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 Blueberry Bundt Cake with Oranges

Here we go again. I’ve allowed my counter top to turn into a banana graveyard. My husband hates this. Mostly because, banana pranks. But, lucky for him, I’m kind of a wizard when it comes to using these mushy brown spotted naners.

If I was writing an important short bio, it might look like this:

Gina is a hard worker and first class worrier, living in the SF Bay Area. She has a complicated relationship with natural deodorant, and on occasion will transform the menagerie of rotting bananas on her counter into a mothertrucking cake. She likes jazz, as long as it isn’t too smooth, and kisses her dog on the mouth. She’s married to a man who likes sandwiches, and tends to fall asleep in his “nook”–the swoopy part along his side that is neither underarm nor lap. She does not excel at jumping rope or reading maps, but makes up for these short comings with questionable charisma.

Does this sound professional? In fact, the next time I’m published in a magazine I might just submit that to go along with it. Special skills are important to list. Plus, everyone likes it when you talk about your husband’s swoopy non-armpit parts. Not uncomfortable. […]

Herb & Garlic Crusted Eye Of Round Roast With Orange Chimichurri Sauce

Sometimes you gotta take the day slow. Breathe. Allow yourself the be lazy. Watch some terrible television. Zone out. Meditate. Allow your dog to lay her whole body on top of your body and snooze. Maybe this is just what I’m telling myself. Maybe It’s the late afternoon and I’m sitting here typing while wearing a negligee over a pair of hopelessly baggy sweatpants. Maybe my hair is not washed. Sometimes Wednesday just wins and you have to surrender to its midweek slump.  That’s what’s happening over here. But, while I’m busy nailing the position of hot-mess-blogess, and girl-covered-in-dog-hair, I can also be busy nailing this Garlic & Herb Crusted Eye Of Round. It takes only a little bit of prep, and spends most of it’s cooking time just sitting in a cooling oven. I might not be able to handle showering before 4pm today, but I can handle lazily cooking a piece of beef. We all have our priorities. Mine seem to strongly align themselves with meat making it’s way to my face. […]

Orange Almond Skillet Cake {Gluten-Free}

In this past year and some months, it’s become increasingly clear the cure for writer’s block is baking a cake…or cookies. Heck, maybe even some scones. Oh, and one time this Shepherds Pie.
Okay, it cures more than just writer’s block. It helps that stuck feeling. That “I have so many things I should be doing—but I can’t seem to process it all, so, what now?” feeling. That “I’ve got five loads of laundry to fold and my dog wont stop barking at the squirrels in our yard and all I really want to do it watch a lot of Bravo TV or hide under a large heap of blankets” feeling.  That “I thought I would get fancy and try to wax my Italian Lady Sideburns off. Oh crap…that didn’t go as planned. Now I have what can only be described as a Blemish-Beard” feeling. True story. Ugh. The regrets. […]