Olive Oil Banana Bread

I feel like I’m one of those food bloggers who tends to be behind the trends. Macarons, for one thing; they’re all the rage, and yet, I only just bought a macaron-specific cookbook (more on that later). Olive oil bread is another one of these trends. When I first saw a post for an olive oil cake, I turned my nose up in disgust. A cake without butter, I thought, was not cake. It did not warrant the label cake. But then Heidi’s cake recipe snuck up on me. It has olive oil, yes, but it also has enough sugar (and chocolate, let’s be fair) to make it actually seem like a cake.

It should be noted that I was mostly inspired to make this cake out of sheer desperation to avoid working on my thesis. I am graduating from college in a little bit under two months, which I still haven’t wrapped my head around. My thesis is due in a little under three weeks, which I seem to refuse to wrap my head around. Rather than working like mad (like I should be) I have instead been diligently avoiding thinking about this life-changing project which could very well help my chances of getting into grad school next year. Instead…well, what have I done instead? Clearly I’ve also been avoiding this blog (I’m not sure if I just can’t stomach responsibility or writing or both), but I have baked, photographed, and knitted a prodigious amount. I have also made some time for my half-marathon training, and have spent a lot of time studiously avoiding the realization that I’m leaving school for at least a year in two months. It’s a scary time. And it’s doubly scary because I’m getting ready to leave another amazing family. A group of people who I have truly grown to love, and who I’m struggling to imagine living without.

Blueberry Yogurt Pancakes

It certainly seems like it’s feast or famine with this blog. Hopefully by now, you’re used to that, and I don’t need to keep slinking around in embarrassment because it’s been over a month (I actually cringe a little inside when I think about that) since I posted something here, and even longer (let’s not even think about it) since I posted something food-related. I certainly could come up with excuses for you (an overabundance of schoolwork, my senior year in college, trying to reconnect and stay connected with friends), but the reality is that I’ve been sort of unmotivated.

I’ve been almost frighteningly unmotivated to cook or bake since returning to school. I’ve done enough of both (you can’t really survive living by yourself if you don’t cook at least once or twice a week), but nothing has been…inspiring. I’ve undoubtedly cooked some amazing meals (and even managed to photograph some of them), but the connection between eating and blogging hasn’t really kicked in yet.

Welcome Back to Walla Walla

I apologize for the long radio silence. As the summer extended into August, it seemed like all of my time was committed to working and being at the barn. As a result, I neither cooked nor blogged. As I am back at school, I am hoping to get back into the swing of things – particularly because I am back to relying on myself for my own food (rather than relying on my mom…).

The drive back to school seemed to go by too quickly – I had been envisioning the drive starting at the beginning of May, when I started getting very excited to go home from Mexico. I could imagine seeing my parents in the airport in Denver when I got home from Mexico, and then all I could imagine was driving with my dad to Washington. What’s scary is that it’s the last time in the knowable future that I will make this drive. I love the trip, both for the time I get with my dad, but also for how beautiful it is. Unfortunately, I was so exhausted from packing and getting myself ready to come back that I spent more than the average amount of time sleeping in the car. It was a very warm drive, due to the hot weather across the west, but it was beautiful, as always. It’s certainly an experience that I treasure very much.

Coming back to Washington meant organizing my own apartment – I’m living on my own for the first time, and had very mixed feelings coming back to that. I was excited on one hand and terrified on the other. Fortunately, it has been very enjoyable so far, and I am not unhappy at all. Classes started last week, and I am enjoying all of them, to a certain degree. I am enchanted by my drawing class, and by the ballet class I am taking – they are the highlights in my week. I worry about my philosophy class and my politics class, but am trying to remember that it’s the things that I take away from these classes that matter, and the grade shouldn’t be a discouraging factor.

Being back in Washington has meant two things: access to amazing, locally grown produce (I signed up for my CSA box today), and seeing some things associated with the “West” that I don’t normally see in Colorado. The county fair is always the first weekend we’re back, and there is a parade in town on Saturday. I headed out early last weekend so I could see the horses (I miss them already, sigh) and take some photographs. Two of my friends and I then went to the fair in the afternoon and walked around, enjoying the smells and sights of a county fair. We saw a really cool event in which a series of targets were set up, and riders rode around and shot at them with different calibers, riding as fast as possible.

It has been these sort of simple, slightly unusual pleasures that get me through the week.