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Posts from the ‘Desserts’ Category

Oct 23

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Chewy oatmeal cookies with maple sugar and drizzled icing

And, we’re back! I mean that in two ways; we’re physically back in Eugene at Brett’s parents’ house for about a month before we head abroad again, and that means I’m finally back in a place where I can cook and post recipes. Back in two ways, and I couldn’t be happier about both of them. We are exhausted and happy and it absolutely does not feel like three and a half months have passed since we left Claremont, but we certainly feel every single one of those 16,000+ miles we’ve put on our car since July 9. (16,000 miles! That’s more than halfway around the world, you know.) Our last night on the road we stopped in a tiny town in the middle of Idaho – at least I think it was tiny, we arrived and left in darkness – and splurged on a Best Western that had a hot tub. I honestly don’t know that I’ve ever felt anything so wonderful in my life as the 20 minutes I spent there. We had driven 14 hours that day, my head was pounding, and nothing would let me forget that I was only one day away from sleeping in my own bed.

But now we’re here! We’re here for a full month so Brett can do his graduate school applications and so we can prepare for the next four plus months abroad. And I will cook. Oh boy, will I cook. Unpacking my stand mixer today felt almost as good as that hot tub in the middle of Idaho. There are only four days in the last month that we didn’t spend more than 6 hours in the car (think about that for a moment – seriously, think about that), and among the many, many other things I did to pass the time in the car I made a fairly lengthy list of things I want to cook while we’re here in one place and with all of our kitchen belongings.  Hopefully I’ll be sharing a lot of them here, a combination of things I love that I’ve never gotten around to posting (like butternut squash soup with tarragon) and things that have been on my to-do list for a long time (like paté and croissants) and things I dreamed up while we were driving back and forth across a continent.

cookies

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Aug 13

The snack of my dreams

To pass the time on the road, we’ve been listening to a podcast about snacks.

(You are not surprised.)

(It might sound very boring, but it’s actually quite funny and entertaining.)

In any case, I’ve been thinking a lot about snacks. And not just in the way that a podcast about … turtles, let’s say, might have one thinking about turtles. I’m thinking about snacks like it’s my job. About what kind of road trip snack we should buy at the next convenience store (Don’t even get me started on the wondrous world of potato chips that we’re experiencing up here in Canada – Sweet chili and sour cream! Spicy ketchup! Hot wings! Worcestershire sauce and shallot! What?! Yes. Also, does anyone have any guesses as to what “all dressed” flavor is? If so, please tell us.), about what time we should eat a snack, about what snack we’re going to eat next, and about how if I were at home I would be finding a way to engage in my most favorite of snacks – “fruit and cake-type thing with yogurt.”

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That’s what I said when Brett and I asked each other to dream up our most perfect snack, somewhere between Vancouver and Banff. (This is what any modern, fun-loving young couple does while driving long distances, by the way – ask each other questions like “what’s your idea of the perfect snack?” Don’t get too jealous of all the awesome fun we’re having.) Read more

Jul 11

Peach upside-down cornmeal skillet cake (bye bye, CA!)

So. It doesn’t really feel any different, really. We loaded up our stuff, we drove away, we unloaded our stuff, we set up our bed in a completely new room in a new city in a new state, and soon we’ll even leave that. We drank beer at lunch today (on a Wednesday!), and if I didn’t check my email for another five days there’s not really anything that could happen to me.

But nothing feels significantly different. It’s kind of like when we got married, and I took the fact that absolutely nothing felt different as a good sign (a very good sign – but we’ll save more on that for some future installation of Bowen’s Thoughts on Marriage). And this time, as we went through the motions of leaving, I kept telling myself to feel something BIG – like when we ate at our favorite bakery for the last time, and when we spent our last evening on campus, and when we handed over the keys to our house. (Funny story about that, below.) But everything just felt kind of … normal, and I’m taking that as a good sign that all of this is happening at the right time. When I’ve tried to force myself to see the significance of everything, I just see this sort of satiny, infinite ribbon spreading out ahead of me – I think it represents time, maybe? Or freedom? Something like that. I’m not really sure why I picture the next year as a ribbon, but in any case I have this really strong visual that I don’t understand but that I associate with positive feelings, certainly. (Or maybe it’s guilt at all that perfectly good leftover double-sided satin wedding ribbon I threw out as we cleaned out our house.)

So since I apparently don’t need to spend any time “transitioning,” I just get to focus on doing everything that catches my eye as worthwhile or fun or interesting (as long as it doesn’t cost too much money).  Which at the moment means enjoying summer, especially a summer a little more temperate than our Previous Place of Living. We’re in Eugene for the next 10 days or so, including a few days working at the Oregon Country Fair, plenty of time in the backyard, some exploring of what we’re hearing is a pretty fantastic new “Brewery District” in town (more on that next week, I’m hoping), and lots of summer fruit.

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Jun 28

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Lime cornmeal cookies (emotional distraction)

This quickly approaching life transition (11 days. 11 days!) means a lot of goodbyes. Goodbyes to favorite restaurants, goodbyes to old routines, goodbyes to most of our belongings (either stored or sold or donated), goodbye to Pomona, and – most significantly – goodbyes to all of our friends, colleagues, and mentors in the area. Most of the time it hasn’t really sunk in that anything big is happening, but every once in a while I catch myself realizing that it’ll be the last time I’m seeing someone or going somewhere, or that I won’t have another chance to do something before I go.

I spent this last weekend gathered in Palm Springs with six of my closest college girlfriends, which coincidentally ended up being the last time we’ll all be together before two of us move away this summer. We lounged by the pool, we sipped cocktails, we laughed, and we had the sort of serious conversations that come from our shared liberal arts college background – as we generally do when we’re together. We managed to spend all three lovely days together without any sort of big teary goodbye, and I’m glad we spent the time laughing and acting like it was just another weekend, instead of something more intense. It was all left on a positive note, and I’m trying to focus on that memory as Brett and I speed through the next 10 days full of goodbye dinners and happy hours and brunches.

These might help.

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Jun 14

Rustic fruit galette, and a little bit about home

One of the reasons we’re so excited to embark on this huge year-long adventure and to settle somewhere new is that we’re looking for a place that feels a little more like home. Despite the fact that Southern California has technically been our home for the last ten years, it’s never really been a great fit. Neither of us ever really intended to stay after college (in fact, at one point I didn’t think I’d even stay all the way through), but things happen, and here we are.

A preview – I’m going to talk about home a little more, then you get this:

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