burlington in fisheye

Have I told you guys that I'm learning to skateboard? I can pretty much just balance on a board and push around before I get scared and resort to photographing Dave from the lovely, solid ground.

Yesterday was beautiful and we visited the very colorful Burlington skatepark and took a walk on the waterfront. What did you do? I'd love to hear!

strawberry rhubarb crumble

I can't remember ever having eaten rhubarb until about three years ago. I was at my internship at Shelburne Farms and the office was celebrating a late spring birthday with strawberry rhubarb pie. The rhubarb was fresh from the market garden, and the pie was amazingly sweet and tangy, making me wonder why on earth I'd never had it before.

That said, I still never baked with rhubarb until a couple of weeks ago, when I spotted some super early stalks hiding under a head of lettuce at the market. I snatched two stalks up, and really should have grabbed them all — that's how delicious this crumble is.

It tastes like warm strawberry sauce at first, like the kind I top my pancakes with, but then the tanginess of the rhubarb and the lemon juice creeps up and adds this whole complex flavor. And the crumble? It was wonderfully sweet and crunchy, and made enough to have a thick covering on each bite. Enough said.

Strawberry rhubarb crumble

Slightly adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Topping:

1 and 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons brown sugar

zest of 1 lemon

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

Filling:

1 and 1/2 cups rhubarb (or roughly 2 large stalks), chopped into 1-inch pieces

1 quart strawberries, hulled and quartered (I used frozen, since they're not quite in season)

juice of 1 lemon

1/2 cup sugar

3 and 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

To prepare the topping: In a mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugar, brown sugar and lemon zest. Mix until well combined. Add the melted butter, and mix (I used my hands here) until large and small clumps form. You can refrigerate this until needed.

To prepare the filling: Toss the rhubarb, strawberries, lemon juice, sugar, cornstarch and salt right in your baking dish or pie pan.

Cover the filling thickly and evenly with the topping — no need to pack it down like I did. Put the baking dish on a baking sheet (just in case it bubbles over; mine didn't) and bake until golden brown and bubbling, about 45 minutes.

ilovermont

Most of the year, all I can think about is getting out of Vermont.

Yes, I like that it has the perfect mix of mountains, farms and lake. I love having so many great bars and cafes in the area — Dave and I know to go to Parima when we want hurricanes and Mirabelles for amazing weekend brunches and the odd sweet treat. And we frequently take day trips to discover the state's smaller towns.

But sometimes it feels we've done all there is to do. And the last couple of summers have been so rainy that, all the way through our icky, snowy winters, I'm not sure what I have to look forward to. And I have this nagging feeling that I might end up just staying in Vermont forever, because it's easy to.

If that's not a cry for a vacation, I don't know what else is. But strangely, our NYC trip proved more stressful than relaxing, and the change of scenery only made me want to come home.

It was beautiful weather in the city — over 80 degrees most of the trip! amazing what five hours south will do — and we traipsed all over the blooming Bronx Botanical Gardens (pictured), into a seriously scrumptious Italian restaurant (Nocello) and, well, a bunch of places. I made it to the Guggenheim, saw old friends, caught a movie and did a lot of reading.

But goodness! A few days of subways, constant walking, continually getting lost and terrible city traffic, among a few other things I won't get into here, made me realize I can take the place only in small doses. The relief was palpable as Dave and I got on the highway and headed north (to the tune of Maroon 5's "Must Get Out" on the radio, if you'll believe it).

So, yeah. Nothing like coming home :)

vacation!

Hi guys,

Dave and I are heading into NYC for the next six days! We're lucky to be skipping out on a rainy week in Burlington and will hopefully get lots of sunshine. On my must-do list: Visit with two old roommates, go to the Guggenheim (I've never been), find a farmers market and maybe see a play. Any recommendations for the rest of my time there?

See you next week!

C

double-chocolate banana bread squares

A few days ago, I declared that 22 is a funny age. Know what else is funny? Titles. Titles are funny. And not so much in the ha-ha variety, but in the stand-there-stumped department.

Wait, what? Titles? Here's what I mean.

What we call things, or how we define them, seems so important ... and it's weird. Like that awkward stage when you're "seeing" a guy, but not "dating" him. When you're just "hanging out." Confusing! Right? You don't know how to define your relationship, how to explain it to the rest of the world, so they understand it the way you do.

I remember when Dave and I had that conversation. He asked me something like, "What are we doing?" and I was like, "Um, watching a movie?" before I realized we were about to officially become boyfriend and girlfriend. Thank goodness those awkward days are behind us, but you see? People get hung-up on titles, and it's funny.

I'm telling you this slightly embarrassing story, oddly enough, so I can tell you about these double chocolate banana bread squares. The recipe I worked from called them "banana brownies," so that's what I expected I would get. But that's not what came out of the oven.

This is a very rich and decadent dessert. It has a wonderfully dense, moist, fudgy texture and little pockets of melted chocolate chips. But it's not chocolatey enough to be a brownie, and, um, there are bananas in there. It was disconcerting. Something wasn't quite right with the brownie idea. These squares have the same texture as banana bread. Once I realized that these were, in fact, double chocolate banana bread squares, the dessert made sense. I was able to love it, and go on to make many sundaes out of it. All because of the title.

Double Chocolate Banana Bread Squares

Adapted from here

So, this "brownie" recipe was originally vegan. No eggs, no dairy. Instead... bananas. I like that. But my version wasn't vegan because I used regular milk instead of soy or almond milk, and regular chocolate chips instead of dairy-free ones. Feel free to go either way, depending on what's in your kitchen.

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup finely mashed bananas (I used 3 bananas here)

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup canola oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil a 9X13" baking dish.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder.

In another large bowl, mix the mashed bananas, milk, canola oil and vanilla. Gradually add in the sifted dry ingredients, stirring till just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Pour evenly into the baking pan and bake 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out cleanly.