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.  […]

Daikon And Carrot Noodle Salad With Sesame Ginger Dressing

I haven’t sat down to write in this space for three months.

Well, that’s not entirely true. I’ve come here. I’ve flipped the lid of my laptop. I’ve stared blankly into the screen. I’ve opened up a fresh document and wrote over a thousand emotional words about the hollow exhaustion I feel on this lengthy health journey–plus, just all the feelings.

Feelings about shootings,  infuriatingly flippant rape convictions and all of the tirelessly troubling news that seemed to hit over and over again during the summer. The 2016 political climate and how IDONTUNDERSTANDWHATISHAPPENING.  I wrote about why I wasn’t writing. I just wrote all the words that came up. The word vomit. Out of my finger tips. Finger vomit? Feelings vomit? Finger feelings? I wrote those.

How do I say all the things I need to say? How vulnerable is too vulnerable? Do I even have anything important to say? I’ve been silent for too long. Do I even remember how to blog?  This is a food blog, should I even talk about rape here? So many important things are going on, not to mention the crippling exhaustion I’ve faced these last months struggling with my own health. Should I let them know that sometimes, even though I’m strong, I cry and sincerely fear that I will never be healthy again? Should I really just write about salad? Look, here’s a nice salad. Surely I can’t come back from not saying any words, and being silently overwhelmed with emotions, just to jump back in like nothing ever happened and make you guys a salad!! […]

Instant Pot Chicken & Ginger Noodle Soup {Gluten-Free + Paleo} // A Health Journey Update

I know a handful of things to be absolute truths. For example, kindness is better than judgment, It’s essential to stay hydrated, life is never what you think it’s going to be, it’s impossible to get Adele concert tickets without selling a kidney, and when in doubt, MAKE SOUP. Always and forever, style. Like, tattoo a steaming bowl of chicken noodle onto my biceps. Do you think I could make the noodles dance when I flex? Maybe. I will probably never find out.  […]

Spiced Ginger Kabocha Pie with Maple Coconut Cream {Gluten-Free, Grain-Free, Paleo}

In an effort to make fall arrive here in California, I’ve been consuming pie as if it were some sort of fork to face rain-dance.

Really, it’s just something I’m trying out for the greater good. I will eat pie for breakfast in the name of chunky sweaters, and tall boots, and the California drought. I’ll happily open my pie hole for dessert, in the hopes of bringing a changing of the leaves, crisp fall air, hot toddies, and the right to stop sweating. Please, someone… anyone… turn off my armpit glands. I know this isn’t “healthy” to do, but since it’s divine intervention I’m asking for, I figure you can find a way to divinely redesign this girl’s pits so they’re no longer weeping under the weight of pie baking in summer temperatures. Speaking of my armpits– did you all catch episode seven of The So…Let’s Hang Out Podcast? It’s a doozy. […]