Batter Licker

This might be the easiest dinner ever. Prep takes mmmmmmmm … maybe five minutes, involving only a little basic slicing and the rubbing and sprinkling of spices. Then the oven works its magic for 45 minutes or so while the scent of roasted chicken wafts through the air, tickling noses and taste buds alike.

And have you ever had roasted cabbage before? It’s heavenly. You should try it. Especially if you think you don’t like cabbage. The sweet cabbage develops this nutty, charred flavor and crispy edges that drive me so absolutely bonkers that I make brilliant decisions. Like roasting an entire, giant cabbage for just two people’s dinner. Operation Super Awesome Lunch Leftovers: Complete.

… Read the rest of roasted chicken, cabbage and bosc pear on BatterLicker.com!

I’m a crispy chickpea addict. A year and a half ago, this snack ushered me through weeks of studying for the bar exam during Summer 2010, and (especially after passing the exam) I’ve felt indebted to it ever since.

So in some weird way, it made sense to include this snack – which stood by my side in my mouth during some of my more miserable moments – in the dessert bar I created for family and friends to enjoy on an evening celebrating one of the consistent sources of happiness during the past decade of my life: my relationship with Jay. But the inclusion of chickpeas also made sense from another perspective.

In retrospect, I realized that the desserts I chose to serve at my wedding very much reflected a sugary timeline of my life and development.

… Read the rest of project wedding dessert bar: part 14 (moroccan-spiced crispy chickpeas) on BatterLicker.com!

I’m sick. Again. Jay brought something home at the beginning of the week, and the stuffy nose, plugged up ears and sore throat are now launching a full attack on my immune system.

Anyone else think sore throats are the absolute worst? Even cough drops aren’t helping me out this time around. To feel any relief whatsoever, I have to keep pumping hot herbal tea down my throat.

Normally, that would mean quite a few bags of tea – not to mention trips to the restroom. But as I sucked down my initial mugful this morning, I boiled up a potful of homebrewed tea.

It might sound complicated, but it’s not. For me, uncomplicated is key when I’m sick.

I had some cinnamon sticks and a leftover nub of ginger on hand, so I just boiled them with a lot of water while marking up a licensing agreement during the first 45 minutes of work this morning. And I’ve been going back to refill my mug ever since.

… Read the rest of ginger cinnamon tea on BatterLicker.com!

San Francisco has handed me some winter sorbet weather recently: very sunny skies, and strong but warm winds.

Back when I lived in Los Angeles, we called it Santa Ana winds, but I don’t think the same lingo applies to Northern California. Up here, people call it earthquake weather. But that’s a bit over-dramatic and scare tactic-y for my taste. Hence, I’m calling it winter sorbet weather.

While raspberry zinfandel sorbet absolutely knocked it out of the park for Thanksgiving dessert, I must admit I might never have gone down that road had I not first experimented with the overabundance of Warren and Bosc pears I received courtesy of Frog Hollow Farm.

In an effort to ensure they didn’t go bad, which is a problem I constantly face with pears even though I love the juicy fruit, I put some to use in a sorbet.

My inspiration came from a scoop of pear sorbet I had enjoyed a little over a year ago in Paris on a brisk Autumn day. It wasn’t too sweet, but tasted exactly as I imagined a juicy, frozen pear would.

… Read the rest of gingered pear sorbet on BatterLicker.com!

My butternut squash bonanza continues! Think of this as a play on pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Except way better.

Honestly, I thought these up a year ago and never got around to making them. But they haunted me through spring and summer, and now that we’re back to peak butternut squash season, I had to make it happen.

So when last weekend’s Friendsgiving dinner got scheduled, it was a no-brainer. I knew exactly what I wanted to try.

That’s the beauty of Friendsgiving. My friends and I officially launched the make-whatever-you-want concept last year, after decades of being told by our families that, no, we could not make butternut squash soup as an appetizer instead of Bopop’s bowl full of grapefruit tradition, and no, we could not make a cornbread, sausage and peppers stuffing instead of the rustic bread, sausage, apple and onion standard.

… Read the rest of butternut squash cupcakes with maple-sage goat cheese frosting on BatterLicker.com!