Banana-Raspberry Comfort Food

I know it's already Wednesday, and Monday seems like a distant memory, and the sky looks like this today:

But I swear, Monday was much less cheery with torrential downpours and unseasonably cold temps, leaving me jonesing for some comfort food. Crappy weather + comfort food = banana raspberry muffins? I have no idea either. The stomach wants what the stomach wants!

Wishing I could say my kitchen skills are up to snuff with those of Wear Flats To Dinner, the coolest food blog around, instead I settled for this recipe from the painfully typical Epicurious (slightly adapted).

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I used Bob's Red Mill AP gluten-free flour instead)
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 ripe bananas
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1 1/2 cups berries of your choice

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400° F. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in one bowl, whisking to blend. Add the bananas, blending until smooth. Stir in the milk, eggs next, then fold in your berries. Divide batter between individual muffin tins. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

With minimal ingredients and only two mixing bowls needed, these muffins are easy peasy to whip up. Should you encounter a rainy day, with a massive craving for bananas and/or berries, that makes total sense and I know exactly how you feel. Try these bad boys, they just might do the trick.

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Googa Mooga

A few weekends ago, Kevin and I and our friend Peter traipsed out to Brooklyn in the drizzling rain to The Great Googa Mooga. Despite its vaguely google-ish sounding name, Googa Mooga is actually a food festival in Prospect Park that takes place over three days with 85 restaurant and food vendors, 100 wine/beer sellers and live music performances. In their own words, an amusement park of food, drink and music.

We headed out for the day on Saturday, and despite the rain joining in for the festivities, didn't let that stop us from stuffing ourselves silly.

Walking into the festival is a bit daunting. With an overwhelming amount of food stands lined up end to end, each filling your nose with a thousand different mouthwatering wafts of deliciousness, it's difficult to know where to start. Considering my compatriots were two "growing" boys, we inevitably made a beeline for the BBQ/pork/meat area, clearly marked by a massive smoke-spewing cast iron pig appropriately named Hamageddon.

Peter and Kevin kicked things off with marbled rye cheddarwurst & carmelized onion sandwiches from Pork Slope, while my nose led me to Fatty 'Cue's barbeque pulled pork.

Don't let the pulled pork's unimpressive looks deceive you, my nose did not lead me astray! The boys also scarfed down smoked bacon spicy-slaw sandwiches, which made the briefest of appearances next to my pulled pork below, but that's all I could manage to snap before every last crumb disappeared.

Having thoroughly gorged ourselves on enough pig-related food to last a lifetime (gross), next it was on to fried chicken from Blue Ribbon. Kevin was the least excited for this leg of the eating journey.

As you can see in the next sequence of photos, the fried chicken literally stunned them into belly-contented silence. No actual words were spoken. Only grunts of approval and continuous munching.

During the fried chicken bonanza, a little stand by the name of Free Bread called out to me. A simple warm & gooey toasted PB&J? Yes, please!

Several napkins and finger licks later, we waddled over to the main stage as the band Matt & Kim came on. If you've ever seen Matt & Kim live (my first time!), then you know, they put on a party not just a show.

Launching into their set, the crowd immediately went wild, jumping and cheering, and before we knew it someone pitched themselves up into the hands of the crowd and the throng turned into a mosh pit. I've never "moshed" before in my life (too afraid of getting dropped and trampled!) and wasn't about to start now, so instead of sharing some thrilling action shot of me being whisked along over the heads of the throbbing crowd, I'll share these strangers doing it instead.

Even Kim got out there!

As the concert wound down, and the moshers dispersed, our uncomfortably full bellies slash food comas set in. But seeing as how we were in Brooklyn, at the equivalent of foodie heaven, fresh off an indie darlings Matt & Kim concert, I couldn't resist giving my best shot at blending in with the hipster locals before heading home. How'd I do?

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Beauty in The 'Burbs

With a childhood spent in Seattle "proper," followed by four years of college life on an insular campus near San Francisco, culminating with my current residence in Manhattan, the whole notion of the suburbs has never really held much appeal for me. Grocery stores within walking distance, a variety of cultural activities/restaurants/nightlife/sights at your doorstep, and other conveniences that city life has to offer are just too big of a draw. At least at this stage in my life! Of course, there are pros and cons to both -- one of the biggest distinctions between the two being cost of living; hello postage stamp sized apartments in town for the same price as a mansion in the 'burbs! -- but I've always sort of turned my nose up at the thought of non-city living, mentally connecting the word suburb with urban sprawl wasteland. Nothing but strip malls and 24-hour Taco Bells, right? Not exactly. One unassuming Sunday spent looking more closely at the sidewalk-less, cul-de-sac'd streets of quiet, leafy Hillsdale, New Jersey (Kevin's hometown) is all it took to realize the potential beauty in "urban sprawl." The sun was shining, the white picket fences blinding bright in their spotless glory, and the front yards freshly manicured. Strolling the neighborhood, I felt silly traipsing around strangers' driveways and onto their lawns to awkwardly aim my Canon PowerShot at tiny red bugs meandering along pavement, but to my surprise it felt just as invigorating as walking down any hustle-and-bustle New York street. Who would have thought? The perks of suburban life: immaculate lawns, perfectly tailored curbside mailboxes, tiny red bugs, just might hold their own unexpected charms.

    

What do you think? City life or the 'burbs? Or somewhere in between? Please share your thoughts and/or debunk my totally stereotypical notions of city vs suburban living!

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Sleep, Eat, Repeat

Happy Monday/Memorial Day! What have you been up to this weekend? Hopefully more exciting activities than those that figured largely into the past three days for me: sleeping, eating, napping, 24-hour pajama wearing, the occasional Keeping Up With The Kardashians re-run, and more sleeping. Just as thrilling as it sounds. However, I did manage one productive/semi-exciting long overdue task. A hair cut! If you've witnessed lately the colossal travesty that is my hair these days 1. I'm sorry and 2. Clearly, it's time to trim these Little House on the Prairie length locks. With summer around the corner, and New York humidity looming (not to mention incessant Cousin It taunts from Kevin), significant inches had to go.

It's been over a year since these strands last saw a pair of scissors, with the split ends to show for it. Too chicken to make a drastic change though, I decided to stick with simply taking inches off my already existing cut.

To middling results. The new 'do certainly isn't anything to write home about (but, apparently, enough to write on the blog about?), but hey you can't win 'em all, right?!

Enjoy the holiday, y'all!
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Snail Mail Heaven

As a long-time Papyrus devotee, the recent discovery of its craftier, funkier, more DIY-inspiring alter-ego, Paper Source, has really shaken up my greeting card store convictions. Does everyone else already know about this place? Have I been living under a rock? Assuming the answer to that is an emphatic yes, apologies in advance for the ensuing blather. I promise to cover something much more exciting in my next post. Probably not though.

First off, let me just say I am a big believer in the power of snail mail. Both sending and receiving. A good hand-written thank you card? Love. Postcard from a traveling friend or relative? Adore. Who doesn't feel a little thrill of excitement opening the mailbox to find real mail addressed to you, that's not a pre-approved credit card scam letter? Under my bed sits a box stuffed with almost every birthday card, note, postcard, letter I've ever received during the last six years here in New York. To be pulled out ages from now, each scribbled sentence poured over and re-read, allowing a moment in time to be re-lived. Or so it goes in the movies. Most are from my family, as we've always exchanged cards at every holiday (which isn't that weird), with gifts of course for the biggies, but always cards no matter what (including Valentine's Day, which I think may be a little weird?). So, yeah, I'm a sucker for a $12 bedazzled Halloween card and Paper Source really scratches that itch.

This place knows what it's doing when it comes to bedazzling and more. Chock full of crafty, cleverly irreverent, hand-made anything and everything, it's a crafting-junkie's dream. An entire wall of uniquely-designed wrapping paper bombards you upon entering, so overwhelming irresistible in its sheer spectrum of colors, that I almost bought five rolls. You know, for all those gifts lying around. That need wrapping.

If you're a budding DIY-er, there's more inspiration than you'll know what to do with. The back wall is basically a Pinterest board come to life for literally every single invite design possible. (currently pinning this photo to Pinterest)

Something adorably clever or stirringly uplifting pops up at every turn. I even discovered matching pillows to the one in my niece's bedroom!

Or, you might find a 50 Shades of Grey party game. Who knew! And how exactly is this played?!

Browsing the massive greeting cards section, these couple of gems called out to me...

In the end, I bought the Love You More pillow to match Ailey's To The Moon And Back version, plus the "Hello Friend" note cards. Don't be surprised if a bug-eyed fuzzy owl turns up in your mailbox sometime soon...

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Sunsets & Sailboats

Hello Monday! In the face of another workweek ahead, I'm sharing these photos I took during a stroll through the neighborhood this weekend. And by neighborhood, I mean a few square feet of Battery Park, but no one needs to know that. Looking through the colorful sunsets, blooming flowers, and little sailboats bobbing in calm water, I don't know about you but I get the warm and fuzzies, instantly feeling at ease. The perfect respite to the Monday morning onslaught of all the things that need to get done this week. Hopefully they do the same for you!

Ana.

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A Fork In The Trail

Finally, finally, New York decided to get it together and show up for Spring (except today is monsooning). This past weekend brought out the best of the best in perfect warm-but-not-too-hot temps, blooming trees and flowers at every turn, and nary a cloud in sight. All the usual spots to soak it in--Central Park, Battery Park, etc--quickly fill to the brim with eager New Yorkers starved for sunshine at times like this, so Kev and I decided to go big and really soak it all in at Bear Mountain State Park. A short drive up the Hudson River, Bear Mountain is a beautiful expanse of woods, lakes and trails overlooking the river with spectacular views from every vantage point.

With lofty ambitions of tackling a "challenging" hike, yet not a clue as to which trail that might be, we set out blindly for a path that appeared sufficiently steep and winding. Starting out, happy and un-sweaty:

Things got pretty hairy pretty quickly. Five minutes in, gleefully trotting along oblivious to what lay ahead, we came to a fork in the trail. Kevin felt both options looked promising.

To the right, a nice orderly stone stairway built into the path to form the next leg of the trail. To the left, nothing but dirt, leaves, rocks, and twisted tree limbs forming not much of anything. Imagining ourselves modern-day Robert Frosts, we chose the "adventurous" and "more challenging" fork less-traveled by to the left.

Immediate regret. There's a reason the road less-traveled is less-traveled. Foolishly believing we could blaze our own path like a pair of pioneering explorers, our legs and (my) Lululemon yoga pants were no match for scaling the side of a mountain. Only a few yards in, thighs burning, lungs heaving, with sweat beads dripping into our eyes, thoughts of This might have been a mistake began creeping in. Kevin may or may not have cursed the bear of Bear Mountain. I took a tumble at one point. All I can say is, taking the road less-traveled certainly made all the difference.

More than ready to trade in challenging for easy, legs still shaky (ok so we are out of shape!) from descending the trail of terror, we hobbled along to one of the more picturesque spots in the park--easily accessible via a well-marked 1 mile paved path. Which lead to a breathtaking view of the Hudson River valley...

And even spotted our first deer!

Sometimes the road more-traveled by provides the best views.

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