Lily Wrote a Cookbook! #KaleandCaramelCookbook!

Lily is a talent, an inspiration. Lily is a soulful presence, so recognizable by her thoughtful weaving of story and description. She's a teacher. There's wisdom in her recipes. Her photos are light, airy. There's a sense of comedy and self-effacement when she writes. She's created a craft and a light that her stories and photos and recipes all possess that are so uniquely hers, all wrapped under the eponym of Kale & Caramel.

To me, both the blog and the person behind it, act as a pantheon. At once, Lily is the goddess of hearth and the goddess of the seasons. She listens to the plants, to the world around her. A goddess of art and magic and wisdom. Of loss and rebirth and tenderness.

And did this book spring from her head? I do not know, but there's a mysticism and ease in its prose that says it may just have.

Lily wrote a cookbook, and I was lucky enough to get a copy. And from the beautiful pages, full of crisp white borders and shocks of color, you get a sense of who she is and what she can create. And, in turn, what you can create from her work. I wanted to give you a taste of what this book has to offer its reader, so I am sharing her Citrus Sage Tonic recipe with you below.

To learn more about The Kale & Caramel Cookbook, click here. It's out today so buy a copy (or two! or three!) and let me know how much you love it! 

Citrus Sage Tonic

Ingredients:

• 3 fresh sage leaves
• 1 to 2 tablespoons agave nectar, depending on the sweetness of the grapefruit
• 1 large grapefruits, juiced (about 2 cups)
• 1 lime, juiced (about 2 tablespoons)
• 1 large lemon, juiced (about 1/2 cup)
• Sea salt, to taste
• Ice cubes, for serving

Directions:

1. Use a muddler or a wooden spoon to crush the sage into the agave nectar at the bottom of a cocktail shaker.
2. Add the grapefruit, lime, and lemon juices, and a few pinches of salt
3. Shake vigorously, then strain out over ice
4. (Lily suggests making this a cocktail with tequila, mezcal, gin, or vodka!)

This recipe is Copyright © 2017 by Lily Diamond from KALE & CARAMEL: Recipes for Body, Heart, and Table published by Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Photos copyright © 2017, Lily Diamond

MOLLY YEH WROTE A COOKBOOK: "Molly on the Range", Scallion Pancake Challah, and Paris

I went to Paris last week for my 25th birthday. I brought one bag with me. One suit, one coat, one pair of sunglasses, and one book that I had gotten in the mail a day before I left for BWI. Molly sent me her new book, Molly on the Range, and I flipped through it from my middle seat on my way to Iceland. I tucked it carefully in my bag while we tried to navigate through Charles de Gaulle. It sat on the coffee table and in the mornings when we sipped our espresso, I would read a recipe, excited to explore her story through food, to see inside her world a little more. Somehow, having her book there, it was like having a friend to greet me in this new city each day.

I’ve followed Molly’s blog (my name is yeh) for years now and I am constantly inspired by her balance of personality, wit, charm, and talent. Her blog has a way of never seeming voyeuristic; but, instead, always invitational, always friendly. It’s genuine, non-practiced. It’s heartfelt. It’s effervescent. It’s a damn good blog and the success she has gained is earned and deserved.  And this book, for all of its stories, mac-and-cheese flowcharts, anecdotes, and recipes, is just an extension of her blog and her amazing personality.  I know this book will be a staple in my kitchen, as her blog has been a staple of my weekly web browsing, and I am confident it can only add to your collection, too.

With that being said, pick up a copy of this book, share it with friends, give it out as a gift for the holidays—you won’t regret it. I know I didn’t when I smelled fresh challah in our AirBnB one morning and how much it felt like home in that rented flat in the Marais. How wholesome, eggy, and sharp the aroma was as it rested before I took my first bite. And how I found myself flipping through her book one more time on the long, long flight across the Atlantic.

Scallion Pancake Challah

This was my first time making challah and I was so excited to try Molly's recipe! Having brought this book to Paris with me, I was craving it hard by the time I was able to actually make it! A couple things to note: I had to make challah knots and not a big ol' challah due to my AirBnB host not having a suitable pan to use. Number 2--the flour I got was whole grain (my French wasn't good enough to notice the difference I guess!). But the recipe is so, so good and you'll just have to buy Molly's book to bake your way through her Midwestern Chinese-Jewish life! (Note: This recipe is copied from Molly with her permission and all rights go to her. Further note that this recipe references another one from her book, which I have left as is, in the hopes you will pick it up to make more challah!!!!!!!)

Ingredients:

• ½ recipe dough from Basic Challah (page 178), made through the first rising
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
• 3 scallions, minced
• Kosher salt and black pepper
• Crushed red pepper
• Egg wash: 1 large egg yolk, beaten with 
• 1 tablespoon water
• Toasted sesame seeds

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Divide the dough into 3 equal parts and roll each part into a 12-inch log. Gently flatten each log so that it is about 3 inches wide. Brush each with sesame oil and sprinkle with scallions, salt, black pepper, and crushed red pepper. Roll the logs up lengthwise like a jelly roll and pinch the seams to seal. Lay the logs seam side down next to one another and pinch them together at one end. Then braid the logs and pinch them at the other end. Place the loaf on the lined baking sheet. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes.
3. Brush the loaf with the egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds and black pepper.
4. Bake until the loaf is golden brown and has an internal temperature of 190ºF. Begin checking for doneness at 28 minutes. Let cool slightly and enjoy.

Congratulations again to Molly! I am so lucky to have gotten to know you this year and to witness your successes! #mollyontherange!!!!!

To those I'm grateful for: Potato Bread with Cultured Butter (and a Giveaway!)

I wake up these days to a bed that belonged to my parents for fourteen years. There’s usually a dog breathing deep sighs in my ear. I found a ladybug on my lampshade when I grabbed for the cup of water on my nightstand. I couldn’t take a drink; everything felt contaminated for a second.

My mother bought lace and made curtains from them. My mother makes me coffee and keeps it warm in a thermos for me. My mother wrote me a note this week that told me she loved me and she’d miss me. She called me on her lunch break to makes sure I was staying warm. “California is pretty hot, isn’t it?” she said between bites of her sandwich. “Don’t want you to freeze because your father’s too cheap to buy more gas.”

I didn’t freeze. I’ve worn two pairs of socks in the house; but I haven’t frozen yet. Instead I spent a day ripping clementines with my fingernails. I ate a chocolate bar for lunch. I drank too much coffee and shared three beers with my dad. I forgot to blow out a candle and ate leftover pizza for two days. I’m letting the days pass me by for right now, I’m savoring it slowly. Letting it dissolve on my tongue like cotton candy, like the snow that gets stuck in my mother’s eyelashes, like the echoing “I love you” outside of Terminal A that hangs in my mind like a heartbeat going still.

I keep myself busy; I have to. I keep waking up from dreamless sleeps to the sound of a space heater and hardly anything else. I thought I heard the snow fall one morning, gentle and slumbering as my parents’ Labrador. It was just my mother running the water for dishes. I set four alarms and slept through them all. I still woke up at eight. The coffee in the Thermos burned my tongue and I kept my glasses on until noon.

I keep myself busy. Sometimes I think about the past. Who I used to be. How I used to build space ships from cardboard boxes and hold my breath in the bathtub, letting my ears pop and my heartbeat get louder until the soap got in my eyes or the water grew cold. I was alone a lot back then, awkward and closeted.  I didn’t have friends and it was easier to stay hidden indoors most days. I read a lot. I changed a lot, too.

But I’m back in the old farmhouse, with its closets too small and its ceiling fans won’t be dusted until the Spring. Since I last left, I’ve been a fiancé, unemployed, a law student, and an outpatient. I’ve had temper tantrums and an academic paper published. A few more nosebleeds and a few less wisdom teeth. I’m back to the old farm house and my parents still watch TV Land when they get home from work. Nothing’s changed but me here.

In the seven years since I have lived at home, I realized how desperately I need people. Connections, contact. Friendships. Relationships. People. I used to be so bad at saying I was sorry, I used to be even worse at saying anything nice. I’ve grown up in that way these last few years. I learned to appreciate the human conditions. That is why I feel so lucky to surround myself with good people, people I consider friends.  Friends who create bread lames and buy coffee for you while it’s raining in Philadelphia. This bread recipe is for them: the artists, the makers, the creators I call my friends: Aron Fischer of Facture Goods and Robbie and Pat of Dear Henry Owen. Aron created two gorgeous bread lames for me this Christmas and Robbie and Pat showed me how welcoming the East Coast can be, after so many years of being away from it. I made bread. I cultured butter. I made this bread for them.  They took the time for me.

Potato Bread with Cultured Butter

This bread is made in steps and you will have extra butter. Embrace it. The crumb is soft, the tanginess is there. My mother had three slices for dinner, so you know it’s good. Makes one loaf.

Ingredients for the cultured butter:

·      2 cups heavy cream

·      1-2 cups filtered water

·      ½ teaspoon salt

Directions for cultured butter:

1.     Measure out 2 cups of heavy cream and leave out at room temperature in a warm room for 12-48 hours (the longer the tangier)

2.     Every 4-6 hours, gently disturb the cream as a skin will form

3.     When you think you have a good culture in your cream, pour into the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a whisk attachment (I recommend freezing the bowl and the attachment for a good hour beforehand, as the cream will be warm/room temperature)

4.     Beat on medium-high for five to seven minutes. First, your cream will whip into stiff peaks. Keep beating as this breaks down and the solids separate from the buttermilk.

5.     Reserve liquids in a cup or Tupperware (this is cultured butterfat and it is golden) and push out anymore from the butter with a wooden spoon, turning and squeezing a couple times

6.     Wash the remaining butter with the water until water runs clear

7.     Salt, pat into a log and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until needed

Ingredients for bread:

·      2 medium-sized potatoes

·      2 TB cultured butter (above)

·      1 cup water, warm

·      1 cup of reserved buttermilk (from above), warmed slightly in a sauce pan

·      5 teaspoon yeast

·      1 ½ teaspoon salt

·      1 egg

·      4 ½ - 6 cups flour + more for kneading

Directions for bread:

1.     First, bake the potatoes. The easiest way to do this is in the microwave. Pierce potatoes with a fork 5-6 times and then microwave for 5 minutes. Flip over and repeat. Check for doneness by piercing with a fork. Inside should be soft.

2.     Cut lengthwise and allow to cool slightly before handling

3.     While cooling, in the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, pour water, yeast, and salt. Allow to sit while bubbles form

4.     Spoon out potato into a bowl and add 2 TB cultured butter, mixing in the butter and ensuring it is melted (can be done in a food processor too). You will need one cup of this mixture

5.     When yeast is ready, add egg and beat on medium to incorporate.

6.     Add mashed potato mixture and beat on high for one minute

7.     Reduce speed to medium and begin adding flour by the cup.

8.     When dough begins to form and does not stick to the sides of the bowl, turn mixer off and turn onto a floured work surface

9.     Knead by hand for 5 minutes until springy

10. Place in a well-oiled bowl (turning once to oil the top) and cover. Allow to proof in a warm room for 1 hour or doubled in size

11. When hour is done, punch down and cover again. Allow to rest for 40 minutes

12. While dough is resting, preheat oven to 410*

13. When dough is finished resting, turn onto a floured work surface and shape into a ball before placing into a dutch oven.

14. Slash your bread with a razor blade or a bread lame in a couple lines at an angle

15. Put lid on Dutch oven and bake for 36 minutes covered

16. Remove lid and bake for an additional 5 to 8 minutes, or until top is golden

17. Remove from oven and allow to cool before eating with even more of the cultured butter

Giveaway Announcement!!

In the spirit of friends and giving, I am giving away a Sweet Tooth bundle from Remedy Quarterly, an independent food magazine that shares the stories behind recipes. There are two ways to enter: Either comment below with your favorite memory of "breaking bread" with loved ones and friends, or comment on this instagram photo and tag two friends with whom you would share your bundle prize. Winner will be announced on February 15 at 12:00 pm EST.

Introducing...Little Barn Apothecary

I can sit for hours in the silence of my apartment.  The ceiling fan motor spins and it sways the succulents held on string.  It's simple.  Straight lines of the work table, soft gossamer on the curtain rod.  I left the clutter of my life behind twice--left it in Pennsylvania in my mother's curio cabinet, left it again in the spare room closet of our rented home in California.

I've changed the way I look at beauty, at life.  How those words can be synonymous.  It's intentional, a world of silence.  White lines and sunshine.  I go toward a slower life.  I go toward handpicked goods, handpicked flowers, handpicked friends.  I'm inspired by the dust motes in the window sill and I've searched online where I can find dandelions in central Texas.  I trim down the toxic, the unnecessary and savor the scattered detritus of my life that I've held on to for 23 years.  

This is what attracted me to Little Barn Apothecary so many months ago.  The small house sketch, the thought in the details.  The use of whole ingredients.  The conviction of their philosophy.  I treat my body better than the 19 year old who smoked cigarettes for fun and drank vodka from plastic bottles.  They've become part of my daily ritual, a daily cleanser and a cotton ball swiped across my face.  It feels even more like spring, the way my skin can breathe easy, knowing each intention of nature is locked in the small glass bottle that sits on my bathroom sink.

You can find more from my friends over at Little Barn Apothecary by visiting their website, and make sure to check out their instagram for promotions, product info, and news!