The cake is light enough for breakfast and sweet enough for dessert, but I highly recommend taking an afternoon coffee and cake break, especially if you can share it with a friend.
"I love s'mores," he hinted. "I love cookies," he hinted. So I went to the kitchen to heed the hints. I heated the oven, whisked, poured, whirled, and then swirled homemade fluff into a chocolate dough. I crushed whole-grain graham crackers and sprinkled them over the swirls. I watched as the warm oven solidified the textures into a magical campfire cookie. I tried to savor the moment - the warm kitchen, the chocolatey smell, the way he smiled after the first taste test.
Chocolate chip pancakes conjure the moments in childhood when I felt the safest, the most innocent and the most loved. I've updated these gluten-free oat pancakes to be heartier, healthier and more sustaining, but I hope the feeling remains the same. For those moments when you want to pretend this is just an extended snow day, these pancakes are here.
In the spirit of touring my own city, slowing down on weekends and trying to create more memorable accents to my summer, Kyle, Julep and I did a little touring of our own. We went to one of my favorite neighborhoods, Pittsburgh's North Side, to put our worries into a box, forget about them and follow a path of curiosity. Get ready for lots of color and cute pics of Julep!
A wee bit of a back story: In May, three friends and I flew to London, walked all over, sipped some lovely drinks, and ate some lovely bites. Then we drove to Bath, took in the sites and continued on to Cardiff, Wales, where we spiced up our lives! We took a lovely country drive back to London with a pitstop at Stone Henge and then had an evening and a morning for more London explorations. Our last stop was Spitalfields Market, where we found a delightful doughnut truck!
I was brainstorming ways to describe how much the Rustbelt Farmer and I value coffee. I could talk about our assortment of tools, or the way coffee has inspired our travels, or my metrics for judging a new coffee shop, but then I realized, that was all too flowery and emotional. The best way to demonstrate our love of good coffee was his response to a family member's request to pick up K-cups for our lake house weekend...
When it comes to coffee consumption, I lean toward the Lorelai Gilmore school of thought, ie: more, more, more! I like black coffee with a splash of cream in the morning (followed by a refill). I like short, concentrated cortados in the afternoon, or iced lattes when it’s hot. When it comes time to cheers to the weekend, why stop the coffee? Pair it with a splash of bourbon, and we’re en route to a Cold Brew Coffee Cocktail. What else is in store for the weekend?
Exfoliation is a necessary step to keep skin glowing, and making a homemade sugar scrub, it turns out, is easy- just mix the ingredients in a bowl, transfer to a jar, and … that’s it! Plus, homemade scrubs give you the power to customize the scents to your fancy and to make sure every ingredient is top quality.