A Hum in the Backyard
The February pop-up bakery, a highly competitive Galentine’s exchange, and a cookbook (and giveaway!) worth gathering around.
Hello, friends!
We hosted the February Bakehouse Texas pop-up in the little garage bakery here in Bellville this past weekend and can I just say… I think we’re really onto something.
I can feel the spark of it in my bones (and in my arches, because standing all Friday to decorate cakes really did humble me). There’s a hum happening in this backyard space, something that I couldn’t have algorithmed my way into, even if I tried.
People drove to Bellville from Austin, from Houston, some stopped on their way between the two just because they saw the pre-orders and florals and thought it sounded like a worthwhile detour (and I can report - the biscuit jammers were indeed worth the detour!) Locals wandered over after the gym. A few folks meandered into the backyard because they spotted the sign in the driveway and figured, why not? Two gentlemen ended up in the garage with Will talking about old motorcycles like they’d known each other for years.
I managed to wear heart pants, biscuits rotated warm from the oven all morning, and strangers revealed themselves as neighbors in real time.
And I kept thinking: there’s real-life, off-the-internet good happening in this space. I can’t wait to keep building it and sharing it with you!
Truth be told I collapsed into bed mid-Saturday afternoon for a two hour nap, but I’m so proud of what we’re building here in Texas. Slow and steady, a bake sale at a time.
So let’s carry that spark into the week.
Below you’ll find what’s worth turning on the oven for, a link report from this year’s annual Galentine’s Day gift exchange, and a lovely interview (and giveaway!) with cookbook author Natasha Pickowicz. Let’s get into it!
Here’s What’s Worth Making This Week
• If you’re looking for a counter cake that feels both casual and a little swoony, this is it: Chocolate Stout Cake with raspberries and cream. Deep, dark chocolate cake made with stout (don’t skip it — it makes the crumb impossibly tender and rich), topped with softly whipped cream and a handful of tart raspberries. This is the cake I made and served at our wedding last last fall, so she’s sentimental, she’s celebratory. She’s perfect for Valentine’s week!
• I recently polished off a pint of Jeni’s Earl Grey Creme Brulee ice cream, and I can say it was entirely delightful which got me thinking about this Earl Grey Rice Pudding I made a few years back and definitely deserves a revival in my kitchen this week!
• It feels like the exact right time of year to stand at the stove and slowly coax onions into that deep, caramelized sweetness. If you’re in the mood for cozy protein, the French Onion Chicken Dinner with boneless, skinless chicken thighs is rich, savory, and deeply spoonable with plenty of brothy onions and served over mashed potatoes if you’re feeling fancy. And if you’re keeping things meatless (or just loyal to an old blog favorite), the One-Pot French Onion Pasta is an OG hit for a reason: jammy onions, silky noodles, and that golden, cheesy finish that makes you go back for seconds, maybe thirds.
Reporting Live From The Galentine’s Day Gift Exchange
Ok… not really live, but I do have some boots on the ground reporting for you! This past weekend we had our second annual Galentine’s Day party and gift exchange at my friend Abby’s house. It’s the party we all look forward to all year. It’s part pot luck, meets pajama party, meets “we ate too much Trader Joe’s candy”, meets knock-down-drag-out gift exchange (in a way only great girlfriends can pull off).
First let’s talk about my favorite bites of a night filled with the most elite cheese boards and expensive olives. I loved the fresh sourdough bread topped with smoked salmon and too many capers. And I found myself sneaking away from the gift exchange to re-up my little plate with this Harissa Carrot Dip served with cold cucumber slices. Spicy, sweet SO GOOD.
Now to the gifts! Think: White Elephant gift exchange complete with steals and heartbreak but with our very favorite products instead of goofy gifts we’ll likely leave in the trunk of our car for much of the year.
My contribution to the gift exchange was this Lola blanket dupe, this Nordic Ware quarter sheet pan, and a few Texas Bakehouse Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough balls. Cozy.
I ended the night with Medicube’s Collagen Night Wrapping Mask, their jelly gel masks, and a moisturizer so… it’s over for my thirsty winter skin.
Another coveted gift was a copy of Wishbone Kitchen’s cookbook with a cocktail page bookmarked along with a bottle of Grey Goose, a cocktail shaker, lemons, and fresh basil from the garden. Elite.
Also very highly stolen and coveted was this lovely Mimosa Handcrafted magnolia necklace, Baccarat Rouge 540 hand soap (yes, we each smelled it and passed it around the room), and what everyone ended up calling sexy socks.
We had a time!
An Interview (and giveaway) with Natasha Pickowicz of Everyone Hot Pot!
Natasha Pickowicz is a chef, baker, and cookbook author whose food feels both artful and inviting! Formerly the pastry chef at Flora Bar and Café Altro Paradiso in New York, she now turns her thoughtful, heritage-driven lens toward the most communal of meals in her new book, Everyone’s Hot Pot — a guide to building connection, one bubbling pot at a time! I loved this interview with Natasha and I feel like we should all be hitting her up for cooking playlists. Please enjoy!
What was the “aha moment” recipe while writing this book?
I think the best recipes are a blend of a few essential qualities: first and foremost, the recipe should result in something delicious! Then, it should also look beautiful, and overall engage the senses. Finally, there should be some kind of pleasing twist or nod to a technique that sharpens or challenges your skillset in some way. If a recipe can do all of that for me, then it goes in the book.
I remember when I was developing the recipe for the Tea Bag Broth—it looks beautiful and serene steeping in the water, and smells so transportive. But it’s also a clever idea, because you can make it advance, stash it in your pantry, gift it to friends, or customize it depending on your preferences. But most importantly—it tastes incredible, deep and nourishing. Although I LOVE a low-and-slow broth recipe, I also wanted to provide people with a way to get to the table more quickly.
If your cookbook had a playlist, what three songs would be on it?
I make playlists for everything and I have hours and hours of music that goes perfectly with an at-home hot pot party (and honestly, segues perfectly into a post-hot pot karaoke session). DM me if you want some links and I will provide. I love moody 1990s-era Chinese pop and especially Canto covers of popular western hits, like Sandy Lam’s cover of Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away,” Leslie Cheung’s cover of Chicago’s “Hard To Say I’m Sorry,” and Faye Wong’s iconic cover of The Cranberries’ “Dreams” (as immortalized in Wong Kar-Wai’s masterpiece, Chungking Express).
What’s one ingredient you’re evangelical about? (The one you might even bring to the party and spend the night convincing everyone else to use?)
I am forever gifting a small bag of spicy Chinese mala peanuts (the kind that are seasoned with Sichuan peppercorns and chilis!). My mom and I are addicted to this brand. I use them in everything—grinding up and sprinkling over dipping sauces, as a simple snack with cold beer or hot tea, in crunchy cucumber salads, and even in all my baking (like in buttery cookies and ice cream custards!).
If someone cooks just one recipe from your book to understand you as a person, which should it be?
I think the Garden Wontons sum me up pretty well as a recipe developer. You might have made pork potstickers before, but I wanted to develop a recipe that wasn’t as heavy on meat, and really played up all the big, aromatic flavors of herbs and fresh vegetables. And there’s a secret addition of perilla leaf, which adds a secret, sheer slip of color through the dumpling wrapper—it’s incredibly pretty. I’m all about building layers of flavor, and this recipe checks all the boxes for me, and then some.
What’s a mistake you hope readers make at least once (Because we all know learning something the hard way is most memorable.)
I am a huge believer in making mistakes and failure in general! I think we are way too hard on ourselves to do everything perfectly the first time. The only way you get better is to make a mistake, because as long as we are paying attention and present, then those “mess-ups” present valuable opportunities for learning and growth. And in some cases, kitchen mistakes I’ve made have resulted in some of my favorite and most memorable recipes. I love the classic mistake of “I forgot when I put this in the oven/set this on the stove/left this out to temper” or just generally losing track of time—sometimes the dish transforms into something even more delicious than you could have imagined, more caramelized and complex and silky. And sometimes it’s a disaster! And that’s when you remember to set a timer on your phone for next time.
What kitchen tool deserves more respect, and which one do you think is wildly overrated?
I think the Chinese-style steel cleaver, for sure! I think because of their size they intimidate home cooks, which I totally get. But when I was growing up, it was the only knife my mom used, because she could use it for absolutely everything, from breaking down a chicken or chopping bones for broth or more delicate work like deboning fish or mincing garlic or slicing scallions. There’s truly nothing more versatile. It’s easy to find smaller knives for smaller hands—I love these Taiwanese cleavers, made with scavenged artillery steel!
I personally think most single-use tools are wildly overrated, but I also love fiddly knife work and live in a VERY tiny apartment. You’ll never see a garlic press or citrus juicer or a strawberry huller in my kitchen.
Fill in the blank: People think I’m ___ in the kitchen, but actually I’m ___.
People think I’m always baking from-scratch at home, but actually I’m usually buying candy from the bodega or bringing cookies home from a bakery instead.
If you could hand-deliver this cookbook to one person (living or not), who would it be and what would you want them to cook first?
My favorite thing in the world is to share hot pot with people who have never had it before! Do you think Ina Garten has had hot pot before? I would die to be her first.
What’s your most controversial food opinion (The one that gets you yelled at on the internet?)
By the middle of December, I was SO OVER cookies. Cookie swaps, cookie parties, cookie boxes—all of it. Most holiday cookies are awful. They’re overbaked, they’re stale, they’re too sweet. By December 12 I was choking them down. I also hate cookies with candy in them, or overly sweet frosting. You can’t taste the cookie! I told my friend Danny—if you could buy the candy in a gas station, it doesn’t belong in a cookie. That doesn’t mean I don’t love gas station candy (I love gas station candy). I just don’t want it in my cookies!
When you’re not eating your own recipes, what are you absolutely guilty-pleasure ordering for takeout?
Technically, I don’t believe in guilty pleasures — just pleasure! I love takeout and there are no shortage of options in Brooklyn, where I live. Okay but maybe this is a bit of a guilty pleasure—I have been known to order Thai takeout from a great restaurant that is literally around the corner. Like I could have it in hand faster if I went outside myself. Sometimes it’s too much to put on a coat!!
What do you hope someone feels (like, truly feels) when they cook from your book for the first time?
I hope that they feel in their bones that sense of discovery and wonder inherent in the meal of hot pot—and that the reader feels like they are truly a part of that magic. In my opinion, a great cookbook will meet you where you’re at—whether that’s your skill level, the amount of time you have, your budget, or your palate. I hope that people who have grown up enjoying hot pot their whole lives find something new to love in my book, too. That would be a dream. I hope that people who have never had hot pot before—maybe they felt a little overwhelmed, totally okay!—could pick up my book and think, this is my meal, too. Hot pot is truly for everyone. That sense of inclusivity and fun and coming together—that’s what hot pot is all about.
✨ Cookbook Giveaway ✨
I’m so excited to gift one reader a copy of Everyone Hot Pot by Natasha Pickowicz.
To enter: Answer this question in the comments below:
Natasha says most holiday cookies are awful by mid-December (bold! brave! she’s not wrong!). What’s your most controversial food opinion?
Giveaway is open to US residents only. Entries close Thursday, February 12th. The winner will be contacted via Substack message.
Thanks, friends! Have a wonderful week.
xo
Controversial opinion time! Ok, ready? Stevia can just GO. Like, away. And why is it in everything suddenly without warning? I taste you, stevia, and I’m not here for it.
Fruit is not dessert. It is a snack, a side item, an accompaniment, but try and pass it to me like you’re pretending it’s as good as chocolate cake? We are not friends.