In the Kitchen {Banana Bread}

Banana bread is the ultimate comfort food and when I snagged an evening to myself the other night, I couldn't resist baking up a loaf.  Banana bread is filled with memories for me. My mom would make it only occasionally when I was a kid and I loved it. My favorite part was always the sticky, slightly burned part on top.

  

I have a couple of baking secrets to share:  First, I use powdered buttermilk.  I keep the container in the fridge so I always have some on hand without having to buy a carton of the fresh stuff when I'm in the mood for baking. 

Next, I'm big on getting out every single ingredient prior to starting the recipe.  That way I always know if I am missing something before any disasters ensue. 

Cleaning as I go is another must do for me in the kitchen.  Once I'm done with a spoon or bowl, it goes in the dishwasher.  I'm nearly done cleaning by the time the food goes in the oven and all that's left to do is drool over the delicious aroma of the baking banana bread.

Banana Bread

(I'm not sure of the source other than my mom's recipe box!)

3/4 cups butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups mashed bananas

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

Cream softened butter.  Add the sugar.  Mix in the bananas, eggs and vanilla. 

Sift together the dry ingredients I usually just add the dry ingredients together in a bowl and wisk them together. 

Add the dry ingredients to the banana mixture alternating with the buttermilk.  End with the dry ingredients.  Blend until just well combined. 

Pour into a bread pan.  Sometimes I don't want to fill the bread pan as full and I just pour the extra into mini-muffin tins.  I bake those at the same time as the bread, carefully watching them as they do not need the entire bake time.

Bake 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees.  My oven runs hot so I tend to burn the top of my bread more than I like.  Keep an eye on it towards the end--you want the top to be dark, but not charred.  

Fall Wardrobe

When the seasons change, I naturally find myself reimagining my daily wardrobe.  As the thermometer drops, I tend to want to be a little more sophisticated.  Buttoning up, piling on some jewelery and painting deep colors on my lips and nails just feels right this time of year.  Here are some of the things on my shopping list right now:

Metal and leather bracelets to layer on with a chunky watch.  I love the look of a tall stack of mismatched bracelets.  A couple of my favorite versions of this look are here and here.  A pro tip: try Target, Forever 21 or H&M for some cheapies.  Tall stacks of bracelets can be heavy on the pocketbook.   

Wood bangles / Chain bracelet / Leather bracelets / Chunky watch 

A shrunken blazer.    A blazer layered with a great necklace, a scarf and an unstructured top is the right mix of sophistication and cool.  Perfect to dress up for work or dress down with jeans at night.  Lately I've been wearing a striped T-shirt with a gray blazer to work.  I get to wear a T-shirt to the office, the office gets to see me in a blazer.  Everybody wins! 

Boyfriend jacket / Blazer / Single breasted jacket

A casual button down.  I'm dying for a chambray shirt and I must get one before they are completely out of style.  A couple of my favorite ways I've seen them worn are here, here and, of course, here.

Silk top / Plaid shirt

A new pair of ballet flats (a timeless classic).  The sole of my current pair has come loose, so the front flops like a mouth when I walk.  It's time for an update.  I've had a delicate gold pair in mind for a while; now I just have to find them in real life.   

Black ballerina flats / Nude flats / Two tone flats

Some deep reds for my lips and nails.  Paler skin, darker evenings and more sophisticated clothes call for a richer makeup look.  And I truly think a red manicure is one of the first signs of fall.

Lip color / Lip gloss / Nail polish

  

Lunch at Wise Acre

A new restaurant find.  Their concept is farm to table in 24 hours flat. 

So good.

A few weeks ago I made a pilgramage to my new favorite restuarant in the Twin Cities: Wise Acre.  I love Wise Acre's farm to table concept--their aim is to have their locally grown food in your meal less than 24 hours after it was harvested from the farm.  Pretty impressive.

The place is tiny with only a handful of tables inside.  The main dining room's garage doors were open, though, and we had a long lunch under a big orange umbrella outside.  The patio is surrounded by the most incredible gardens and giant potted plants.  It felt like just the place to bask in the last of our split-second summer. 

For lunch I had a homemade ginger ale and a farm salad, which was a total hodge podge of lettuce, tomatoes, corn and rotisary chicken--all very good. My sister and I shared a blondie sundae for dessert which was really yummy.  My only (small) complaint was that the sundae was served in a jar with a teeny, tiny neck.  We had to dump the sundae onto the plate to get every last bite.  There are worse things in life I'm sure, it's just that enjoying the sundae was a little bit of work, you know? 

Next time I'm going back for breakfast.  I've heard from several credible sources that Wise Acre's bacon cannot be missed.

Green Hydrangeas

I clipped these hydrangeas from a bush growing next to our house.  The weather has turned, but I feel like I'm doing my part to celebrate the last of summer with these sitting in a mason jar on the kitchen counter.

More from Seattle

Yesterday I told you about the Oregon portion of my Oregon/Washington trip.  Today are a few of my favorite moments from Seattle:

:: Getting lost driving around downtown Seattle (and then West Seattle and then downtown Seattle again and then the southern part of Seattle) and giggling the whole time.

:: Sneaking samples of smoked salmon from the fish guy at Pike Place Fish Market.

:: A nightly trip to the market near our hotel for snacks to see us through Bravo watching in the hotel before bed.  One night we tried butter and sea salt Half Pops--a bag full of half-popped popcorn kernels.  Weird, but good.

:: Morning jogs through the Olympic Sculpture Park and then along the Puget Sound shore.  Views of the shipping yards and the Space Needle were good distractions when the running got tough.

:: Sharing some great meals with some of the nicest, nicest people, but mostly just spending so much time with my aunt Dory.  It couldn't have been better.

Flowers outside of the market, arranged by color.

Crabs at the Pike Place Fish Market.

Walking through the Seattle Center on a pretty, sunny day.

The view from the sidewalk outside of our hotel in Queen Anne:  the Space Needle and a full moon.

Left Coast

In August I took a trip to Brookings, OR and Seattle, WA with my aunt.  We met up with tons of friends, toured a little, walked a lot and ate even more.  It was the best!  Here are some of my highlights from Oregon (where we visited another of my aunts):

:: Floating on an inner tube on the Chetco River in Brookings.  The inland part of the river where we floated was 20 degrees warmer that the harbor in Brookings!  We read and listened to country music on the stony shoreline.  I got a little summer sunburn (don't tell my mom).

:: A pub crawl that included a Cucumber Saint at The Pine Cone Tavern.  Gin, cucumber, St-Germain and honey rose water.  A cucumber-y, summer martini.  I know!  I know.

:: Scrabble over breakfast at The Salty Dog Coffee Bar next to the harbor.  I learned that the harbor was hit by the tsunami in March.  My Mexican mocha and peanut butter cookie made me grateful that The Salty Dog survived the storm.

:: The 10-hour drive up the coast to Seattle. The drive was incredibly beautiful. Even the rest stops were epic, filled with 100 foot trees. Plus, though I'm ashamed to admit it, the drive included stops for two of the finest fast foods that ever existed: a bacon, egg and cheese McGriddle sandwich and a Dairy Queen Nutter Butter Blizzard.

On our drive from Brookings to Seattle we stopped at Face Rock in Bandon.  It was so early that the beach of still misty with morning fog.

Bandon was the coolest little beach town.




Just about to Washington.  Happy hour was waiting for us in Seattle, so there was no time for a stopping in Portland.

More tomorrow about my favorite things about Seattle.

Land of 10,000 Lakes

As a Minnesota girl, this is a project I can get behind.  Nicole Meyer is working to provide a new logo to each of MN's 10,000 lakes.  At the rate of one logo per day, the project will take her over 27 years to complete!  Check out the logos she's created so far:  Branding 10,000 Lakes.

Weekend Plans: Heavy Reading

Here is my reading pile for the weekend.  Tall, huh?  I'm about to finish The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma which is my book club's September selection.  Then on to October's selection: Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.  And I plan on getting lost in the September issues of Vogue and Elle.  These are my kind of weekend plans, people. 

I'm also running 20 miles as part of my marathon training schedule.  (Eeps!)

Five Things to Share

These five beautiful rooms, ideas and decorating projects caught my eye today.  Let's turn this into my own personal Pinterest, shall we?

1.) One gorgeous living room on Style By Emily Henderson.  I'm obsessed.  I love the color mix--gray walls and accent chair, the teal couch, the yellow carpet and bookshelves.  Plus I love the crazy mix of accessories--giraffes, burl wood table, vases, shields.  It just works.  Or it could be that I love the huge bouquet of peonies in the middle of the room so much that it makes me love this space beyond reason.  Whatever it is, I would move in in a heartbeat.

2.) A DIY picture frame project on Oh Happy Day.  I heart these frames.  They look like simple wooden frames, but they are not made of wood at all.  The frames are actually made of paper tape around sheets of plexiglass  I would love to create a similar series for my house.  My walls need them.  Need.  I'm pretty nervous about finding and cutting the plexiglass though, I have to admit.

3.) Mr. & Mrs. glasses on Cheetah is the New Black.  I'm neither a Mr. or a Mrs. at this point, so these glasses aren't really for me, but aren't they cute?  Do you see the little mustache on the Mr. glass?  Little touches like this are what make a home cozy--and a lowball glass covetable.  (Don't you wonder what's in the glasses?  I hope it's something more fun than water.)

4.) Wooden table and modern chairs on Apartment Therapy.  The wooden chairs that go with our wooden table are slowly falling apart.  I'm thinking of replacing the old chairs with new, modern, metal-y ones like these.  I love, love the idea of updating a classic wooden table with something unexpected.

5.) Perfect birthday party on Simple Lovely.  Isn't this the most gorgeous party decor for a little girl's birthday?  It's hippie and messy and cool.  I love the wrapped twigs, the succulents and of course the cupcakes (see: my sugar addiction).  Best of all I love the saturated colors--it is the anti-precious-pink little girl party. 

Birthday Treat

Let me start by saying, I have an enormous sweet tooth. My very favorite sweets are a little salty, too. I always like my dessert to include a dollop of peanut butter or to have some Spanish peanuts on top. No wonder that I'm obsessed with chocolate covered pretzels which are super sweet and super salty. 

I was invited to my friend's birthday party this weekend.  Since it was her golden birthday*, I made chocolate covered pretzels rolled in gold sprinkles (the perfect golden birthday party confection.)  Obviously.

The process of making these pretzels is so simple that it is not even worth sharing a recipe.  I melted down a package of white chocolate, dipped the pretzels in, shook off the excess chocolate and then shook sprinkles onto the still-wet chocolate.  I rested the rods on a sheet of parchment to dry.  A couple of tips: 

::  Melt the chocolate down in batches, that way you'll use it before it hardens up. 

::  Use a tall, skinny container for the chocolate (rather than one that is short & squat).  The chocolate will go farther up the pretzel rods when you dip them in, you see.  Use a spoon to drizzle the chocolate the rest of the way up the rods.

::  Shake the excess chocolate off of the rods really well otherwise you'll have a gloppy mess as the chocolate falls off on its own.

::  The chocolate hardens quickly once you stick the finished pretzel rod in the fridge.

::  Try not to eat the whole batch before you get to your friend's party.  This will be the hardest part of the whole project.

* Sprinkle covered pretzels would be fun for a kid's birthday party, if you happened to have any good friends in that age group.  Though we celebrated in early September, my friend's golden birthday actually fell in late August.  In her late-20s, she's an age-appropriate friend for me to have.  Just thought I'd clarify. 

Long Weekend, Long Brunch

One / Two / Three / Four

The long weekend is here and I'm crossing my fingers that a long brunch will be part of it.  Brunch is such a treat, don't you think?  If you're able to swing brunch, you're having a great weekend.  What other meal can you get away with dousing breads, meats and fruits with maple syrup, I ask you.

My dream meal starts with a long walk to brunch, sitting for hours sipping coffee and eating bites of banana pancakes and then walking home for a long afternoon nap.  Heaven.

Red, red wine

Sangria, oh, sangria.

Sweet and juicy and vaguely Spanish, sangria is my summer cocktail of choice.  I ordered one at a happy hour way back in June and I have been wanting to make my own ever since.  When I hosted my book club this week, guess what I made...  I planned the whole menu around the sangria, in fact.  That's not weird, right?  I also served enchiladas, tortilla chips, salad and homemade Oreos.

Try this recipe (it's amazing).  A word of warning: the recipe calls for gallons of liquid.  I quartered the recipe and it made plenty.