Palermo, Sicily is a city of contrasts. It’s the fifth largest metropolis in Italy, with over a million people in the metro area. It’s also a very old city–almost 3,000 years of continuous existence. Most people think of the mafia when they hear “Palermo”–but the city is textured and interesting far beyond the Cosa Nostra connection.

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I am in LOVE with cold peanut noodles, but they always have a ton of peanut butter and sesame oil in the sauce which is incredibly caloric, and noodles aren’t exactly low cal either. My muffin top is big enough already so if I want to eat these I feel I have to make them a slightly different way, wherein the noodles are augmented by lots of colorful vegetables and the caloric parts of the sauce are cut down a bit. After much experimentation, this is the happy medium I came up with!

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My friend Laura likes chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting. I told her husband I would surprise her with a very special version of that flavor combination so I made her some homemade Hostess cupcakes. These are fun because they look like a boring chocolate cupcake with shiny glaze, but they have a surprise inside- a big yummy blob of vanilla frosting!

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I used to shudder when a cake recipe said “line the bottom of the cake pan with a circle of parchment” because unless you’re a bakery you don’t just have differently sized circles of parchment in your life, so you have to trace one and cut it out and that’s just a drag. I’m trying to make a cake over here, not do a damn craft project. And then I went to pastry school and learned this trick of how to make a cake circle with no scissors or hassle. Totally worth the 30 grand or so. I mean I learned a few other things too, but this is one I use a lot.

Step 1: Rip off a square piece of parchment that’s a bit bigger than your pan. Fold the paper in half, then in half again. Keep folding it over itself along the same axis until it’s a skinny triangle, about 4 folds.

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This is what the kitchen formerly known as my kitchen currently looks like.

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Last week, we had a terrific meal at Picán Restaurant in Oakland. One of the highlights was a seasonal tomato and peach panzanella (bread salad). I did my level best to re-create it at home and it made for a hearty, simple, summery side dish. Of course, the one at Picán had bacon in it, so that’s always an option…

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Back when I worked at Azie, we made a lovely sauce for salmon by steeping corn cobs in a cream and broth mixture, and then adding back the roasted corn. The other night, when I needed a vegetarian meal for my visiting in-laws, I reworked it with crispy portobello mushrooms–an excellent complement to the creamy, sweet corn–and served it over fresh fettucine noodles. A perfect summer meal!

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Fun fact! Did you know someone from Guadalajara is called a Tapatío? Like the hot sauce?