Jill Murray

The temperature in my appartment is about a thousand degrees all winter. We never have to turn our radiators on because the heat that seeps through our neighbors’ walls is more than sufficient. Often, we have to leave our windows wide open, as well as our front door, to create a cross-draft that makes life bearable, even in February. About a century old and not designed for residential life, my buidling has some issues, to say the least. Energy efficiency tops that list, right under the item about how the West wing is sinking into the mud out back.

I will not, however allow the heat to deter me from using the stove. I often spend weekend afternoons in the kitchen, wearing light summer clothes and no socks– not because I have to, but because I have empowered myself to do so.

The latest objects of my empowerment? Cast iron pans!

I found them on sale, so I bought four, that I would never want for cast iron again. Affordable, indestructable and non-stickish, they imbue food with extra iron, rather than the nasty carcinogenic substances that coated non-stick cookware has to offer. You can use them on or in the oven, scrape them all you want with metal utensils, and they make everything taste extra loving and home-cooked. Who could ask for more? Not me. I christened them with home fries and broiled tofu. Heaven.

But the piece de resistance for the weekend were these Peanut Butter Cupcakes, from the recipe in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, a book about which I cannot say enough nice things.

I didn’t get to make cupcakes on the rapper’s proper birthday last week because instead, I had to make phone calls to the media. He was appreciative and understanding, but I could not let a perfectly good excuse to make cupcakes pass us by like that. Good thing. These were amazing and fluffy– not at all dense like you’d expect a peanutty baked thing to be.