We call this morning cake, not because you can make it on weekday mornings, unless that is, you’re a time-to-make-the-donuts kind of person. I mean, the prep is easy enough, but the bake & rest times are longer and require some planning. It’s morning cake because, although raspberry ricotta cake is a worthy dessert, we like its do-ahead potential that lets us just slice her up at whatever time we need. BUT, if you choose to whip up this pastry on weekends, the aroma of fresh baked cake will welcome you to a morning of leisure or could welcome weekend guests to your pretend B&B. read more

We offer a simple, transformative vegetable recipe that hints at spring while using winter’s bounty. The kids and rabbits will adore carrots that when charred exude a salty sweetness. For pesky adults who might not settle for just cooking carrots, we add an herbaceous splash.

The carrot had been like the little brother of vegetables – they’re always around, but rarely do you do something with him. Sure you rely on baby bro for a last minute game of “I Doubt It” when your other vegetables didn’t return your calls and you always want him in the household pot to add necessary flavor to the family soup. But, when was little brother carrot ever really the star? Have you had enough metaphor or are you thirsty for more?

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Grilling season is dreams away for many, while we in Southern California – as though the weather gods add insult to injury for the rest of the county – have been blessed with sunny, warm winter dayd. Remember it all goes with away with a shattering 4.+ on the richter or a swelling mudslide. The sunshine is why we tolerate traffic and “like” in our statements that sound like questions and know that our value gets determined by proximity to George Clooney and that the Kardashians were invented here and that we live in a place where “work” means plastic surgery not employment. Someone once told me that life in Colorado is determined by your relationship to the mountain – in Southern California, it’s your relationship to the ‘industry’. Like the Rockies mountain range, there only one industry in Los Angeles . Please let us have our sunshine and warmth and be smitten.

Way over to the Midwest, however, Indiana to be specific, is where my cousins are suffering from frigid blustery days and where we get today’s cooking trick. Bob, my cousin by marriage – really, he’s my cousin’s ex-wife’s husband – so like a cousin by marriage and divorce, not really a relative at all, but I think of him as Cousin Bob. His step-daughter calls me Aunt Sherri even though I’m her second cousin. Sometimes people just fit into a role rather than an actual title. So Bob makes as it is called “Bob’s Chicken.” What About Bob? that I love is that he’s one of the few guys I know who gets excited to shop for groceries, so you know this is a guy who’s figured out some things about food. Bob’s Chicken is certifiably juicy, sharply flavored, leftover resilient and criminally, shamefully, woefully easy. What’s Bob’s secret?

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There’s a dirty little secret about granola, which we’re cleaning up. Granola is like the Miley Cyrus of breakfast foods – you think she’s just wholesome bites of Hannah Montana and stuff like that, and then you find out there’s some twerk and weed in that food.

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There are many reasons to avoid lasagna…it’s complicated to prepare, a four-digit calorie count, the silent g, the loud g (luten), square meals aren’t your thing.

What if I told you delicious lasagna can be gluten-free, low cal possible and you can whip it up rather quickly, and remarkably quickly when you consider the 120-second leftover reheat?

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