We had a mostly mild summer in the Bay Area, to the point where I felt a pang about wearing a cardigan on work calls while other areas grappled with searing heat. Several weeks had a local high of 72°F. Mid-July, we donned puffer jackets for outdoor dining in San Francisco.
Then the sun began beating down and our air conditioner rumbled to life. I craved something green and cool.
Read MoreThis season seemed apocalyptic, and not just because of the pandemic. The sun shone orange through skies smoky from wildfires. So did the moon. Record heat. Snow. More heat. Illegal drag races tore around the neighborhood after midnight. Other nights, coyotes howled in the nearby open space.
I felt sapped and trapped, especially with all our windows closed tight against the unhealthy air.
During yet another suffocating week, I flipped through our “work in progress” recipes pile in a bid for mental escape. There were the sweet potato cakes from Yotam Ottolenghi’s vegetarian cookbook “Plenty.”
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