and this is maine

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Spending a week on the coast and soaking up all the sunshine and beauty that I can. I've always wanted to come to Maine and my first visit has been more delightful than I even imagined. Early morning runs along the cliff paths, elaborate breakfasts with the family, and finding quiet places to read nestled among the rocks . . . can I stay here all summer please?

"The sun was out and every second the sky's hues perished with no fuss."
(Annie Dillard, The Maytrees)

[brother, dad, and I out on some rocks yesterday]
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banana, oat, & dark chocolate bread

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Before I left college, my beautiful sister flew half way across the country to visit me for a weekend. Despite sickness, delayed flights, dying cell phones, missed trains, enormous amounts of homework, and already-booked concerts, we managed to have a delightful time. On Saturday, we stopped by my favorite little French bakery to pick up a treat before heading into the city. I had this amazing banana chocolate chip muffin and knew that I wanted to attempt to replicate it when I got home . . .

And this is the result. I wanted to make it without any white sugar, so I opted for agave nectar. I also added in some extra whole wheat flour and oats and some dark chocolate, of course. And the buttermilk makes them perfectly moist. Yumminess all around.

Banana, Oat, and Dark Chocolate Bread (or Muffins)
adapted from Eating Well

Ingredients:

3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup light agave nectar
1/4 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2-3 bananas)
1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips
1/3 cup whole organic rolled oats

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease loaf pan or muffin cups. (You can use any size loaf pan; just adjust the amount of time that you bake according to the size of the pan.)

Whisk buttermilk, agave nectar, oil, and eggs in a large bowl. Stir in bananas.

In a separate bowl, whisk whole wheat pastry flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add dry mixture to the wet ingredients and stir just until combined.

Fold in chocolate chips and oats. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, approximately 50 minutes for a 9x5 loaf pan or 15-17 minutes for muffins.

(And p.s., speaking of sugar, this little intro to natural sweeteners is wonderful if you're looking to stay away from white and processed sugars.)
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new and finer layer of distinctions

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Read this a few days ago and found it so true . . . I want to pay more attention to things, to life . . .

"One thing struck me as odd and interesting. A gesture drawing took forty-five seconds; a Sustained Study took all morning. From any still-life arrangement or model's pose, the artist could produce either a short study or a long one. Evidently, a given object took no particular amount of time to draw; instead the artist took the time, or didn't take it, at pleasure. And, similarly, things themselves possessed no fixed and intrinsic amount of interest; instead things were interesting as long as you had attention to give them. How long does it take to draw a baseball mitt? As much time as you care to give it. Not an infinite amount of time, but more time than you first imagined. For many days, so long as you want to keep drawing that mitt, and studying that mitt, there will always be a new and finer layer of distinctions to draw out and lay in. Your attention discovers - seems thereby to produce - an array of interesting features in any object, like a lamp."

(Annie Dillard, An American Childhood)

[pictures from the new jersey beach last august]
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a day in wicker park

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A little trip to Wicker Park (a neighborhood in Chicago) with some lovely ladies during the last weekend of school . . . breakfast at the Earwax Cafe, a lot of shopping at all the little vintage sales, sunshine, coffee, sitting around the park at dusk, a poetry reading at Myopic Books, etc. Grateful for these lovelies, for spring in the city, and for the chance to explore the neighborhood a bit more . . . I will miss it this summer.
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