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You know that moment, when you’re doing something completely routine and everydayish, when suddenly the light bulb goes off?

Maybe you suddenly remembered where you hid your spare set of keys for “safe-keeping” or in a moment of total spontaneity, decided which pizza place to pick up dinner from.

Or maybe you’re on the subway, stuck in the midst of another interminable delay (I’m looking at you, TTC), and you’re hit with a moment of inspiration so great you want to jump for joy except for the fact you are wedged in so tightly it would take a shoe horn to get you out.

Maybe, in that moment of clarity, you realize that yes … yes … you should make that Twinkie Bundt Cake and you should add in some freshly picked strawberries because that would be amazeballs.

Yeah.

I had Twinkie Bundt Cake on the bake for quite some time, ever since I purchased Shauna Sever‘s Pure Vanilla: Irresistible Recipes and Essential Techniques. A lovely book dedicated the joys of vanilla (there are many), the book got a bit lost in the pile of cookbooks that I’d been hoping to try out.

But hark! I happened to come across the recipe for Sever’s Twinkie Bundt Cake (from her book) on Leite’s Culinaria.

So there I was, not too long after, languishing during a particularly torturous subway ride when I found myself longing for the end of winter and the first thing my frozen brain latched on to was freshly picked strawberries.

And the next thing you know I’m thinking of this sweet little cake that’s a riff on those popular little snack cakes (that we were never allowed to have as children) and I thought, “Hey. I’m an adult. I can eat Twinkies if I want to. I can bake a Twinkie Bundt Cake if I want to. I can add strawberries to the filling if I want to.”

And thus was born the slightly adapted Twinkie Bundt Cake (with a strawberry marshmallow cream filling).

So why is it called the “Three Times a Charm Cake”? Because it took me three times before I got the strawberry filling just right.

Also. It’s delicious. And I wanted to make it three times. Maybe I ate it all myself one-and-a-half of those times.

Don’t judge me.]]> 生活 http://kafkc.animegoe.com/%E7%94%9F%E6%B4%BB/where%20you%20hid%20your%20spare%20set Wed, 23 Mar 2016 07:53:30 GMT kafkc.animegoe.com://entry/13
Before I get to the requests that are rolling in for my 30 days of chocolate campaign for Valentine’s Day, I thought I would fulfill my own request first. I can’t stop thinking about chocolate cookies. And not just any chocolate cookie—a soft, chewy cookie chock full of melting chocolate chunks melo 2 tank. Have you noticed that chocolate chips don’t melt very much in the oven? That’s why I used chocolate chunks for these cookies. The gooey factor was of high importance for my perfect chocolate cookies.

I also tipped in some espresso powder because I always love the way it makes the chocolate taste richer and fuller. If you get a chance in life to be richer and fuller, you should always take that chance. That said, it’s entirely optional.  Don’t forgo the cookies if that’s the only ingredient you’re lacking. But also, um, don’t substitute coffee grounds. Definitely not the same Executive Development.

I made Chocolate Ginger cookies a few years back that I still crave on a regular basis, but today is all about chocolate. Nothing but the chocolate. In all of its glory.

I hope these perfect little two-bite chocolate cookies make all of your chocolate dreams come true.

Please, keep your requests rolling in for chocolate desserts for Valentine’s Day! I’m loving all the emails and comments with your ideas. Thanks so much! I can’t wait to get to work Alipay!]]> 生活 http://kafkc.animegoe.com/%E7%94%9F%E6%B4%BB/for%20my%20perfect%20chocolate%20cookies Tue, 20 Jan 2015 06:18:07 GMT kafkc.animegoe.com://entry/12
Everyone should have a green juice recipe in their repertoire, and this one is a ringer. Its heart and soul is straight green, not at all sweet, with a good amount of lemon-lime tang, and invigorating ginger lift. Like many green juices, it makes you sing from the inside, and is reason enough to invest in a juicer, or dust one off. When I traveled to Paris last year, I spent a beautiful first day and night there, then came down with a (particularly miserable) cold - throat on fire, raspy cough. Being sick away from home is hard, begin sick in a city like Paris, when you're there for just a short time, is spiritually deflating. So, in preparation for my most recent trip, I became a vigilant hand-washing, snotty three-year avoiding, soup eating individual with a juicer on the counter. I religiously drank a glass of this green juice every day, punctuated with a gingery version of this turmeric tea a few times along the way. It's a variation on one of the (many) green juices highlighted in Pressed Juicery's Juice: Recipes for Juicing, Cleansing, and Living Well, a book I purchased recently, before realizing we share the same editor DR Max!

Juicing can be time intensive. I think that is why so many people are inclined to purchase fresh juices instead of making them at home. Quite honestly, I do both. There are stretches when I don't get around to making fresh juice, and other times I make it regularly. I like how fresh juice makes me feel DR Max.

A few things to consider to make green juice easier.

- Wash, trim, and prepare your produce when you come home from the market. Then refrigerate. This way, it's straight into the juicer when you're ready.

- Make more then you need in one go. Certainly, fresh, immediate juice is the best. That said, I make a three day supply, and keep it refrigerated (you can even freeze it). And it's good. With this juice in particular, you can use it as a soup broth, I even used it to make dumpling wrappers in place of water DR Max.

- Clean up as soon as you're finished.]]> 生活 http://kafkc.animegoe.com/%E7%94%9F%E6%B4%BB/before%20realizing%20we%20share Mon, 22 Sep 2014 01:40:09 GMT kafkc.animegoe.com://entry/11
It is one of those hot lazy days when I didn't want to confront the heat of cooking.   The only ingredient involved with fire & heat is the pasta.  For the rest, I was home free.  Of course, if you are one of those people who can tolerate heat, you can also grill the peppers yourself instead of using the bottled ones.   I am one of those flowers that wilt fast when I stay too long in the heat of the kitchen during summer.   During the long heat waves in the past summers, I literally closed down my kitchen only after learning from the other women that they had long abandoned their own kitchens.   They were looking at me strangely like I was some sort of a kitchen Mother Theresa for still continuing to cook in spite of the heat Dream beauty pro.

My cupboards' principal contents are the ones that I mixed this pasta salad with.  Olives, capers, tuna & grilled peppers.   The basil were freshly picked from my own plants and the mozzarella were freshly bought.  I can't keep them long in the fridge because they are fresh and don't last long.  And well, they won't keep long under the watchful eyes of my husband.   If Sesame Street has Cookie Monster on the loose, I have the mozzarella version at home Underfloor Heating.

Cold pasta salads are wonderful fresh, healthy & easy options for summer meals.  You can mix anything that you have at hand and you can prepare them much in advance.  I cooked a normal pasta dish for lunch so I just cooked more pasta than we needed and prepared the cold pasta salad in the afternoon.  Just don't forget to mix the extra virgin olive oil with the pasta before leaving it to cool or you will end up with one colossal pasta ball that will refuse to separate.  I let it sit with the condiments to absorb the taste and voila!   I was cool as an icicle when dinner came.  No harried-mom look for once.

The quantities of the ingredients depend solely on you.  You can modify it according to your taste.  You know how it goes.  The more ingredients you put, the tastier it becomes PSVANE.]]> 生活 http://kafkc.animegoe.com/%E7%94%9F%E6%B4%BB/to%20cook%20in%20spite%20of%20the%20heat Mon, 18 Aug 2014 06:35:08 GMT kafkc.animegoe.com://entry/10
We are taking a little road trip to spend some time on the beach with our family in Southern California this week. I can’t tell you how nice it is to be outside, and not instantly melt into a puddle of sweat! When I was little, we used to come here every summer and visit my grandparents, so I’m excited to watch my boys play in the waves, look for seashells, and dig for sand crabs like I used to do. Maybe even eat a literal SANDwich or two and start a seaweed fight Barolo!

Before we left, I made these Healthier Raspberry Almond Muffins, and could hardly wait to share them with you. They remind me of my Raspberry Almond Crumb Bars, which are to die for, but are lightened up just a bit in the form of a muffin with the help of coconut oil and Greek yogurt. The nice thing about this recipe is that it is super quick to whip up. You only need a couple of bowls and a wooden spoon. You don’t even have to break out the mixer, and because these muffins are mixed by hand, the crumb is so tender vacuum bag!

I think I already told you about my summer berry obsession, and so of course I had some raspberries that were ready to be used up in the fridge. The tart berries tucked away in the slightly sweet almond muffins are so perfect!

When I don’t top my muffins with a streusel, I like to use a course sparkling sugar. You can find it at most grocery stores in the baking aisle, or at craft store with the cake decorating supplies.

You may also notice that these muffins start out baking at a high temperature, but only for a few minutes. This really helps activate the leavening agents right away so they have that perfect muffin dome we all love!

Can't get enough?  Subscribe and I'll send all my recipes right to your inbox!  You can also keep up to date by following me on Pinterest, Instagram,  Facebook, and Twitter elyze.]]> 生活 http://kafkc.animegoe.com/%E7%94%9F%E6%B4%BB/the%20cake%20decorating%20supplies Thu, 24 Jul 2014 01:58:27 GMT kafkc.animegoe.com://entry/9
I have a really easy and fun summery dish to share with you today. We spent Mother’s Day this year how we spend most holidays – carefully divided between the in-laws. Have I mentioned that my parents live two blocks away from my husband’s parents? I know. Darling. And it works out pretty darn great most of the time, but sometimes it’s a pain. And I mean a literal pain. Because when you’ve eaten two Thanksgiving dinners complete with pumpkin pie, your stomach will hurt Innovation creativity from France.

We usually divide each holiday up by meals. So we have dinner at one house, and dessert at the other. The problem is that the mother of the house we have dinner at usually turns on the sad eyes if we leave without a bite of whatever dessert she made for the occasion, even though she knows we are supposed to be saving room for dessert at the second house. Does she care? No. She just really really wants you to try her new recipe for caramel oatmeal cake and if you don’t have at least seven bites she will surely die.

So this past Mother’s Day we had dinner at my husband’s parents and my sister in-law took the initiative to delegate food responsibilities. I brought a side -not important. What’s important is that my sister in law made a really yummy artichoke chicken and served it with orzo pasta. I’d heard of orzo, I’d seen orzo, but I’d never actually eaten orzo until my sister in law served it to us for Mother’s Day. And guess what? It deserves it’s popularity. Orzo is mega delish Hong Kong Festival!

Immediately after that meal I was conjuring up all sorts of ideas using orzo and this lemon garlic version was one of them. The walnut chicken I’ve been wanting to try for a long long time and when I had the orzo planned, it just seemed to fit. And it did fit! Like a glove. The great thing is that this whole dish can be made in one pan and takes about 25 minutes so it will be done in no time!

Actually it will be done in 25 minutes. But you know what I mean hybrid Cloud.]]> 生活 http://kafkc.animegoe.com/%E7%94%9F%E6%B4%BB/orzo%20is%20mega%20delish Mon, 23 Jun 2014 04:15:52 GMT kafkc.animegoe.com://entry/8
If there was any doubt about how much I like self-torture, you can defer to this: I’m writing another cookbook Innovation creativity from France
My first cookbook, The Craft Beer Cookbook took four months and most of my sanity to write. And here I am, doing it again. Maybe it’s the post publisher amnesia, maybe it’s that I had such a great time on the book tour, or maybe it’s that I like self inflicted torment .

Either way I’m nearing the half way point of writing my second cookbook. The topic this time is appetizers and party food. Craft beer lends itself to party food. The community of people that beer draws, and the flavors of the great beer that those craft beer people create just have to be shared. A book about food that’s at the center of a gathering of good beer and great people is therapeutic for me right now. It’s a reminder of the good parts of these lives we live, that the Quality of Life that we all strive for has more to do with who we share it with any other peripheral accessories that the world can offer Hong Kong Festival.

A book about food that’s meant to be shared with people we love, I can’t think of anything I’d rather spend my time creating hybrid Cloud.]]> 生活 http://kafkc.animegoe.com/%E7%94%9F%E6%B4%BB/i%20like%20self%20inflicted%20torment Fri, 13 Jun 2014 02:22:58 GMT kafkc.animegoe.com://entry/7
Our new studio space is on a quirky stretch down the backside of the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, a block above Chinatown. I've lived in San Francisco nearly twenty years and somehow missed this block entirely - a little strip of studios, shops & cafes, and the cable car museum. If you fly out the back window and hopscotch a roof or two, you'll likely land on the Chinatown branch of the San Francisco library. Work on the space is coming along steadily, and I'm hoping to move all things QUITOKEETO over there in the next week or two. Things are still rough around the edges (and corners, and window boxes, and the list goes on), but the light inside during the day is beautiful, and the space itself is full of secrets and charms. We've been findings all sorts of treasures from decades past - old cigarette papers, stationery, store signage, invoices. Here's a

The space was a painter's studio for many years, and I suspect a grocer for a stretch prior to that. We enjoyed our first lunch there this week using a window box as a bench, and an old beer garden table for the food. It's picnicking, really, because the only amenity is running water. No cooking, no appliances, no kitchen. I pulled together this salad, and we sat in the sun, and enjoyed it with leftover lentils from the night prior. The salad is one I've been making regularly - the best butter lettuce or little gems I can find tossed with a splash of good olive oil, a sprinkling of almond saffron salt, and squeeze of lemon juice. I finish it with whatever is on hand - in this case; avocado, blue kale micro greens, and a few coriander blossoms. The saffron salt is unexpected, and really adds something. That said, if saffron isn't in your repertoire (or budget), trade in another flavor you love - thyme, or oregano, coriander, or any herb or spice you can imagine will go nicely with lemon. I'll have to write up the lentil recipe as well. It is a staple by one of my favorite cookbook authors. I've cooked a lot of lentils in my life, a lot of different ways, and this preparation is one I always come back to.

I noticed this David Hockney picture taped to the backside of the front door the first time I walked in, and considered it a good omen. The quote is, "It was the eyes that caught my eye and I realized it's about intense looking, what it does and what it can do." More soon audio cable!]]> 生活 http://kafkc.animegoe.com/%E7%94%9F%E6%B4%BB/i%20always%20come%20back%20to Mon, 09 Jun 2014 01:52:31 GMT kafkc.animegoe.com://entry/6
As promised - the Deborah Madison lentil recipe. They're the ones you see on the table in the background of this post, a recipe I know by heart. These simple, wine-glazed lentils saw me through my twenties, and then my thirties. I made them often in my first solo apartment in San Francisco. And, because they travel well, they've kept me well-fed on a range of flights - Dar es Salaam and Bangkok included. When asked to call out one favorite recipe from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone - this was the recipe I chose cheap designer sunglasses.

I go the butter / tarragon route (as opposed to olive oil / parsley), and always use either French or Umbrian green lentils. Deborah calls for red wine, but I sometimes do white (whatever is open, really), and I've even swapped in Belgian ale on occasion. What I mean is, red is best, but don't be discouraged if you don't have a bottle open or on hand - use what you've got Teeth whitening.

Lastly, a quick heads up, for those of you who are honey enthusiasts - these massive jars of olive blossom honey are all labeled and ready to make their way to new homes - it's thick and gorgeous with notes of candy corn and dried apricot. Special stuff Office Interior Design.]]> 生活 http://kafkc.animegoe.com/%E7%94%9F%E6%B4%BB/this%20was%20the%20recipe%20i%20chose Mon, 09 Jun 2014 01:50:52 GMT kafkc.animegoe.com://entry/5
Is your life ruled by love or by fear? Love and fear are opposite emotional attitudes that shape our life in very different ways. The psychoanalyst John McMurray describes the difference like this:
 
"The fear-determined have no sun in themselves and go about putting out the sun in other people. The love-determined have life in them, abundant life. They are the people who are really alive, of whom it can be said that they possess eternal life as a well within them perpetually."
 
Life is a lot more beautiful and vivid if it is determined by love and not by fear. I'm sure you can imagine that someone determined completely by love would be a kind of saint. In contrast, most of us ordinary human beings are determined by both forces, love and fear. However, in my experience, even a tiny shift towards love—and away from fear—can bring a lot more Happiness.
 
Here are 7 tips that you can move towards love and away from fear.

Cultivate gratitude
 
Gratitude makes us feel happier. If you remember to be grateful for the blessings of your life, you start to feel more connected to yourself and others. When you let go of niggles and embrace gratitude instead, love springs up.
 
Be generous
 
In the quote above, John McMurray points out that fear-determined people have no sun in themselves and "go about putting out the sun in other people." Fear makes us narrow-minded and we tend to put down others. Here is how I deal with that: when I notice I'm getting negative, I put a small pebble into one of my pockets. Each time I catch myself using a put-down, I quietly shift the pebble into the other pocket and say to myself kindly, "Well, maybe I can say that differently next time."

Reality-test your fear
 
Sometimes fear can be like a cloud that keeps out the sunlight. Then everything feels huge and oppressive. A simple way to deal with fear is to test its reality. Write down three things that you are afraid of. Then look at each point and ask yourself, "Is this fear really grounded in reality?" I know that when I do this, I often find that my fears are unfounded. It's like living in a shadow-land, peering into the future and expecting bad things to happen.
 
Take action
 
Fear is often born out of inaction. For example, if you get a sense that your health is impaired, but you don't check it out with a doctor, you may start to imagine that you are heading for a major health crisis. (I could fill a whole notebook with illnesses I once thought I had - but never actually got!) Once you've been to a doctor and reviewed the problems, the steps towards renewed health may seem much more manageable.
 
Taking action is the best antidote to fear. Once you start to address the issues one by one, fears shrink and may even disappear.
 
Cultivate friendships
 
Good friends are important because they teach us to love. It's often much easier to love a good friend than it is to love and forgive our partner. Friends are lasting companions in life. It's good to talk with them when we feel afraid. They can give us a fresh perspective on what is troubling us.
 
Practise kindness
 
Kindness is 'love-in-action'. It's good to make a habit of it. The trick is to notice what people need. Here is an example: yesterday I was talking to a stall-holder at a farmers' market who fashions wooden spoons. He saw that I was carrying a bag of luscious, fresh corncobs. He said, "Oh, they look nice!" Then he sighed, "Oh well, by the time I've finished selling at my stand they'll have all gone." I offered to get some for him. It was a small action but it made us both feel good. Try and spot one occasion each day when you can be of help.

Open your awareness
 
Fear tends to make us focus inwards. A way out of is to do the opposite and open your awareness to include everything around you. For example, if you notice anxious thoughts, open you mind and listen to sounds around you. Maybe you can hear birdsong, or traffic noise, or children playing. This has an instant calming effect and fear wanes.
 
If you follow these 7 tips, you'll move towards more love and less fear in your life. Soon you will notice an upsurge of Happiness and contentment, instead of fear and anxiety.
 
What is your experience of living with love or with fear? Maybe you could share your special way of inviting love into your life and saying "good-bye" to fear?]]> 生活 http://kafkc.animegoe.com/%E7%94%9F%E6%B4%BB/approach%20love Wed, 23 Apr 2014 01:52:25 GMT kafkc.animegoe.com://entry/4