brunch

the hart and the hunter. brunch.
named after an aesop fable, a moral lesson of: "We often despise what is most useful to us."

it's looks like a bright dainty tea room, full of clean hip people.
i must say, this one actually measures up to it's trendiness.

and their biscuits. dude. i truly appreciate these biscuits, and whoever it is in the back making these biscuits everyday. from one former 'biscuit bitch' to another, they are art.

points off for no bloody mary's.

i tried to get a photo of the smoked trout on avocado toast. (phenomenal.)
except my phone was going slow and i got self-conscious about being that douche.

we also got the cornmeal fried trout. word up.

(that design on the left is by Hannah Schultz)

juice. lunch. snack. dinner. dessert.

     [ grape grapefruit ginger juices ]

     [ cumin roasted carrot and avocado salad ]

     [ fresh ricotta, bitches. on toast with honey ]

     [ white bean and butternut winter minestrone, from david tanis' lovely new book ]

     [ green tea ice cream. banana ]

grapefruit olive oil pound cake

i continue to ruin my favorite white tshirts with olive oil. 

Grapefruit Olive Oil Pound Cake

from the smitten kitchen cookbook

this is a delight in a loaf pan,

a simple cake perfumed with grapefruit tang and softened with olive oil. 

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

2 tbsp finely grated grapefruit zest (from 1-2 grapefruits)

1/2 cup olive oil

2 large eggs

2 tbsp grapefruit juice

1/3 cup buttermilk

syrup:
2 tbsp sugar
1/3 cup grapefruit juice

glaze:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tbsp grapefruit juice
pinch of table salt

preheat oven to 350 degreesF. butter and flour a 9x5 inch loaf pan. 
in a large bowl, rub the grapefruit zest into the sugars with your fingertips to help release all the grapefruit flavor. whisk in the oil until smooth. add the eggs one at a time, and whisk until combined. scrape down the sides. 
combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a second bowl. in a liquid measuring cup, combine 2 tbsp of grapefruit juice and buttermilk. add the flour and buttermilk mixtures, alternating between them, to the oil and sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour. 
spread batter in pan, rap the pan on the counter to release trapped air bubbles. bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a tester comes out clean. 
syrup: combine 2 tbsps of sugar with 1/3 cup grapefruit juice in a small saucepan, and cook over low heat until the sugar dissolves. when the cake is finished, let it cool for 10 minutes in the pan before inverting it onto a rack set over a tray. poke holes in the cake with a skewer or toothpick, then spoon or brush the grapefruit syrup over cake. let the cake cool completely while it absorbs the syrup. 

make glaze: combine the confectioners sugar, grapefruit juice, and pinch of salt in a bowl and whisk until smooth. pour over the cooled cake. 

hi, 2014

today is the first day of 2014 that i am a functioning person.
illness. stomach flu. worst.

so hello 2014, you are here and i am a person.

and i can breath in fucking oxygen and i can drink ice water and feel it go down.

and reading this beautiful letter again brings me such satisfaction, with right now, with my disheveled hair, with bodies guided by brains, with my few but entirely irreplaceable people,

with a blank slate of living ahead, the appeal of what it could be, what i could make it with a few tweaks of the brain.

so, satisfaction, 2014.

if there is one thing i resolute, it is to allow myself to Not.

i spend a gross amount of time (my time, my dwindling time!) agonizing over all the things i'm not doing.

i have the ability and tools to paint but rarely do. why aren't you painting? 

why aren't you writing letters to people you like? seriously. why are you here?

and i dwell, and feel guilt.
and while i realize that this dwelling and angst will never fully go away, i need to tone it down because it's a complete waste of time.
you know.
how are we to be satisfied in 2014 if we keep being dwellers?!

so.
if i want to take an evening to squash into a couch, drink sauvignon blanc, binge watch a tv show (i mean..read) and bounce the remote on my stomach, it is cool.
how about no guilt necessary.



and a secondary resolution..stop saying awesome so much.
but also don't dwell on that conversation earlier when i said awesome too many times.

last year at this time i was making almondy pancakes.
this time i'm eating eggs.
and they're awesome.
no..
magnificent, wondrous, stunning !