y'all.

i'm moving.

april 30th. the countdown begins.

if there was a super bowl for baked goods, these would win.

over the last week, my fridge was re-stocked with some non-vegan food. for a couple of days, i was subsisting entirely on scrambled eggs and jell-o chocolate pudding. delicious, of course, and definitely NOT tired of that... nope, not at all.

but in an effort to hop back on the vegan train, i cleaned out my fridge once again, and found myself left with 2 eggs and a stick of butter. something kept me from throwing them out, and then this magazine cover sitting on my coffee table caught my eye:

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what better way to get rid of those eggs and butter than to give the Best-Ever Brownies a shot? i mean, what else is there to make with those two ingredients? besides, i'm heading off to a super bowl party tonight, which means that i can donate these to the cause and ensure i don't eat the whole pan.

so here's the thing. i'm not one prone to hyperbole, but O.M.G. omg. so good. SO GOOD. put these on your to-make list STAT.

Cocoa Brownies with Browned Butter and Walnuts (from Epicurious.com)

ingredients:

Nonstick vegetable oil spray

10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 1/4 cups sugar

3/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder (spooned into cup to measure, then leveled)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs, chilled

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon unbleached all purpose flour

1 cup walnut pieces

Position rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 325°F. Line 8 x 8 x 2-inch metal baking pan with foil, pressing foil firmly against pan sides and leaving 2-inch overhang. Coat foil with nonstick spray. Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Continue cooking until butter stops foaming and browned bits form at bottom of pan, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat; immediately add sugar, cocoa, 2 teaspoons water, vanilla, and 1⁄4 teaspoon (generous) salt. Stir to blend. Let cool 5 minutes (mixture will still be hot). Add eggs to hot mixture 1 at a time, beating vigorously to blend after each addition. When mixture looks thick and shiny, add flour and stir until blended. Beat vigorously 60 strokes. Stir in nuts. Transfer batter to prepared pan.

Bake brownies until toothpick inserted into center comes out almost clean (with a few moist crumbs attached), about 25 minutes. Cool in pan on rack. Using foil overhang, lift brownies from pan. Cut into 4 strips. Cut each strip crosswise into 4 brownies. DO AHEAD: Can be made 2 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.

friday, i'm in love

i'm taking a page (post?) from the playbook of one of my fave bloggers - maggie over at freckled citizen - and doing a weekly rundown of things i'm digging. having spent 4 out of 7 days in bed recovering from a lack of wisdom teeth, the standard for awesomeness isn't very high this week, but here we go:

portlandia

if you haven't yet taken 30 minutes out of your life to watch an episode of portlandia, then i am sad for you. this show is ridiculous - and it stars one of my all-time faves, fred armisen. it definitely teeters a little bit on the absurd side of comedy, but if you have any sense of irony, i promise that you will love this. give it a shot! catch up on all the episodes here. still not sold? watch this without laughing:

new boots!

yes, they're as ubiquitous on the streets of manhattan this winter as piles of snow covered garbage bags, but i finally caved and bought myself a pair of hunters. why the sudden purchase? funny you should ask. turns out i had a giant gash in my old rainboots, and it took me more than one episode of soaking wet feet to even realize there could be a hole. le sigh. anyways, i love the color i got! don't see too many in this shade. and no holes means dry socks! yay!

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burgers... mmm meat

so i went vegan for the month of january, and actually totally loved it. i felt great, cooked awesome food, didn't feel deprived of anything, and i think i can do it for longer than a month. however, having been on a liquid diet of soups and smoothies for the past week, all i can think about is the day when i can sink my teeth into one of these babies from shake shack... just one, and then back to being vegan-ish. and also maybe a quick trip to hill country. and then i'm back on the vegan train. yep. definitely.

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mumford&sons

their song "the cave" is on constant repeat on my iPhone. listen. love.

what are you loving this week?

guess what i wear as a hat?

if you don't immediately answer, "a lentil!", then you, my friend, are missing out. it's a very cold morning and i'm on day six of an all-liquid diet post-wisdom teeth removal, and it's really the small things that are making my days enjoyable. for example: meet marcel!

aren't you in love now? you're welcome.

grown-up clothes for grown-ups.

apparently, according to most reliable sources, i am, in fact, a grown-up. and part of being a grown-up is using life lessons to make good decisions. for example, i am in the middle of my 26th winter on this planet. winter is generally cold, and yet i clung to the notion that winter clothes should put form over function. and i've basically been cold for 26 years.

case in point:

this is me in boston a few weeks ago. please don't ask me who that handsome man is standing next to me. let's focus. it's january in boston. there are 14 inches of snow on the ground. while visiting my sister from another mister, b, we got all touristy and trudged... i mean marched! along the freedom trail. it is approximately 5 degrees outside. i am wearing no hat, no gloves, and a wool coat, that while adorable (i love you, red jacket, please don't change!), is really not made for much more than show. 

i have never been colder in my life. and it's like a switch was flipped in my brain, and i came to terms with functional winter wear. it exists! and it doesn't hurt that a great bargain from lands end canvas eased the process along. i've been wanting to order something from them for a while, and after some absurd sale with free shipping and all kinds of extra percentages off, i snagged this lovely (and functional!) new jacket for all of $50.

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y'all. i can't even... i just... IT IS SO WARM! i don't have to strategically bundle up with a half dozen layers just to fight off frostbite anymore. yes, i look like a marshmallow, but as a responsible, seasonally-appropriate dressed grown-up, i just don't care about that. i almost don't want winter to end... no, i take that back! please end, winter! please?

summer, can you hear me?

probably not, because oh. my. god. summer could not feel further away. not sure if you've heard, but we've had a tiny bit of snow in new york this year, and are currently waiting for SNOWMAGEDDON v.5.0 to come barreling through town and paralyze the city that never sleeps. but it's times like these that call for colorful peeks into the future, just to survive. namely? pretty pretty flowers! i couldn't have gotten through january without these babies.

(these beauts are courtesy of my loverly coworkers... i've been homebound recovering from having my wisdom teeth yanked out of my skull. more on that later.)

oh, hello there.

funny story. so i started this blog, oh, like seven million years ago. and then life got in the way. and i don't mean errands and work and social stuff. i mean real, heavy, grown-up life stuff. and i couldn't bring myself to talk about it online. so i avoided and ignored and avoided some more. but throughout it, i kept a list of things i wanted to blog about, which tells me that i could be on to something.

so i'm trying this again. a completely new me than the me that blogged for the first time last april. and of course, now i'm facing more decisions that are forcing me to put my big girl pants on. but this time, imma blog about 'em.

so as a fresh start, how's this? i got some spam in my work email account yesterday. i know, scintillating, right? i must be the only one! but stick with me here. i opened it for some reason, and this was the message inside:

Subject line: For your information.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Mark Twain

timely, to say the least. so let's explore, shall we?