May 2012
3 posts
Byline: A Yogi's Guide to Snacking
Left to my own devices, I’m a big snacker. So I wrote about it for Yoga Journal’s May 2012 issue.
Byline: Santa Barbara
Here’s a little something I wrote for 7x7’s May 2012 Travel Issue.
Wish You Were Here?
A year ago, during a period of major angst and a requisite late-20s existential crisis, I realized I rarely ever left San Francisco, where life had suddenly become as gray and cold as the summer fog that walls it in. And so I did as so many of the heroines and authors I admire have done before me: I hit the road. Well, usually on the weekends or slightly longer stretches, at least twice a...
September 2011
1 post
When Kevin Rose Tweets Your Story
A few weeks ago, I visited Digg founder Kevin Rose’s new startup in the Mission to do a 7x7 shoot with one of the most stylish guys in tech, Milk creative director Daniel Burka. Once the issue hit newsstands, I sent Daniel a link to the story on my Flickr account, which I use as a kind of portfolio for most of my work. Within two hours, my Flickr page had 5,000 views thanks to tweets from...
July 2011
1 post
Byline: Harold McGee Made Me Lunch
I wrote about it for 7x7, and you can read the rest of the article here.
May 2011
1 post
Making of a Recipe: Springtime Fava Crostini
Image by JamesCollier/Flickr
A few weeks ago, I spent a lovely weekend in Sonoma, playing in the kitchen with 30-something chefs, food stylists, cooking geeks, and underground supperclub hosts. Eat Retreat is probably the best-documented gathering I’ve ever been a part of (who of this foodie group doesn’t have a blog or Flickr stream?), so I’ll skip the recap and just tell you...
March 2011
1 post
Byline: Why NBA stars train in secret in SF
I worked out with trainer Frank Matrisciano and wrote a story about it.
January 2011
1 post
December 2010
2 posts
Cookbooks This Home Cook Actually Used
It’s December, and already the lists of this year’s best cookbooks are filling my inbox. They come from bloggers, The New York Times, and a few notorious collectors, such as Celia Sack, owner of Omnivore Books. My personal collection includes about 100 books full of recipes and techniques, much of them sourced from used bookstores, eBay, garage sales, and family members’...
Byline: The New New Media
Lest you think I’ve been slacking off, let me assure you: I was working. On this story about the state of publishing and how San Francisco is changing the media landscape. Then I somehow convinced the city’s chefs to share with me their secret recipes. There are a few other things that haven’t hit newsstands yet, but I’ll post them once they’re up.
October 2010
1 post
All You Can Eat
Every Sunday, under a white tent set up in a small Mission park, foragers, home gardeners, and urban permaculture farmers give away a bumpercrop of organic herbs, vegetables, fruit, and Acme bread. Eager crowds gather to fill up their canvas totes with lemons from a neighbor’s yard, beets that didn’t sell at yesterday’s farmers market at the Ferry Building, and dark greens...
September 2010
1 post
Cupcakes Are So Five Years Ago
My friend Lauren Martin left a full-time design job last year to start Sweet Lauren Cakes out of her Hayes Valley apartment. She does a lot of layered classics, but her specialty is a red velvet cakepop. Imagine a crumb as moist as a muffin top and a white-chocolate shell that turns creamy after you bite into it. They’re starting to give the whole cupcake craze a run for its money....
July 2010
2 posts
The Great American Tweet
When author Matt Stewart couldn’t land a book deal, he posted his entire dark comedy on Twitter. The stunt led to headlines, new interest from editors, and the first print edition of The French Revolution (Soft Skull Press). Now that the novel’s in book form, it’s easier to get sucked into Stewart’s allegory—a reimagining of the upheaval in 18th-century France as a family epic in modern...
Holy Sweet
Last week I started a two-month apprenticeship at Sara Spearin’s Dynamo Donuts in the Mission. Every Thursday or Sunday, I show up at 6:30 am to catch the last couple of hours of mixing, proofing, cutting, filling, glazing, and garnishing in the kitchen. My head coach is Jeremy, an incredibly patient guy who only started baking professionally in the last year. Like me (and most of the...
June 2010
4 posts
Pretty Please
After my birthday, I became obsessed with cake pedestals. Almost everything—especially artful confections—looks better on a colorful ceramic base, pristine white stand, or glass that gives whatever’s on top a warm glow. Product info here.
If Looks Could Cook
Confession: I like to dress up, even when I’m slaving away over the stove. I need a hat to keep my hair out of the food, and I’ve never met a pair of Campers that failed me, whether I’m working on my feet all day in the kitchen or walking for miles through Rome’s cobbled streets. Product info here.
Back for Seconds
I’ve always been more of a Bon Appétit and Donna Hay kind of girl. Nonetheless, I was sad to see Gourmet magazine fold last year. The last time I picked up a copy at Whole Foods, I remember thinking the design was so 90s and the voice a little stuffy. Still, I love the elegance that Gourmet represented—even if it still brings to mind Laura Ashley.
Today Condé Nast announced the launch...
The Man and the Mystery
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been working with Laura Brunow Miner on a special Father’s Day showcase for her much-talked-about Pictory. It’s been a wonderfully creative and therapeutic experience to read through so many heartfelt stories from sons and daughters about their dads. But I’m only getting started. I’m building a collection of anecdotes and images about...
May 2010
2 posts
The Greatest Love Story Ever Told
***Check out the multimedia version of this story built for the iPad***
I blame Stephen Sondheim. He meant no harm, I’m sure, but I took his music and all of its theatrics seriously. The famed composer and lyricist, whose work includes the music for Gypsy, Sweeney Todd, and Into the Woods, told me to feel pretty, that a miracle was due, and that if I held my true love’s hand,...
“Just be sure to end your articles on a positive note.”
– Bill Gorman, concerned grandfather
March 2010
1 post
Stories My Family Wants Me to Write
When working on an assignment, I imagine that I’m writing for a particular friend or family member. Sometimes I picture us sitting in a coffee shop, a living room, bookstore, or on a swing set. For example, when I’d write a lengthy feature for Yoga Journal, I’d close my eyes and pretend I was slowly walking through a fancy spa with my mother. We’d be wearing white bathrobes...
January 2010
6 posts
1 tag
Stitch and Bitch
In the name of trying new things, I’ve walked my nimble fingers into the world of knitting. For my first project, I started with a cowl. The pattern is fairly simple, but the instructions are totally confusing. Is it too much to ask for clear, direct language? So I’ve edited it a bit to make the pattern more user-friendly.
The Simon (Cowl)
1 skein Misti Alpaca hand paint chunky yarn
16- or...
1 tag
Heirloom Analog
Like other magazine junkies, I worry that the experience of flipping through a glossy will soon no longer be available. The coolness of the page, the crisp photos, the satisfying smack the book (editor talk for “magazine”) makes when it lands on a coffee table—oh, how I loves it. I still have boxes full of American Girl, YM, Seventeen, and Rolling Stone that I made my parents take...
1 tag
101 Things To Do Before This Nerd Goes
1. Walk the entire Appalachian Trail 2. Speak fluent Spanish 3. Graduate from culinary school 4. Write for Playboy, Vanity Fair, Esquire, Vogue, and The New Yorker 5. Work on a cookbook 6. Sew an awesome dress 7. Camp with Sam (just the two of us) 8. Drive a stick shift 9. Go on a cross-country road trip 10. Sing on stage 11. Appear in a movie 12. SCUBA dive 13. Live in New Zealand 14. Become a...
“Today’s reality is that much of freelancing has become all too...”
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—a depressing, though not entirely new, observation from the LA Times’ James Rainey
1 tag
So You Want to Be a Yoga Star
For all of its talk about enlightenment, balance, and equanimity, today’s yoga is very much a business—not that there’s anything wrong with that. After all, great teachers deserve a great following and a great deal of money that can support their time, patience, and willingness to touch dirty feet and sweaty bodies.
During my five years at Yoga Journal, I watched once no-name teachers...
“The production is less about love and more about how we remember love. Or, how...”
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— Robert Smith in his NPR piece “Romeo and Juliet: Just as You Misremembered It.”
December 2009
7 posts
1 tag
This Year's Model
Life was good in 2009, and if I could, I’d do it all over again just the same.
Word that was most often stuck in my head: Kierkegaard
Word that made my skin crawl: maths
Days in California: 339
Days in England: 14
Days in Italy: 10
Days on a plane: 2
Average blood sugar level: 176
1 cold
1 flu
15 massages
4 haircuts
225 tweets
342 pictures
1 charity walk
Downloaded 13...
1 tag
“Here lies a lady of letters, a woman of words, a mistress of emdashes.”
1 tag
Great Grandma Hunt's Cinnamon Rolls
My Swedish great grandmother was known for two things: Methodist values and cinnamon rolls. I don’t know much about the church these days, but I do have more than 20 years of experience making Sylvie Hunt’s cinnamon rolls. (My mom and I baked them every year to hand out as Christmas presents.) The fun part is rolling up the dough and pinching the ends together. It’s far too...
1 tag
Dear Santa,
Please bring me Artful Sentences, by Virginia Tufte. In return, I will write you a wonderfully crafted thank you note.
With love,
Lauren
1 tag
I was 17 when I met August Brown at a summer...
1 tag
