Ooooh yes, you read that right. Mocha. Mousse. Filling. How decadent! Let’s begin by making sure we are all on the same page here, right? For starters, what is mocha? Well in this instance, mocha is the combination of coffee with chocolate to make a delicious beverage or flavor profile. (The other mocha refers to a specific type of coffee bean grown in Yemen. And if you’re a super nerd like me [obvi, it’s why we’re friends], a third type of Mocha™ is a way to run tests in Ja

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! I hope you’re celebrating this holiday with someone special, doing something special, and/or eating something special. Personally, I’m doing all three of those things! That’s right, I had two of my girlfriends come to San Francisco this weekend to celebrate our own version of the holiday - Galentine’s Day. We hit the town, explored a new restaurant, came back to my place for rooftop wine drinking, and then made our way back to my kitchen where

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone! Recently, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know some of the people who live in my apartment building. I know that sounds weird since I’ve lived here for a year and a half, but with COVID being a jerk that we’re all trying to avoid, my neighbors and I haven’t gotten to be very neighborly. But now that we’re all vaxxed and established in our safe routines and cautious social bubbles, branching out to socialize with the people bre

I have a quirky habit that most people don’t even notice, but when they do notice me doing it, they kinda look at me like I’m a weirdo. I'm sure it does seem weird, but this habit saved my recipe from certain destruction this weekend! I smell my food. And my drinks. And just about all of my baking ingredients before I use them (barring flour, sugar, and salt because, well… I’m just not THAT weird). I really love the way modern alimentation smells, and I use scent as a way of

I’m still the Cookie Monster this week, if you can believe that. (And of course still a little bit of Charlotte.) It’s more evident now than ever in the cake I made for this week. It’s actually an excellent blend of the two characters now that I think about it. My birthday was earlier this month, and I have to admit that I was in a god-awful mood about it. So much so that I didn’t even bother about making my own birthday cake, which as most of you know by now is my absolute f

What cartoon character(s) do you identify with most? And why? I’d have to say that I am very much like Miss Charlotte La Bouff from The Princess and the Frog, (I enter every room just like her.) (I use the same makeup techniques.) (She has great advice for how to get things done.) (We're both very enthusiastic.) (And have an excellent poker face!) But I'm also very much like the cookie monster: (For obvious reasons.) This week, I am mostly the cookie monster because I did som

Episode 4: Barrel Roll Well, we did it again! Another successful baking session with an accompanying (and dare I say absolutely delicious!) classic cocktail. I hope you try these recipes and let me know what you think! Lemon Sandwich Cookie Bites 200g sucrose Zest of 2 lemons 86g cream cheese 225g unsalted butter, softened 1 large egg yolk, room temp 5g vanilla extract 340g flour DIRECTIONS Preheat oven to 350°F. Prep baking sheets with parchment paper. Beat butter, cream che

Episode 1: Roll With It! Welcome to my new video series, Baking and Boozing! In order to succeed, they say you have to start before you’re ready, and boy have I been “not ready” for this entire last year. But here I am, doing this anyway. This video series has been a long time coming and I am so happy to finally share this with you! Over the last 3 years, several of my friends who have extensive experience and education in the communications world began advising me to make a

Do you ever have a day so bad that you’re actively looking for your dealer on the streets as you drive home from work? That was me this past week. I was searching and searching, but I couldn’t find a Girl Scout selling cookies anywhere. What, did you think I was talking about something else? 😈 Since Girl Scouts are nowhere to be seen these days, I decided to make my own Tagalongs (the one that's a shortbread cookie with peanut butter filling coated in chocolate. Shout out to

Have you learned a new skill in this last year? I’m trying to make sure that my entire time in quarantine hasn’t been a complete waste by reading tons of books, making time to catch up with friends, and even running and doing yoga on (rare) occasion! One of my girlfriends is learning the trombone right now in her free time, another one turned her jewelry making hobby into an actual business and is partnering with retailers in her area to sell her products (I’m a big fan of Th

I have been thinking about Christmas cookies for weeks now. I think I’m so excited about Christmas baking this year because last year I struggled through it while my wrist was in a cast. But this year I have two functioning hands! Plus coworkers and neighbors to share with! I feel unstoppable! I’m going to spread Christmas cheer like confetti! Or like toilet paper, apparently. #HotPresentsFor2020 This year, I made several types of cookies for my Christmas cookie spread, becau

This week concludes my spooky photo series, and next week will kick off my official holiday mode baking, and I have to admit that I am SO excited. But while I can still let the spookiness of Halloween linger I definitely will. This is why I started learning all about a celebration that takes place shortly after Halloween and allows some of the themes of Halloween to continue. To start with I’m not really going to explain all of the intricacies of the origins of Halloween (and