Easy Orange & Ginger Beer Cranberry Sauce

Several years ago my husband (then boyfriend–how casual, right?) illegally sold our mattress on craigslist (shhhh), packed up everything we owned into a U-haul and left our home in Los Angeles to make a new one in the SF Bay Area. We had a cushy beginning to our new chapter, and were blessed with a ridiculously nice house to stay in. My parents had converted the house I grew up in, into my Dad’s music studio. There was still plenty of house to be lived in above the music studio. Too much house for us, actually. We were just a couple of kids with a really cheap coffee table that moved into a very nice house on a very nice hill in a very nice neighborhood. My dad would work downstairs, and bass would pulse through the floorboards. Artists would come to work and occasionally stay. It was our job to make them feel at home since we were living there. I have stories, guys. So many stories. But, this post isn’t for those–this post is to lament about the year that I really started cooking. This was the year that I discovered that I could make my own cranberry sauce.  […]

Grain-Free Banana Cranberry & Lemon Breakfast Cake

 

Hello. My name is Gina, and I am a banana hoarder.

Send help.

You might be wondering, how does one identify themselves as such? Sure you’ve watched those shows where people collect newspapers and trinkets and hundreds of cats, but banana hoarding has yet to be seen as mainstream. I get it. So, let’s just say there comes a point in time when you open up your freezer in order to stash away this week’s leftover banana bounty, only to realize there is legitimately no more room due to your already overwhelming collection of frozen bananas. My husband is confused. We discussed this a little bit the last time I made you banana bread. I’ve since stopped letting my bananas rot in the dark corners of my kitchen counters and have instead moved on to extreme hoarding behaviors. You tell me which one is better. I’m just not completely sure. […]

Cranberry Ginger Simple Syrup | A New Year’s Eve Cocktail

 

It’s nearly New Year’s Eve and although I don’t have any fancy plans, I DO intend to be holding a fancy drink when the clock strikes twelve (Midnight. Not noon. Unless I have one at noon. It’s a holiday)

I’ve made you a cranberry and ginger simple syrup and cocktail to match. Actually, I kind of made it for me. I am currently sipping on the one pictured above. I had to test it for you. Make sure it wasn’t awful (It’s not.).  You’re safe. Drink away.

I had never made my own infused simple syrup before, and it turns out it’s totally easy (perhaps this is why they call it “simple” syrup). Boil some water and sugar, add your desired infusing ingredients, let it all cool and you are in business. It’s not a lot of work, and you will seem super fancy. Nay, you ARE super fancy. No seeming about it.

Let’s make some simple syrup! […]