Remember Summer?

Last night after a rainy afternoon and the glow of our soccer game wore off, I felt the first chill of fall settle in. I'm fairly ready for it. November is a great month, in my book. I feel more focused, more motivated, well-rested. And Thanksgiving at the end? November is a dream.







But I do miss the light of summer, the lazy dusk that stretches itself across hours, dinners out of doors and the surprising brightness of an overcast day. These prints, all taken June through September, were nice reminders of that so very summer quality of life. Nothing like the familiar warmth in a stack of photos to soften this chill.

The Bake Shop

Happily over Halloween, we woke up this morning to an extra hour, which gave us time to go for a sweet bite at Neldam's before heading out of the neighborhood. This little neighborhood bakery specializes in Danish pastry, allegedly the oldest scratch bakery in all of Oakland. It's pretty charming, with a genuine DMV style numbering system and generically festive decorations strung all around and classic cakes that can be ordered ahead and customized with things like "Happy Retirement" or "It's a Boy!" This morning a young couple sat in the bakery's classic lawn chairs looking through a three ring binder to pick out their wedding cake.

Every time I've been there, no matter the day of the week, someone is picking up one of these cakes, which leads me to believe that a Neldam's cake is a sort of tradition in lots of Oakland families. This morning a woman who looked to have stopped by on her way home from church, dutifully took a number ticket though she was the only person in line and said, "It should be under Tina." No bother mentioning what should be under Tina, of course. The lady behind the counter produced the box and opened it so she could look over the script. "Oh yes," she granted, "That'll be fine."



It reminds me so much of Gene's Bake Shop, the downtown bakery located conveniently next door to my parents' store when I was a kid. I used to eat their seventy-five cent eclairs or M&M cookies while my parents were working and they were the go-to Saturday morning donut destination when friends slept over. Gene's was a scratch bakery too and everything was made fresh at the bakery, every single morning. When I was in junior high it went out of business after a fire and never reopened, but it was certainly around long enough to make an impression. It's no wonder I'm such a floozy when it comes to the smell of frosted cake.


Neldam's doesn't do eclairs or donuts, but I can highly recommend the bear claw: in this case, a chocolate almond croissant with course sugar dusted on top. And someday, I'm going to invent a special occasion for one of those cakes.

Birthday, Girl: the Party

It seemed logical to just go ahead and wait another eleven October days to post pictures from my birthday party. It did take us two whole days just to finish all the dishes, after all! I always take hosting to next level, wear myself out entirely and overfeed everyone. I made a spreadsheet for cooking and brought home groceries from four different stores. But it was worth it. I love having parties.



I'll make mention of the menu here, which was mostly made in house, with several crucial contributions from especially well-mannered friends, attributed where appropriate.

For the liver:

Tamarind Whiskey Sours

For the belly:

Macaroni & Cheese, featuring Velveeta, my grandma's famous recipe

Rainbow Coleslaw with Buttermilk Dressing


Kobucha Squash salad with spring greens & roasted red onions tossed in a cilantro walnut dressing.

Homemade veggie brats

Grilled potatoes

8 hour marinated tofu log

Tarts of caramelized onions and fennel seed

Homemade caramel sauce and fresh apples

Meats for grilling, of various kinds and shapes (Various)

Stuffed mushrooms (JayDee)

Artichoke Spinach bake dip (Marianne)

Pumpkin chocolate chip bundt cake (Marianne)

Sweet potato salad (Jen)

And last but not least, almond coconut cupcakes with blackberry buttercream frosting. (Miriam)

I think it's safe to say no one went hungry, even after giving our new backyard ping pong setup a thorough workout. And we got party hats to make everyone look funny, which seemed like more fun.
It worked.


ps. Jen was better at taking pictures than me, so a lot of these are hers. She also has a whole lot of them here.

At it Again

As part of my overarching plan to win people over by baking them things, I took this cake to our neighbor, Marianne's Palm Sunday party this Sunday. It's a double ginger sour cream bundt cake, which christened my bundt pan, and it's served with ginger infused strawberries and fresh mindt...er...mint.


It's pretty tasty! You can't see it in the photo but there's also a demerara sugar crust on the outside which made for such a nice texture. No slumpy bundty cakes here.

Marianne always has the best food at her parties, so I was just hoping it wouldn't shrink in comparison. And since it didn't, I think that makes it a keeper. Also, I've declared neighbor hosted parties to be the best thing since sliced bread because you can wear high heels to the party and not die and then go home to swap them out and still hang out and help with the dishes. Seriously! Your own fun, talented, hilarious neighbor should host something along those lines, don't you think?

John's Big Birthday

Actually it started on top of a hill with a bottle of classy champagne. And then descended from there...

...to a Fancy Belgian and a Shouter...

and then a flash of a man and a tasty dinner.

After which we were thoroughly sloshed on food and drink and went to play rummy...

and then there was cake.

The end!