some homemade basil oil (recipe here) and I have been putting it on EVERYTHING. Toast. Cucumbers. Arugula. This morning I made the world's fastest breakfast (well I guess that would actually be cereal), and cut out a hole in some delicious poppy-seed toast and fried a sunny-side up egg inside of it. And bathed it in basil oil.

For protein-loving star wars fans, place two eggs in the toast for Twin Sun Toast. You will feel like a Tatooinian in no time.

dahlias & cannery row

Presents for friends that are stuck at home in bed, recovering from one of life's many ailments:

1. Take your favorite book

2. Take a color from the binding of that book and find flowers to match

3. Double-stick tape a ribbon all the way around a vase, cut so the ribbon ends exactly at the corner.

4. Give with a hug

ingredients to a good birthday week

For Dima's birthday getaway I stocked up on the essentials: mini pies & champagne. All we needed in addition to that was a fantastic cabin in the middle of nowhere. Check & check. It was really hard coming back to the real world, but I found that adding a little mini pie here and there make it slightly easier.... :)

dulche de leche cupcakes

My neighbor Mark asked me to make some cupcakes for his dinner party tonight, and I thought that I would try to make something different. When in need, I turn to Joy the Baker, who had this wonderful recipe for dulche de leche cupcakes (see here). Lets just say that my cupcakes didnt turn out as perfect as hers, but I aint no baker! I also caramelized some sugar and dipped cashews in them to give them funny pointy hats that remind me of these little creatures from Pikmin:

plant funhouse

My friend is moving into a studio and needs some plant & plant friends to keep her company. We went ikea shopping (the requirement being that we get to eat meatballs and ice cream and pasta and mac 'n cheese) and I made her buy this interestingly-shaped planter (see here). I put all kinds of things in it to keep her company, but golden dinosaurs tend not to behave kindly to strangers. I highly suggest winning over dinosaurs with bologna before leaving unattended in your plant funhouse.

the hasselback potato

As per my David Chang mantra, (see here), I wanted to find a good use for the rest of my potatoes. Also potatoes are quite scary with all their fuzzy eyes when they become neglected in the pantry, so I try to use them all before they come back to life.

I got this recipe from Joy the Baker (click here). One of my favorite things about her food is how colorful it is. I was also excited to see lemon zest as an ingredient, because I love holding little bits of lemon peel as if they were lemon babies in my hand. I pet them a few times before throwing them in the food processor and apologizing profusely.

I love this pesto recipe because it uses cashews instead of pine nuts (aka expensive nuts) and it doesnt cost me 10$ for one bite of pesto.

My neighbor said that the finished product looked like a little french potato wearing a green beret. I find the key to this dish is the generous use of butter on the potato, along with the nice addition of lemon into the pesto. I made 20 of these for a dinner party and I was happy to hear mumblings of their deliciousness.

I am not a chef: part 1

I am not a chef. I am actually a busy individual that wishes I had enough time to make every recipe from scratch, but most nights I have 10 minutes to make dinner. So I love, love, love when I find something that I can put together quickly and still enjoy it. Everything from this dinner came from Trader Joes and was suuuuper cheap...

mini potatoes

fresh chives

sour cream

organic corn chip "dippers"

beef chili (they also have vegetarian and turkey)

This is what I do:

1. First I start with the potatoes. I saw my mom do this thing where she cuts a bunch of slices into the potatoes, which makes it cook faster all the way through the potato. I drop them into boiling water for 5 minutes with some sea salt.

2. Then I fish out the potatoes, drizzle them with olive oil, salt, pepper and stick them in the broiler for 5 minutes so that the skin gets a nice crunch.

3. During this 5 minutes I cook the chili on the stove, finely chop the chives, and place a handful of chips on a plate.

4. Last step is to add the potatoes and chili, a nice dollop of sour cream topped with the chives ...et voilà!

Delicious and much better than fast food.