millionaire's chex bars

i sincerely hope you are looking at my breakfast. i can't find a single chex bar in this house, but i am out of oats and pretty sure i've clogged my aorta with chunky peanut butter, and the thought of these bars are all i have left. molly's been gone, what, five days, and things are dire here. ba(t)ching has become less about kicking back with a cucumber, and more about shaking out the almond jar to see if one got caught in a seam. i've seen barney lose his bullet 50 times since sunday and if i have to eat popcorn again for supper tonight, i just, holy smoke, the deep freeze!!!

(the recipe for these bars is up on betty this week!)

strawberry hi-hat cupcakes

happy ojai friday! today marks the fifth day of my stay and the fifth day that i have eaten nothing but yogurt in the morning, mexican food in the evening, and a whole lot of green room hummus in between. (and i wouldn't be surprised if the entire orchestra could say the same. how does the stage not smell like one big fart all the time?) 

it's been weird not being in my kitchen all week, but exciting because i get to use my host family's beautiful sunny kitchen, and then in order to access wifi i mosey over to the hall which yields live soundtracks like brooklyn rider rehearsals and face melting jazz renditions of all of my favorite mahler tunes. 

pictured are some strawberry cupcakes that i made for betty before i left. i love that a hi-hat is both a cymbal and a cupcake, don't you? these little guys are inspired by these chocolate beauties, and they totally remind me of that smiling poop emoji. gluten-free smiling poop emoji, in fact!

the recipe is over on betty's site.

have a wonderful weekend, everyone! i am off to berkeley on monday... any restaurant recommendations would be much appreciated :)

-yeh!

a cat cake + friday links

living on a farm means hanging out with cats. rub junior's belly. come play with sven and ole. stand right here in the rain while i go tend to jinxie. these are all things that eggboy has said at least once recently, and as a dog person, it's a little bit jarring. i'm slowly starting to warm up to cat culture though, and not without the help of this onigiri cat. this week was national pet appreciation week, so i made a cat cake for betty crocker and in doing so gained a whole new respect for coco cake land's animal cakes. they are hard to make! this little guy is decorated with marzipan and soba noodles... and he doesn't have a name yet. thoughts?

speaking of cakes, did you all see this chocolate ombre cake? tell me your jaw didn't drop when you saw it. i dare you.

and this chocolate and lemon pistachio semifreddo (!!!!)

and speaking of farms, kara's love letter to her farm is one of the prettiest things i ever did read.

in this week's drooling from afar at the sufjan stevens/justin peck ballet: the pas de deux.

check out this meat i want to eat right now: a steak salad with tahini dressing, a pretzel dog with cheddar beer sauce.

in the opposite of meat realm, i previewed kimberley's cookbook last week in las vegas and i don't know if it was because i was really drunk, but i definitely almost barfed in excitement over the beautiful vegetables that smiled at me from the pages. it comes out in about a week!

this preview of the beautiful driftless magazine makes me even more excited about the midwest.

in which of a kind got me to admit that i was once a mathlete.

hug me about these bookstores of new york.

"photography is made 20% by the light that comes from outside, and 80% by the light that comes from within you."

praise marian for making the scuttlebutt possible in the middle of nowhere.

happy friday, everyone!!!

-yeh!

citrus mini cakes + friday links

we moved to the farm yesterday! (i moved to a farm!!!!!!!) it feels so grown-upish and exciting and weird and fantastic. two years ago, if you would have told me that i'd be moving to the farm of that quiet trombone player with the mozart tattoos, i would have lol-ed so loud. and also two years ago, if you would have told me that there exists a land without traffic and a quality of life the size of texas that i would soon be calling home, i would have called you a liar and ordered another bagel.

the farm welcomed us with a purple-pink sky and a few bits of yummy rain. we slept in the guest room, on our king-sized mattress plopped onto the queen-sized bed, because there's still a lot of work to be done on the house. we need floors, mainly. i also need to learn how to navigate the basement so i don't feel the need to store all of my fondue pots right in the kitchen.

the great news is: we have kitchen shelves with a custom cutout for my kitchen-aid, i have a baking station complete with a cookie cutter drawer (but food coloring is invited), and we've officially labeled our two main rooms the parlor and the studio because after 27 years eggboy still does not know the difference between a living room and a family room.

this open shelving thing has got me on a hunt for cute bottles for my vinegars and little jars for my sprinkles. any ideas???

i have some citrus mini cakes up on betty crocker today, just in time to celebrate! they were so much fun to create because i had a reason to buy every piece of citrus from the store. the layers in the recipe are lemon, lime, and grapefruit, and they're held together with a bit of lemon curd, but really any combination of citrus will do. get the recipe for these cakes here.

i am off to spend the day unpacking! but first, some links...

friday links

this is highbrow/brilliant, also my next halloween costume

you know why i love the internet? because it shows you how to replicate the holy grail of drunk foods so you can have it in places that are not new york city, for example, a farm

if t.r.l. could come back with more videos like this i would watch it every day with handi-snacks and dunkaroos

swirly bread with red bean paste!!!

lemon, lavender, and earl grey mini cakes and mini mini cakes!!!

the milk carton kids live on npr is a perfect way to spend a rainy afternoon in your jammies.

it's my savory crepe cake dreams come true

despite all of my halva failures, i think i would be delighted to attempt this semolina halva

oh this is what i can do with that dukkah that's been lying around

this week i enjoyed tom brosseau's tiny desk concert, especially the long part about marilyn haggerty

i want to crust all of the things in salt, but first, these potatoes

these photos, ohmygah

-yeh!