News — Bread

The past year has really been all about bread for me. Oh….and the garden. Bread and gardening. And all the highs and lows that have come with both those things. I have made countless loaves of no-knead bread and beer bread. And even occasionally dabbled in the intimidating world of sourdough. (BTW last year I took an online sourdough class at Dig+Co with my mom, and it was great.)  But once I find a bread recipe that works well for me, I’m more likely to rework it into new iterations than to try something completely new. And the first time I...

 This traditional Greek sesame flatbread (lagana) is baked on the first day of Lent, or, “Clean Monday”.  Lagana is soft, chewy, and irresistibly delicious! “Clean Monday” (Kathara Deftera, in Greek) is the equivalent of “Ash Wednesday” in the Greek Orthodox church as it marks the beginning of the long, fasting period of Lent called “Sarakosti”, or, the period between “Clean Monday” and Orthodox Easter Sunday (Pascha).  Like Ash Wednesday, it marks the end of Carnival and the beginning of a spiritual and physical purification period that comes with a long fasting period. Celebrating “Clean Monday” Even though not everybody can fast for...

Jump to Recipe The weather has been cool and chilly here in San Francisco, though a little bit of gray sky and rain is nothing compared to the madness that other folks seem to be around the country with their snow storms and subzero temperature drops. All of it makes me want to snuggle down deep in my thick comfy sweater and embrace the Scandinavian hygge sensibilities. This probably explains why I’ve been baking things like my Swedish Blueberry Cake and Swedish Cardamom Buns (and also making and eating my Swedish Meatball Stroganoff which is totally comfort food). But with...

s. The soft and light bun surrounds a mouth-watering sweet and savory filling made with Chinese BBQ pork, shallots, sauces, and spices. Here is a comprehensive recipe on how to make delicious baked char siu bao at home. Thank you to Bob’s Red Mill for sponsoring this post! Char siu bao (叉燒包, also spelled cha siu bao) were a staple of my childhood. I have fond memories of Mama Lin buying me char siu bao to eat after school. It felt like heaven biting into the pillowy soft golden brown bread that encased a sweet and savory BBQ pork filling....

In my early twenties I did a lot of clubbing.  I actually met The Viking on the London club scene (this is a whole different story for a different time) but I had a gang of wonderful friends from fashion college and we would all get dressed up on a Friday and Saturday nights and drive into town from our college which was in the suburbs. (Don’t worry, we were very sensible, there was always a dedicated driver.) We would have our fun and then at 2am in the morning we would drive back to college via the bagel bakery...