COFFEE SHOP LEMON LOAF

October 17, 2019 Posie Brien

The days have rapidly grown colder in the past week. On Sunday, out on Long Island, it was still warm enough to end my morning run at the dock and sit, legs crossed, with my face tilted up to the sun. After a minute of some truly pathetic attempts at vigorous stretching, I took a deep breath and untied my shoes and shimmied down the ladder to dunk my head—whoosh—under the surface of the water, glinting like diamonds in the sunlight. It wasn’t terribly frigid yet, but it was cold enough to make me gasp, scrabbling for the edges of the ladder and climbing out to shake the droplets from my wet hair.

Coconut Streusel Coffee Cake

October 14, 2019 Posie Brien

L.M. Montgomery wrote, “I’m so glad to live in a world where there are Octobers” and I couldn’t agree more. As with any change in season, the first few moments whisper new and old at the same time —they’re a shift from the previous weeks, but still so achingly familiar. I feel a stirring around every corner in October, my heart swelling when I step outside to take a run and the air feels as crisp as a brand new dollar bill. I look for autumn everywhere. There’s a little boy beside me in Duane Reade, earnestly eyeing the Halloween candy display. I almost lean down to say, “between you and me, Almond Joy really gets a bad rap” but I’ll let him spend years coveting miniature Snickers and Twix before he reaches that very mature conclusion.

SOFT-BAKED PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

October 1, 2019 Posie Brien

I have to tell you something. And you might want to sit down, and also…grab your calendar (date book? what do people use these days?) and your wallet. Because you will be canceling any plans you have and going straight to the store to buy canned pumpkin and whole wheat flour. (I’m assuming your kitchen is already well-stocked with chocolate chips at all times and if it isn’t, then GO TO THE STORE ANYWAY AND BUY SOME. Life demands an emergency stash of dark chocolate chips, and if you haven’t learned that tip by now, I’m very glad you’re here to hear it from me.)

MARBLE BUNDT CAKE

September 27, 2019 Posie Brien

The first few weeks of September could easily wear the crown of my favorite of the year. The air is cooler in the mornings; it’s not quite crisp yet, but it’s getting there. I wear a long-sleeved shirt on my early morning runs, but it’s warm enough that I strip down to a tank top as soon as I enter the park and jog onto the main path. Once out of the shade of the tree-lined edges of the park, sunshine floods the road ahead and I feel a light sheen of sweat on my skin.

AN ESSENTIAL APPLE CAKE

September 24, 2019 Posie Brien

Well, it’s been a minute hasn’t it? I won’t bore you with the usual routine of I meant to sit down and write every day for the past month, but then I went to the beach and accidentally spent four hours paddleboarding in the sun or I started to tell you all about this incredible cookie recipe but then I got distracted eating all the cookie dough off the spoon with a friend in the kitchen as we debated the relative merits of every season of Friends.

Eating and Adventuring