Month: December 2022

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Holiday baking tips for people stressed out by holiday baking

Holiday baking tips for people stressed out by holiday baking

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My holiday baking is best summed up by my attempt at fulfilling a boyfriend’s request for a gingerbread house. It cracked, it sagged, and it finally gave up and collapsed — much like the relationship. I tried my best, but ultimately, neither the baked goods nor the romance could be saved.

The truth is, I want to be someone who bakes for the holidays, but I feel stymied. How can I bake when life is chaos? How can I bake when vanilla beans are so expensive? And how can I bake when no one will like what I’ve made anyway?

So, instead, I’m that person who guiltily contributes a box of Trader Joe’s best and hopes to sneak by unnoticed. Each year, I resolve that this season will be different, but this year I decided to make it happen. For inspiration, I gathered wisdom from several baking wizards.

Cookie shirkers of the world, unite: Together, we can face unafraid the plans that we’ve made. Here are three common obstacles and how to get beyond them.

Obstacle No. 1: Disorganization

However full your calendar, it probably overflows during the holidays. Baking can feel like an unwelcome extra bit of insanity, but it doesn’t have to. Sarah Jampel, recipe developer and test kitchen manager for King Arthur Baking, says that pre-measuring dry ingredients for your recipes cuts prep time significantly: “Just be sure to label the containers with contents and amounts so you don’t mix them up.”

A one-bowl sheet-pan cookie so easy a child taught me how to make it

She also advises printing recipes and noting bake temperatures, times and pan sizes (or other required equipment, like cutters, sifters, mixers and thermometers) at the top of the page. “You’ll avoid accidentally baking your cookies at too high of a temperature, you’ll make sure you have all of the equipment you need, and you can make a list of [baking order], starting with the lower temperature bakes and working your way up,” she said.

Working ahead also can relieve holiday gridlock. “You can even start holiday baking [early] and freeze things,” said Dorothy Kern, who blogs at Crazy for Crust. If you have storage space, you can make most cookie doughs and refrigerate or even freeze them. If you want to actually bake ahead and freeze, brownies and bar cookies are particularly good choices, Kern said.

Sugar and chocolate are pricey enough, but add in specialty ingredients and it could break your budget. That’s why Dan Pelosi, food and lifestyle creator of GrossyPelosi, encourages the inexperienced to start with simple, well-tested recipes. “My Peanut Butter Blossoms use normal pantry ingredients, even for non-bakers,” he said. “The hardest part is peeling the wrappers off the chocolate Kisses, and they are always the most popular cookies on the table.”

If you must have a pricey ingredient, Pelosi tries friends and family first, then encourages buying just the minimum. “Go to a bulk store and see if you can buy just the exact amount you need,” he said. If you belong to a neighborhood Buy Nothing group or have friends to ask (the women in my local She Runs This Town are so helpful), see if someone has what you need and wouldn’t mind offering up a bit — obviously, in exchange for some cookies.

Paul Arguin and Chris Taylor, authors of the new “Fabulous Modern Cookies,” support a well-placed swap of like for like, saving money and frazzle. “For example, macadamia nuts are delicious, but also very pricey. Substituting another type of nut, like cashews, is smart,” Arguin said. “Will the cookie taste exactly the same? No, but if you’re saving $10 per pound, it might be good enough.”

While essential ingredients, such as almond paste, are absolutes, Jampel pointed out that some ingredients can be skipped completely, if not subbed. “Check out the recipe’s reviews for successful substitutions,” she added.

Obstacle No. 3: Fear of failure

Ultimately, people like cookies and they’re not going to blast you for your efforts (forgetting a dear friend who called the chocolate chip cookies I made for his birthday “a little dry”). “We see baking as a form of love,” Taylor said. “If you are baking with love, it doesn’t matter if your cookies end up a little misshapen or darker at the edges.”

They also mentioned that cookies are much easier to make the second time around, once you’ve done a trial batch. “If you have the time, budget and patience, you can remake anything you’re not happy with.”

But if you’re still feeling less than confident, Kern has the solution: Employ sweet camouflage. “Slap on some frosting and a generous amount of colorful sprinkles and no one will notice,” she said.

“Release expectations of perfection,” Pelosi said. “Let a mess happen. People can taste the energy that goes into what you are baking, so make sure it’s delicious.”

If the mood stays light and sweet, the cookies will be the same.

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The best gifts for home cooks in Berkeley and Oakland

The best gifts for home cooks in Berkeley and Oakland

The winter holidays approach, which means gift-giving season is here. All this week, Nosh is bringing you ideas for unique, local food-related gifts that are easy to snag in a local East Bay venue, or can be ordered and shipped with a few clicks of the keys. After all, everyone on your gift list has to eat!

For thoughtfully designed gifts that blend both practicality and style, look no further than kitchen tools and accessories. These are the gifts that they’ll reach for again and again throughout the year, truly relying on essential cookbooks and sharp knives, and taking pleasure in speckled ceramics and soft linens. 

Sure, it’s easy to stock up at Williams-Sonoma, a Bay Area tastemaker since 1956. But there are so many small and independent shops that are actually local to the East Bay, places where you can find gifts that go way beyond the same-day-shipped.

Here are the highlights this holiday season, whether you’re shopping for your best food friend, or craving something for your own wishlist.  

For someone who eats everything in bowls

Oakland ceramicist Sarah Kersten’s basin collection. Courtsey: Sarah Kersten

Listen, eating food in bowls is no longer a trend, it’s officially a lifestyle. And local ceramicist Sarah Kersten’s new basin bowl collection is breathtakingly pretty: wide and shallow bowls, speckled as naturally as quail eggs or Appaloosa ponies. 

She handshapes them all in her studio in Oakland, and supplies many cool restaurants across the Bay, from Sister and Jo’s Modern Thai in Oakland to Octavia in SF and Valley Bar + Bottle in Sonoma. And they come in a range of colors and sizes, from the tidiest olive dish to the broadest pasta bowl. 

Sarah Kersten, 2725 Magnolia St. (near 28th Street), Oakland. Check website for in-person shopping hours most Saturdays in December, or order online.

For someone who’s into sustainability with style

These Palm + Perkins napkins embrace the mismatch. Courtesy: Palm + Perkins

This local general store carries a wide range of clothing, homewares, and other gifts, and they love featuring sustainability this season. But it doesn’t feel like a lecture with these handsome napkins, mismatched in blues and grays, and sporting jaunty stripes and checks. 

The fabric just happens to be made from 100 percent recycled materials (80 percent cotton from clothing and 20 percent poly yarn from plastic bottles, to be precise). Plus, it’s a festive time of year to set out cloth napkins, and inspiration to avoid tossing so many paper towels. 

Palm + Perkins, 2950 College Ave. (near Ashby Avenue), Berkeley. Shop in person 11 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, or purchase online.

For the cocktail connoisseur living that highball life

Even tap water tastes better when it’s from a cool glass, like this one from Aderia. Credit: Umami Mart

The highball craze keeps high rolling across cocktail menus in the East Bay. And they do go down easy, don’t they? Thanks to good whisky, lots of ice and bubbly mix-ins, which help lower the ABV. Everyone’s favorite Japanese market has several cool sets of tall glasses, so you can keep chilling and sipping at home. 

They’re made by Aderia, a collectible glass maker in Japan, whose whimsical and retro designs date back more than 200 years. Umami Mart carries several of their patterns, including this “slash” design, with cuts fanning around the base of the drink. Of course, Umami Mart also stocks excellent Japanese whiskies, if you want to pair with a bottle.  

Umami Mart, 4027 Broadway (near 40th Street), Oakland. Open 12-6 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday and Sunday, 12-7 p.m. Saturday, also available online.

For the gastro-traveler who won’t shut up about their trip to Portugal

This little terracotta pig does double duty as a cute centerpiece and as a showy assador. Credit: The Spanish Table

May we present the real party animal of this holiday season: A little terracotta pig who serves as an assador — a mini tabletop grill for sausages. Set him out with drinks and snacks, pour alcohol into his belly and strike a match. Then throw chourico or linguica sausage onto his back, and let it roast in the flame. 

Is he a one-trick pig? Maybe, but look, that’s never stopped anyone from gifting a Swiss fondue set. So for the friend who keeps going on about the anchovies they ate in Lisbon, this could be a fun party trick. Plus, how cute!  

The Spanish Table, 1814 San Pablo Ave. (near Hearst Avenue), Berkeley. Open 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 11-5 Sunday, or order online.

For the dedicated diner who still misses Brown Sugar Kitchen

The cover of Oakland chef Tanya Holland’s latest book, California Soul. Credit: Ten Speed Press

Chef Tanya Holland closed iconic soul food restaurant Brown Sugar Kitchen in January 2022, serving her last fried chicken and waffles. The Oakland chef remains front-and-center, however, with her latest cookbook, California Soul.

Holland’s book features Black farmers and foodmakers from across California, while serving fresh interpretations of Dungeness crab gumbo, collard green tabbouleh and lavender buttermilk pie, among 80 recipes. It’s available wherever good cookbooks are sold, but if you pick up a copy at local Marcus Books, you’ll be supporting another Black-owned business in the East Bay. 

Marcus Books, 3900 Martin L King Jr Way (near 39th Street), Oakland, open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 12-4 Sunday, also available online.

For the serious cook who deserves a Japanese knife

The Hida Santoku at Hida Tool is serious knife business. Credit: Hida Tool

Berkeley cooks get their knives sharpened at Hida Tool, a hardware store that sources the finest kitchen, woodworking, and gardening tools from Japan. For serious cooks, they carry an array of chef’s knives, from straight to western handles, and with different lengths and curves of blade. 

The Hida Santoku is their own original creation, crafted in collaboration with knifemaker Sakai Kikumori. It features modern and durable stainless steel, but finely sharpened to a Japanese bevel, and fitted with a traditional octagonal handle made of lightweight magnolia. Your minced herbs may never be the same. 

Hida Tool, 1333 San Pablo Ave. (near Gilman Avenue), Berkeley. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, or purchase online.

For the neat freak who lives for pantry organization

Hard to imagine a spice rack more Instagrammable than this one from Sweet July. Credit: Sweet July

For anyone who thinks heaven must resemble the Container Store, here’s a sweet little slice of organization. At Sweet July, Ayesha Curry’s airy retail shop in Oakland, the television star and domestic polymath stocks a variety of different ceramics, linens and other home goods. Including this simply perfect spice rack, made of blonde acacia wood, petite enough to slide into most cabinets, and offering a triplet of tiered steps. 

So you can easily spy what’s inside every bottle! No more rummaging around in the spice cabinet up to your armpit. Either place existing bottles on the rack, or invest in the matching glass set with acacia stoppers (sold separately). At only twenty-something bucks for the rack, you could even throw in a bottle of Jamaican curry or jerk seasoning from Oaktown.  

Sweet July, 455 23rd St. (near Valley Street), Oakland. Open Monday, and Wednesday-Saturday from 8 a.m.-6 p.m., Sunday 11-6 (closed Tuesday), or order online.

For the farmer’s market rat who stalks seasonal produce

If time must pass, a calendar from Maria Schoettler makes it do so more deliciously. Credit: Maria Schoettler

She’s an icon. She’s a legend. She is the iconic vegetable calendar from Oakland illustrator Maria Schoettler. If you’ve ever stood in a kitchen, scrutinizing the brushstrokes of a lovingly hand-painted red kabocha or leaf of dino kale, perhaps you already understand. 

Schoettler has been making these kitchen calendars since 2008, and she paints them fresh every single year. “Fresh produce for a fresh year, baby,” as she writes on Instagram. They’re printed on thick and textured art stock and hang on a sturdy wire hook, so you can flip through the months and get excited for every microseason. There is no greater gift for hyperlocal produce obsessives in the East Bay. 

Maria Schoettler, stocked at shops across the Bay Area (and beyond) or available online.

Featured image: the blueberry, cornmeal and candied lemon teacakes with olive oil from California Soul. Credit: Aubrie Pick

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Working at the intersection of nutrition and health equity | News

Working at the intersection of nutrition and health equity | News

December 5, 2022—In this Big 3 Q&A, Cindy Leung, assistant professor of public health nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, discusses a recent paper she co-authored linking food insecurity and food addiction, as well as her other research efforts. 

Q: Tell us about your recent study and the interesting findings around food insecurity.

A: Food insecurity is a socioeconomic condition of limited access to affordable and healthy food. In my prior research, I found that people experiencing food insecurity are more likely to have poorer quality diets and are at higher risk for chronic conditions. Food addiction is a newer paradigm where we’re seeing experiences of withdrawal and other symptoms similar to those, for example, of alcohol abuse, as a result of eating highly processed foods. Knowing that highly processed foods are abundant in low-income neighborhoods, we wondered if people who are food insecure might be more vulnerable to food addiction.

In two different samples—one of low-income pregnant women in the San Francisco Bay area, and another of mothers of preadolescent children in southeast Michigan—we found a consistent and significant positive association between food insecurity and food addiction, even after adjusting for sociodemographic factors like education, race/ethnicity, and income level.

In our study, we couldn’t tease apart the mechanisms behind this link, but I believe that stress and ubiquitous access to highly processed foods are big components. Food insecurity is a source of chronic stress—a constant cognitive process to manage one’s food resources in relation to the family’s food needs. This chronic stress may alter the reward system to overconsume highly processed foods, increasing the risk of food addiction over time. The combination of high stress and easy access to highly palatable foods may also explain the higher risks of other chronic diseases that we’ve seen in relation to food insecurity.

Q: What other research questions are you looking at?

A: When we talk about interventions for food insecurity, we automatically go to our federal food programs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen swift expansions of our biggest nutrition programs, showing that they are important levers to reduce food insecurity during national emergencies. My colleagues and I are evaluating some of these recent policies. I am also really interested in seeing how poverty alleviation programs might reduce food insecurity. Programs and policies that address the minimum wage or reduce unemployment could have secondary impacts on preventing food insecurity, which is so intimately tied to poverty.

Separate from this, I am interested in testing and evaluating environmental interventions to improve dietary intake. I have been involved in some large-scale interventions to reduce sugar-sweetened beverage consumption. Currently, I am working with a team at the University of Michigan to test various dining hall changes to reduce red meat consumption, which is an important goal for both health and sustainability reasons.

Q: What does it mean to you as an alumna to be back at the School as a faculty member?

I am excited and humbled to be back at Harvard Chan School, where I got my foundational training and launched my career. Now, ten years later, I think I have a more holistic perspective of how I can take my work to the next stage. I also feel very privileged to work alongside my former mentors and colleagues, and the increasingly talented pool of students that we have.

Overall, I am really optimistic about growing my research program at the School, focusing on the intersection of nutrition and health equity. I am deeply committed to serving the public health community in that space.

—Amy Roeder

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Williams recognized for work with Indigenous foods | Culture

Williams recognized for work with Indigenous foods | Culture

TULSA – Cherokee Nation citizen and chef Nico Albert Williams is the recipient of a Cherokee Phoenix Seven Feathers award in the culture category for her work and study of traditional foods.

Williams, who grew up in California, looked for ways to connect back to her Cherokee heritage through food when she moved to Oklahoma in 2003. She attended community dinners to learn more about why certain foods were important to Cherokees.

“I didn’t grow up eating traditional foods or anything like that. But when I moved to Oklahoma, and was able to actually be physically with my community, I started doing that by going to our communal dinners,” Williams said. “Because I am a cook, I was always really interested in how to make those foods and just started studying it and trying to learn from as many people as I could talk to and cook with. And it was just a really good way for me to feel connected to my culture.”

After working in the food industry as an executive chef, Williams founded Burning Cedar Indigenous Foods, a catering company that educates the public on tribally-sourced foods.

“I started to get a little better known from the restaurants I was working at being the executive chef. I was able to have more control over the menus of the restaurants I worked at,” she said. “And so, I would always try to include Native elements to represent the food that I was passionate about. And then people started to approach me and asked me to cook for their events and things, and it just really grew from there.”

Williams said learning more about and utilizing traditional foods is important in connecting Cherokees and other tribes back to the land.

“They’re (food) so integral to our identity as Cherokee people and Native people,” she said. “Our foods teach us lessons about who we are, and they connect us to our ancestors through the ingredients that we use, and they connect us to the land. Our ancestors lived so closely tied with the land. And then over the course of colonization, we’ve kind of been removed from that land.”

She said food is only part of her identity as a Cherokee person, and sharing what she knows is helping to maintain the Cherokee culture. Through Burning Cedar, Williams consults with tribes and entities on how they can, too.

“Our most important ceremonies that we have during the year…that’s directly tied to how we feed ourselves. And so, it’s just really important to keep those foods alive,” Williams said. “Nowadays, we really only connect with them during ceremony, but for our ancestors it was every single day, every single meal. Everything that we did revolved around producing these foods and having relationships with the plants and the animals that provided the food for us.”

Other projects Williams has been involved with is being featured on the Hulu show “Chefs vs. Wild,” where she used her foraging skills to create a gourmet meal and working on a project for Amazon for Native American Heritage Month. She has another upcoming feature on Hulu with other Indigenous chefs to showcase what “soul food” means for southeastern tribes.

Williams plans to expand her business into a non-profit called Burning Cedar Sovereign Wellness where she can bring knowledge of traditional foods into more urban areas, starting in Tulsa where she lives.

“We are working to create an intertribal wellness center in Tulsa, in the city, where we can show how to grow our traditional foods and medicines in an urban garden, how can you do that in just your little yard, or maybe even like on an apartment balcony. There will be ways for people to connect and learn how to reconnect with these foods when they live in the city,” she said.

Williams said receiving the award for her work was unexpected, and she feels there is more work to be done in her field.

“I was honestly shocked. I feel like I’m so young. I’m still learning and still building my business and still connecting with people,” she said. “I feel like I still have a lot of work to do. But it’s very encouraging to be appreciated that way.”

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49 Best Hanukkah Recipes – Parade: Entertainment, Recipes, Health, Life, Holidays

49 Best Hanukkah Recipes – Parade: Entertainment, Recipes, Health, Life, Holidays

Whether you spell it Hannukah, Hanukkah or Channukah, it’s a holiday celebrated by Jews around the world. Also known as the Festival of Lights, it commemorates when Jews had to leave their temple after it was occupied by the Syrian-Greek empire. When they returned, they found only had enough oil to light the candelabras (now called the menorah) for one night. Miraculously, the oil lasted for eight days.

Today, Jews light the menorah for eight nights. They play games, sing songs and exchange gifts. Of course, food is involved too. The spreads involve foods that are fried—like potato latkes and jelly doughnuts—as reminders of the oil in the Hanukkah story.

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Non alcoholic cocktails to give you holiday cheer without the buzz

Non alcoholic cocktails to give you holiday cheer without the buzz

The holiday season comes with plenty of festivities every year — many of which involve alcohol.

“I think during the holidays, there are so many parties and dinners and gatherings for friends and family so obviously alcohol is everywhere,” says Hilary Sheinbaum, author of “The Dry Challenge: How to Lose the Booze for Dry January, Sober October, and Any Other Alcohol-Free Month.”

For whatever reason you or your friends choose not to consume alcohol (and, really, whose business is it anyway?), it’s nice to have drink options other than soda at holiday get togethers. 

So, if you’re not drinking, looking to cut back or just don’t feel like having alcohol there are plenty of cocktails that can satisfy the festive-cup-quota without the buzz. 

USA TODAY has gathered a few fun, holiday-themed NA cocktails that you can add to your holiday spread.

How sober are these ‘sober’ drinks? And why are they so popular?

Forget ‘Dry January’:Alcohol-free beer, wine, cocktails are available year round and are gaining popularity

Holiday gone sour

Non alcoholic cocktails to give you holiday cheer without the buzz

Sheinbaum has a few cocktails of her own up her sleeve this holiday season. One includes sparkling water sweetened with simple syrup, lime juice and rosemary that sounds oh-so-refreshing for holiday functions.

Ingredients:

  • 12 ounces water or sparkling water
  • .5 ounces simple syrup
  • 2 ounces lime juice
  • Ice
  • Rosemary sprigs (for garnish)

Instructions:

  1. Pour simple syrup into water, stir.
  2. Pour lime juice into the simple syrup water mixture, stir.
  3. Pour contents into a rocks glass over ice.
  4. Garnish with rosemary sprigs.
  5. Enjoy! 

Makes: 1 NA cocktail.

Sweater-weather sangria 

Sweater-weather sangria

This recipe is fruity and fun and makes a few drinks.

Ingredients:

  • 16 ounces sparkling white grape juice
  • 16 ounces ginger beer
  • Ice
  • Choice of garnishes, including: 
    • 1/4 pineapple, peeled, cut into wedges
    • 1/2 small orange, cut into wedges
    • 1 passionfruit, quartered
    • 1/2 cup fresh mint leaves
    • Pomegranate seeds
    • Strawberries, sliced 
    • Red and White grapes
    • Apple slices

Instructions:

  1. Pour equal amounts of juice and ginger beer in a pitcher.
  2. Stir.
  3. Serve over ice in festive glassware (or in a wine glass).
  4. Top with your choice of garnishes.
  5. Stir again and enjoy! 

Makes: 4 NA cocktails.

Lyre’s Apertif  

Lyre's Apertif

Mixer brand Fever Tree shared this NA cocktail recipe with USA TODAY from its Fever-Tree Easy Mixing Recipe Book.

Ingredients:

  • 2 ounces Lyre’s Apéritif Dry ​
  • 6.8 ounces Fever-Tree Mediterranean Tonic Water​
  • 3 lemon wedges​
  • Thyme sprig, to garnish​

​Instructions:

  1. Pour the Lyre’s Apéritif Dry into a highball glass filled with ice cubes.
  2. Squeeze over and then drop in the lemon wedges.
  3. Top off with the tonic water.
  4. Garnish with a thyme sprig.

Makes: 1 NA cocktail.

Hot Non-Ginger Toddy  

Hot Non-Ginger Toddy

Fever Tree shared a hot cocktail to warm party-attendees featuring hot apple cider, honey and ginger beer.

Ingredients:

  • 4 ounces hot apple cider
  • .5 ounce honey
  • 1 ounce fresh lemon juice
  • Top with Fever-Tree ginger beer (or ginger beer of your choice)
  • Garnish with dusted apple slices and cinnamon stick

Instructions:

  1. Combine Hot cider, lemon juice and honey syrup in the mug.
  2. Top with Fever-Tree Ginger Beer.
  3. Garnish with an apple fan & cinnamon stick.

Makes: 1 NA cocktail.

The Lyre & The Blood Orange

The Lyre & The Blood Orange

Fever-Tree shared another recipe for “The Lyre & The Blood Orange” crafted by Rhett Hornberger of La Cuevita in Los Angeles. 

Ingredients:

  • 1.5 ounces Lyre’s A.M. Whisky
  • .75 ounces lemon juice
  • .75 ounces Liquid Alchemist Blood Orange Syrup
  • Fever-Tree’s Blood Orange Ginger Beer

Instructions:

  1. Shake ingredients in shaker.
  2. Pour over ice in a Collins glass.  
  3. Top with Fever-Tree’s Blood Orange Ginger Beer. 
  4. Garnish with a blood orange half wheel. 

Makes: 1 NA cocktail.

Mulled Jukes 6

Mulled Jukes 6

Jukes Cordialities, which sells apple cider-vinegar based non-alcoholic beverages that are meant to taste similar to wine, provided a cocktail made with Jukes 6, to USA TODAY.

Jukes 6 has a blackcurrant and blackberry base combined with layers of other red fruits including strawberries, plums and raspberries. When mixed with hot water and orange, the beverage is meant to sip like a mulled wine.

Ingredients:

  • .5 ounces of Jukes 6, approximately half the bottle
  • 8 ounces of hot water
  • 1 slice of fresh or dried orange, for garnish

Instructions:

  1. Pour half a bottle of Jukes 6 – The Dark Red – into your favorite mug.
  2. Top with hot water.
  3. Garnish with a slice of fresh or dried orange and enjoy!

Makes: 1 NA cocktail.

Check out these recipes to up your kitchen game: