Last Wednesday, the head of an AI tech company casually announced, in a long-winded post on X, a discovery that, if true, would represent a major breakthrough in biomedical research. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, wrote that his company’s large language model Claude had found “a molecular machine that we suspect could represent a new gene editing mechanism.” 

So what does this “molecular machine” actually do? No one is entirely sure yet. But that hasn’t stopped tech bros from already upholding it as a new version of CRISPR, the enzyme-wielding tool that cuts up DNA like nobody’s business, sparking a revolution in ultra-precise genetic modification that has spanned research in everything from agriculture to cancer therapy. It’s no surprise its discoverers earned a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. If an AI program really just made a similar discovery, it would be big news.

Indeed, Amodei goes on to say that this finding could be a step toward developing cures for most diseases in five to 10 years. The company’s press release goes into more detail, but basically says that Claude was prompted to search through a massive database of DNA sequences for reverse transcriptases, enzymes that copy RNA into DNA. “After 21 hours spent searching this data by roughly 950 agents using 210 million tokens, one of the agents spotted something remarkable: a repeating pattern of DNA sequences that occurs next to the gene for an odd-looking RT,” the statement reads. Except that nothing about that is so “remarkable,” at least according to numerous people who study and work in this field.

“It is too soon to say that Claude — or the team of human researchers involved has discovered a ‘new CRISPR,’” Dimitri Perrin, an associate professor at the Queensland University of Technology, writes in The Conversation. He goes on to emphasize that what Claude found — a previously uncharacterized enzyme system found in viruses that infect bacteria — isn’t necessarily going to be useful. More research is needed, but Perrin explains that for now, the discovery is “CRISPR-like in its architecture, but there is no evidence that it is CRISPR-like in its function.”

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“Claude’s work isn’t even close to being in the same league as DeepMind’s AlphaFold system for predicting protein structure, which is proving to be truly transformative,” Michael Le Page, a senior reporter at New Scientist, wrote. Social media exploded with other examples of people dunking on Anthropic’s PR, with Simon Maechling, a PhD chemist, writing on X, “Claude discovered something in biology. Nobody knows what it does. But we already have the press release. … Finding something interesting isn’t the same as understanding it. Understanding it isn’t the same as showing it works. And showing it works isn’t the same as making it useful.”

Perhaps AI researcher Timnit Gebru summarized it best: “Please see what experts in this field are saying about this ‘discovery’ and not these scammers or press stenographers. This hype DDOS from them isn’t going to stop any time soon and we’ve seen how the mainstream media is doing press-release-as-a-service at this point.”

So it seems like Anthropic is making some pretty bold claims over something that is mildly cool and worth investigating, but at this point, also seems unlikely to revolutionize medicine or science. Why does this matter? A tech company making extreme claims is far from new. Big deal. But contrast all this hype (not to mention the energy spent debunking it) with the buzz just a few weeks ago about how, in just a few years, AI will supposedly gain sentience and kill off humanity. Consider how Anthropic CEO’s Amodei is among those pushing such a narrative, including warning that his company’s tools carry a risk of being used for cyberattacks or terrorism, including developing deadly viruses. Taken together, this presents a false dichotomy: AI will either end disease and suffering or inflict it in untold measure. Might there be a third option?

For anyone who buys the AI spiel, it’s a tool with boundless power. For now, however, the tech companies still rely on an old-fashioned kind of power offered by the state, which is precisely why other tech CEOs were seen sucking up to Chinese President Xi Jinping during his recent U.S. vacation. Amodei missed meeting Xi, for what it’s worth, but had a private dinner with President Donald Trump late Sunday night and later this week joined other tech leaders for a luncheon hosted by Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson. There — joined by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and others — the president signed a “morally binding” artificial intelligence document, which sounds promising, until you hear Trump repeatedly tell reporters that tech companies can supervise themselves. “The self-regulation is very important,” Trump said. The document signed seems to have zero enforcement or legal mechanisms, so in this context, it appears “morally binding” just means “self-policing.” 

 

It’s no mystery why the president — heavily invested in the AI industry as he acridly dismisses any notion of regulation — is cozy with the idea of AI’s alleged abilities. In his latest effort to sell the American public on the coming “golden age” of AI (of course Trump would use that phrase), on Monday the Trump administration both launched America.gov, an AI chatbot powered by Google’s Gemini and Elon Musk’s Grok, and signed an executive order to rename AI “super intelligence.”

As Gebru observed, the grift has no end. All the more reason to pour cold water on outrageous claims about flagging little enzymes in huge databases. (Let’s avoid anthropomorphizing these programs by using the verb “discover.”) The goal of Anthropic’s AI propaganda — because that’s what it is — is to get most people skimming past the headlines to only catch “AI finds new CRISPR” and think a cure for cancer and world peace are right around the corner. All we have to do is hand the keys and all our money to Silicon Valley. Whether it’s utopia or dystopia, that’s the pitch: cede control of this tech to the billionaires in charge. In that sense, blindly swallowing AI’s positive hype can be as dangerous as its alleged existential risks.

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‘I Would Underscore the Seriousness Of the Violation Here’

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco’s election meddling scheme was declared unlawful by the California Supreme Court, which just issued unanimous decisions in two cases focused on Bianco’s seizure of 650,000 ballots in California this spring.

I’ll unpack Bianco’s extremist background and ties to the far-right constitutional sheriff’s movement a bit more below, but, crucially, Bianco seized ballots in April that were cast in the state’s 2025 special election — when voters approved Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to conduct redistricting mid-cycle. As you’ll recall, Newsom put forward Proposition 50 in an attempt to offset the damage of President Trump’s nationwide gerrymandering crusade.

Prop 50 was placed on the California ballot specifically in response to Texas’ redrawing of its congressional district lines, which is expected to net five seats for Republicans in the U.S. House in the midterms. Newsom was one of several Democratic officials across the U.S. who worked to combat Trump’s gerrymandering blitz, a bullying campaign Trump launched last summer in an attempt to pressure Republican-controlled state legislatures nationwide to redraw their district maps mid-cycle to help Republicans hold the House this fall. Texas was the first to act on Trump’s demands, followed by Missouri, North Carolina, Florida and others. Enough Republicans in Indiana’s state Senate bucked Trump to quash the effort there. Trump endorsed primary challengers for those who refused to bend the knee, and most of those who stood up to Trump lost their primary elections in May.

Anyway, back to California and the MAGA sheriff seizing ballots. California voters approved Prop 50 — which amended the state constitution so that state officials could, temporarily, bypass normal protocol for redistricting and approved new maps that gave Democrats an additional five seats in the House — with a 64% vote in November 2025. Shortly thereafter, Bianco seized the ballots from election officials as part of what he claimed to be an investigation into complaints from Riverside County activists (i.e. election conspiracy theorists) who claimed the vote count did not match the number of ballots election officials received.

The California Supreme Court ordered Bianco to halt his investigation back in April while the case challenging his seizure played out in court. The state’s highest court ruled on Thursday that Bianco did not have the authority to take the ballots, issuing unanimous decisions in two separate cases brought against the sheriff — one by Riverside County voters and another by California Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta. The Supreme Court declared that Bianco’s actions threatened election integrity in the state of California. An excerpt from the ruling in the case brought by voters:

We hold that the seizure of the ballots was unlawful. California law long has recognized that voted ballots require special care and handling to safeguard them from alteration or tampering. Consistent with this principle, the Elections Code narrowly limits the circumstances in which a court may order the production of ballots for inspection, and even in those narrow circumstances, requires that ballots remain in the physical custody of the responsible elections official.

“I would underscore the seriousness of the violation here. This is not a case involving a few documents,” Associate Justice Goodwin H. Liu said in a concurrent opinion. “It involves the unlawful removal and handling by armed deputies of over 1,000 boxes of documents — and not just any documents, but the most precious documents of the citizenry in a democracy: their votes.”

The Supreme Court will weigh in a third time on Missouri Republicans’ attempts to ram through a maximal gerrymander after twice rejecting those efforts. 

This blackberry cobbler recipe is a summertime delight! It features jammy blackberries underneath a tender, golden, scone-like topping. I’m quite smitten with this recipe—something borderline magical happens when you bake blackberries. The heat of the oven seems to enhance their floral undertones and make them taste extra special.

This is a simple dessert that you’ll want to make over and over again. Lemon zest, a touch of cinnamon, and a dab of tangy Greek yogurt add some flavor intrigue. Your guests might ask, “Why is this so good?”

It also happens to be gluten free, since I used almond flour in the topping instead of conventional all-purpose flour. Almond flour is very easy to work with and offers a subtle almond flavor that pairs beautifully with berries. If you’ve tried my peach cobbler or blueberry cobbler, you’re already familiar with it. I hope you’ll give this one a try!

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Let’s talk about hemp milk. It’s easy to make at home (no soaking required), and yields a silky-smooth, creamy milk. Hemp milk boasts the most impressive nutrition profile of my alternative milk recipes, offering nearly 10 grams of plant-based protein per serving. While hemp milk can’t compete on the calcium front, it offers an array of nutrients that can be hard to come by otherwise.

I always feel good about sprinkling some hemp seeds into my baby’s food or serving my daughter a glass of this hemp milk. It was our house milk of choice for a couple of years, though she’s grown more particular—fingers crossed that she likes the chocolate variation I made today.

If you take nothing else away from this post, consider adding a sprinkle of hemp seeds to your next smoothie recipe! They’ll blend right in and offer an easy boost of protein.

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Have you tried Chipotle’s new cilantro lime sauce? I’m a big fan. It’s creamy, super fresh and somewhat spicy. I’ve started ordering cilantro lime sauce in lieu of plain sour cream on my standard burrito bowl order, and it really takes my bowl to the next level.

I reverse-engineered this recipe from Chipotle’s ingredient list. It’s made with cilantro, lime, Mexican spices (I only add cumin), sour cream and roasted jalapeños. The only trick was getting the proportions right. I taste-tested my recipe and theirs side by side, and you know what? It’s hard to tell the difference, but I like mine better.

Chipotle is really the only “fast food” chain that we eat from, and I’m almost embarrassed to admit how often we order in. Maybe every other week? I love recreating their meal components so we can all make them from scratch when we have the time. This fresh sauce is a winner.

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Chickpea fries? Yes! Panisses are an irresistible snack famously served in the Provence region of France. Similar to regular fries, they’re crisp and golden on the outside, but with pillowy-soft interiors that remind me of creamy polenta.

Nutritionally, they’re superior to regular fries, offering a hearty source of protein, fiber and monounsaturated fat. Like French fries, they need to be sufficiently salted to be seriously amazing. I love them with a creamy dipping sauce, like my Creamy Basil Sauce.

Like its cousins, socca and farinata, panisses are made with the simplest of ingredients: chickpea flour, water, olive oil, and salt and pepper. I worked hard on this recipe and developed two different methods for making panisses—traditional pan-fried and baked. You’ll find the full rundown and a short instructional video below.

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I love granola, and this grain-free granola is no exception. Most granola recipes are oat-based, but this one is oat-free. Regardless, it offers a sweet, nutty crunch that’s reminiscent of my most popular granola recipe. Like any good granola, it’s irresistible.

When I first heard of grain-free granola, I was perplexed by the concept. I’m a big fan of oats and whole grains, of course, and I still am. Unfortunately, I was forced to become more carb-conscious while I was pregnant to manage my blood sugar (gestational diabetes is zero fun).

This grain-free granola livened up my breakfasts and snacks during that time. It’s a kitchen staple for me to this day, and I’m always sad to run out of my most recent batch. I found the original recipe in a book by dietitian Lily Nichols called Real Food for Pregnancy. I couldn’t help but play around with it, so I’m sharing my version and some fun options with you today.

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You’re going to love this chocolate chia seed pudding. Seriously, though! I’m always suspicious of chocolate “desserts” made with sneaky healthy ingredients like avocado or sweet potato. I can taste them, so they don’t taste like a real dessert.

This chia pudding, however, is a wholesome treat that I truly enjoy. It actually boasts some impressive nutrition stats, including 8 grams of fiber, 5 grams of protein, and some healthy plant-based fat. It’s easy to make, too—much easier than traditional custard-based puddings.

You’ll need only four ingredients for the base recipe: your milk of choice, chia seeds, cocoa powder and maple syrup. Once mixed together and left to chill in the refrigerator for a couple of hours, the chia seeds plump up and offer a subtle texture. The end result is rather magical!

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These scones are made with almond flour, and frankly, maybe all scones should be—whether you need them to be gluten-free or not. They’re 100 percent delicious, featuring perfectly tender insides and golden exteriors that offer a light crunch along the edges. Jammy burst blueberries, lemon zest and a light sprinkle of raw sugar take them to the next level!

I didn’t come up with this idea myself. When I published my Blueberry Scones, which are made with whole wheat or all-purpose flour, I received several questions about how to make the recipe with almond flour.

Since almond flour has become my favorite flour over the past year or two, I had to figure it out. Despite being made entirely with almond flour, the scones don’t taste overtly of almond. They’re easy to make with simple, wholesome, lower carbohydrate ingredients, so they’re a win all around.

It took seven tries to get the recipe just right. Along the way, it became the topping for a Peach Cobbler. I’m delighted with this recipe and all the variations you’ll find below.

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This vegetable stir fry tastes as good as it looks! It features perfectly fork-tender, seared vegetables in a glossy sauce that leans more savory than sweet. I love the vibrant combination of broccoli, bell pepper, carrot and red onion shown here, but you can change up the vegetables with the seasons.

Serve it as a simple side dish, or turn it into a full meal by adding rice and protein, like the crispy baked tofu shown here. Add a sprinkle of green onion and just-toasted sesame seeds, and this healthy homemade dish will taste much fresher than takeout.

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Introducing weeknight-friendly fattoush salad! This EASY, 1-bowl, 20-minute version is our inspired take on the classic Levantine dish. Think fresh, crunchy veggies tossed in a bright pomegranate dressing with herby mint leaves, crispy pita chips, and pomegranate arils (major YUM)!

It’s a refreshing side to pair with other Mediterranean- and Middle Eastern-inspired recipes, or toss in some chickpeas to make it a light meal on its own.

Easy Fattoush Salad (1 Bowl!) from Minimalist Baker →

While I’m not from a cheesecake family — it is never unwelcome, but we are more deeply devoted to things like pastry creams, chocolate pudding, and stellar coffee cakes — I married into one, which means that even though this site’s cheesecake archives are very well-populated, not a single peep of protest could be heard as far as my apartment walls reach (to be fair, a short distance) as I tinkered with these bars over the last few weeks.

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Wide Release Date for MagnaMax for Small Knifemakers

MagnaMax will be on sale May 1st, 2026 at 9am on Niagara Specialty Metals’ online store: https://nsm-ny.com/shop/

You can create an account beforehand so that you are ready to buy once the steel goes live. We made the following commercial to get pumped for the release:

Intro

I wrote an article (and created a video) about MagnaMax properties a few months ago. So I won’t be rehashing all of the properties here. Basically, MagnaMax is designed to have enhanced wear resistance and edge retention vs MagnaCut with similar corrosion resistance and hardness potential.

You will also see in the chart above that MagnaMax offers superior toughness and edge retention to the popular M390 and 20CV. It is very difficult to improve both of these properties at the same time, so this is a big improvement. It also maintains similar toughness to grades CPM-154, S35VN, and Vanax, which were formerly the toughest PM stainless steels prior to MagnaCut. So it offers a significant edge retention improvement to those grades, which have had a reputation for good properties in the past.

That property summary article did not have specific heat treatment recommendations because I was waiting on the final material. The initial heat of steel had carbon on the low end of the specification, so it wasn’t as representative of the average material as I wanted. No change was made to the target composition or the specification, it just landed at the lower end for carbon. So now that I have received and tested material closer to the midpoint of the specification I performed a more comprehensive set of tests. Knifemaker Matthew Gregory helped to make the majority of the toughness coupons.

High Level Heat Treatment Summary

Before we get into all of the details I can give a simple summary so you don’t get lost.

With Cryo:

Austenitize 2100-2250°F (1150-1230°C). The baseline temperature for good properties is 2150°F (1175°C).

Plate quench for faster cooling and slightly higher hardness.

After cooling to approximately room temperature, place immediately in liquid nitrogen. The amount of time it sits in the liquid nitrogen doesn’t matter that much, it just needs to reach the temperature. An hour is fine. What does matter is not wasting time before putting it in the liquid nitrogen. You don’t need to check the hardness beforehand.

Temper 300-450°F (150-230°C) twice for two hours each time. 350°F (175°C) is a baseline temperature for good properties.

Without Cryo:

Use your household freezer. It is a myth that it doesn’t have any effect. There is no reason to do no cold treatment. Everybody has or can get a freezer. Dry ice is even better, but despite being about 100°F colder than a freezer often behaves closer to a freezer than to liquid nitrogen.

Austenitize 2050-2100°F (1120-1150°C). 2100°F (1150°C) is a good temperature. It might be possible to go somewhat higher but I worry about excess retained austenite.

Plate quench for faster cooling and slightly higher hardness.

After cooling to approximately room temperature, place immediately in the freezer or dry ice. The amount of time it sits in the freezer doesn’t matter that much, it just needs to reach the temperature. An hour is fine. What does matter is not wasting time before putting it in the freezer. You don’t need to check the hardness beforehand.

Temper 300-450°F (150-230°C) twice for two hours each time. 350°F (175°C) is a baseline temperature for good properties.

Austenitizing hold times:

The required hold time changes with temperature. This is the soak time required after the piece reaches the temperature. It rarely hurts to add extra minutes, it is more common to have an issue with undersoaking.

2050°F (1120°C): 20 minutes

2100°F (1150°C): 15 minutes

2150°F (1175°C): 10 minutes

2200°F (1205°C): 5 minutes

2250°F (1230°C): 5 minutes

Hardness and Cryo

I first made a series of coupons to test the hardening response, including with the addition of a freezer or liquid nitrogen treatment after quenching. I used the soak times in the section above.

You can see that with no cold treatment the peak hardness was 2050°F (1120°C) after tempering at 300°F (150°C). Hardness drops with higher temperatures from excess retained austenite. Hardness rose when using liquid nitrogen all the way to 2250°F (1230°C). It would be unlikely to keep rising much beyond this temperature and the possibility of melting grain boundaries starts to become more of a danger. The freezer also rose all the way up to 2250°F but to a lesser extent. Because the increase was small beyond 2100°F (1150°C) this is why I limited my recommendation for the freezer to that temperature. That makes me think both the retained austenite and hardness of the martensite were increasing beyond that temperature, leading to relatively flat behavior. Excess retained austenite can lead to worse sharpening behavior when deburring. Overall this hardening response is not radically different than MagnaCut.

Nothing too crazy showed up in the tempering. You can see that a cold treatment leads to less hardness loss in tempering. Compare 2050°F with and without a cold treatment, or 2100°F with liquid nitrogen vs the freezer. Note that I have a single curve for both freezer or liquid nitrogen from 2050°F, and this was because the two were sufficiently similar to have a single line. Plus don’t want to make the chart too busy.

You will also notice that the hardness reaches an initial minimum at 600°F (315°C) and then rose to a secondary peak around 900°F (480°C). This is known as “secondary hardening.” I don’t recommend tempering in that range, especially with stainless steels, because it reduces corrosion resistance. For example see two Vanax coupons below, both sprayed with 1% saltwater. The one of the left was tempered at 400°F (200°C) and the one on the right was tempered at 1000°F (540°C).

Toughness

We also tested a series of charpy toughness coupons for this heat of MagnaMax. I used my standard coupon which is quarter size (2.5 x 10 mm) and unnotched. Three coupons were tested for each condition. We used liquid nitrogen in the heat treatment of all of these coupons directly after the quench. We used austenitizing temperatures of 2000-2250°F (1095-1230°C) and tempering temperatures of 300, 350, and 450°F (150, 175, 230°C).

The hardness was slightly lower than the small hardness coupons I showed results from before:

Looking at the resulting toughness, it rose from 2000 to 2050°F (1095 to 1120°C), was relatively flat up to 2200°F (1205°C), and then dropped somewhat up to 2250°F (1230°C). This is why I recommended a baseline austenitizing temperature of 2150°F (1175°C) as this appears to be roughly the peak hardness-toughness, though an argument could also be made for 2200°F (1205°C), in part due to a couple of the 2150°F results being on the low end and a couple of the 2200°F being on the high end. This is likely due to statistical variability of testing.

You can also see that toughness increases with tempering temperature as we would expect, which also corresponds to a hardness decrease. Lower hardness generally correlates with higher toughness.

There was a greater increase in toughness between 300 and 350°F (150-175°C) than between 350 and 450°F (175-230°C), which is why I recommended 350°F (175°C) as the baseline tempering temperature.

Hardness-Toughness Balance

But what we would like to maximize is the highest toughness for a given hardness. So I plotted hardness vs toughness below.

You will notice that the maximum hardness-toughness combinations were generally 2150-2200°F (1175-1230°C) and tempering at 350-450°F (175-230°C). The exceptions include: 1) 2100°F (1150°C) with 450°F (230°C) because that combination gave the best properties for lower hardness. And 2) For maximum hardness you need 2150-2250°F (1175-1230°C) in combination with the minimum tempering temperature of 300°F (150°C). I next overlaid those best heat treatment conditions on top of the similar non-stainless steels K390, Vanadis 8, and CPM-10V:

Erasteel MM#1 is the first heat that was shown in the prior article about MagnaMax properties, and Erasteel MM#2 is the final tested material above. You can see that both have a similar hardness-toughness balance, though the new one is skewed to somewhat higher hardness, as expected from more carbon. You will also see that the toughness is very similar to K390 and Vanadis 8, an excellent result given that MagnaMax is a stainless steel with similar wear resistance. So we greatly improved corrosion resistance over those steels while maintaining their other properties. I next plotted those hardness-toughness values vs other stainless powder metallurgy steels:

You can see that MagnaMax has superior hardness-toughness than virtually all of the powder metallurgy stainless steels apart from MagnaCut. This includes steels with a good reputation for toughness including Vanax, XHP, S35VN, and CPM-154. And below I have the more complete graph of stainless steels which is a bit busy:

Corrosion Resistance

I compared the final higher carbon version of corrosion resistance to the earlier and both passed the 1% saltwater corrosion test. Showing a picture of two clean samples isn’t very interesting, so here is the earlier image of MagnaMax vs other steels:

Each of those was austenitized from 2150°F (1175°C). MagnaMax (and MagnaCut) were designed for all of the chromium carbides to be dissolved around 2050°F (1120°C). After the chromium carbides are dissolved the corrosion resistance doesn’t appreciably change with even higher temperatures. This is different than most other stainless steels which have chromium carbides all the way up to the melting temperature. But using even higher than 2050°F does provide some factor of safety, better ensuring the chromium carbides are fully dissolved.

The other main factors for corrosion resistance are quench rate and tempering temperature. I mentioned in the tempering section that tempering above about 750°F (400°C) leads to a reduction in corrosion resistance and I showed a test with Vanax to illustrate that. Quenching isn’t an issue unless it is very slow, which leads to carbides precipitating on the grain boundaries which can reduce corrosion resistance.

Edge Retention

The primary factors for edge wear resistance are carbide volume, carbide hardness (controlled by type), and steel hardness. While the carbides are very important when comparing different steels, there is less of an impact within a given steel. It is true that austenitizing higher dissolves a bit more carbide but this effect is generally drowned out by the increase in hardness. So in general, achieving a higher hardness results in greater edge retention, and there isn’t much point in worrying about the exact austenitizing and tempering temperatures that were used to get there. I have the graph below of CATRA results I tested previously to show where MagnaMax lands and the effect of hardness on the results:

Summary and Conclusions

So I have shown the majority of the heat treatment data that I generated and my reasoning for the different recommendations. I am overall happy with how the heat treatment response ended up. If you want to see the simplified heat treatment recommendations, scroll back near the top where it said “High Level Heat Treatment Summary.” Hopefully that is simple enough for everyone. If not then ask questions in the comments. MagnaMax will be on sale May 1st, 2026 at 9am on Niagara Specialty Metals’ online store: https://nsm-ny.com/shop/

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What are pizza beans? They’re hearty white beans that taste like pizza, of course, simmered in a marinara-like sauce and topped with bubbling mozzarella cheese. Deb came up with the concept, and I’m a huge fan.

Today, I’m sharing my spin with canned beans, optional spinach, and a rich tomato paste-based sauce that tastes like it’s been simmering on the stove for hours. It’s cheesy and satisfying like baked ziti, but more wholesome and easier to make.

These pizza beans are so good and simple that this dish kinda feels like cheating. It’s an easy weeknight meal for cooler days. I bet you already have the ingredients in your pantry!

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Are you familiar with socca? If not, please let me introduce you! It’s basically a rich, savory and salted chickpea flour pancake cooked in piping hot olive oil. The edges are crispy and chewy, the insides are flaky and tender, and the bottom is lacy and golden. It is just so good. You’ll have to try it.

Socca is a street food popular in Nice, France, with origins dating back centuries (it’s closely related to Italian farinata). I had the chance to try the real deal on our honeymoon, and I’m obsessed with this homemade version.

To make socca, you’ll need a bag of chickpea flour (I like to use Bob’s Red Mill, which is available in well-stocked grocery stores). You probably have the remaining ingredients already—olive oil, water, salt, pepper and cumin. That’s it! You’ll find step-by-step photos and a brief cooking video below, followed by the recipe.

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I’ve been pining for a springy way to combine leeks and lentils in an unfussy, one-pot, weeknight-friendly meal but would get stuck on one thing: how annoying leeks are — and I say this from a place of adoration! I think leeks are one of the most stunning vegetables, an ombre of chromatic ringlets from buttery yellow to pea green and back to a pale shade of lima. They look exactly like spring (even though it’s climatically July outside but will be March again next week), and taste even better: Oniony but not harsh and silky, wonderful, and a little sweet when braised. They should be everywhere, but first we need to address the fact that if you go to the store or market for a bundle of leeks right now, you have no idea how much leek you’re getting.

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Friends, welcome to a land where you can float on strawberry dream clouds all day long. This chia pudding is next-level but still ultra simple (5 ingredients!). Just blend strawberries into your favorite milk, sweeten to taste, add chia seeds, and chilllllll.

The result is a heavenly, fiber-rich snack or breakfast that tastes just like strawberries and cream but more sophisticated — mmmmmm. Let us show you how it’s done!

Strawberries & Cream Chia Pudding from Minimalist Baker →

Palak paneer is my favorite dish to order at Indian restaurants, and I’m excited to offer my homemade version to you! Palak paneer features tender cubes of paneer cheese in a well-seasoned, silky, spinach gravy. Palak literally means spinach, and this vibrant green dish is fully loaded. It’s vegetarian comfort food at its finest.

Palak paneer hails from the Punjab region in Northern India. I hope to visit India someday, but until then, I’m basing my version on the various Indian restaurants I frequent. I wanted to learn how to make my own palak paneer with organic spinach when I was expecting our son, since spinach is unfortunately higher in pesticide residues by weight than any other type of produce.

I made this dish over and over (no less than six times, to be exact) to ensure that the recipe offers maximum flavor while being streamlined from start to finish. Now you can make palak paneer for dinner any time you crave it. This recipe is ready in about 45 minutes!

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How fun are these Easter bird’s nests? This recipe uses sliced almonds and roasted pistachios instead of chow mein noodles, so these candies are a more wholesome treat than many other options. They taste similar to Bark Thins, if you’ve tried their nutty options. Add a sprinkle of crushed green pistachio and flaky salt for extra flavor and a more realistic nest look!

These gourmet nests are easy to make. Once you’ve gathered your ingredients, you can make a dozen in under 20 minutes (including 10 minutes in the refrigerator). I know these nests will become a tradition at our Easter brunch.

I love making nostalgic treats like these with our four-year-old. She’s always eager to stir, scoop, and lick the spoon, of course. (Parents, I’ve just learned that mini eggs are a choking hazard for kids ages four and younger, so these nests are a better option for bigger kids.)

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