TAHINI FRANGIPANE BABKA

October 8, 2020 Posie Brien

While we’re on the subject of extremely lovely things (we were, weren't we?), I’ve long been collecting a list of words that are too beautiful not to say or write over and over again, and here are some for you. Celestial, cotton, sultry, papaya, crisp, freesia, eclectic, marigold, smoky, lush, vellichor, effervescent, delicacy, frangipane. (More on that last one below.)

We can’t talk about gorgeous words without poetry, really, unless we’re talking about someone turning to you to say “I love you” for the first time. Or the fiftieth time. Or a two-year-old’s babbling, bubbly speech, their words tripping over giggles. Or the lyrics of Nathaniel Rafeliff’s “Time Stands” as he belts out the song to a completely empty Red Rocks Amphitheater. Or the product page of McConnell’s Fine Ice Cream limited releases: central Coast wildflower honey from the hives at San Marcos Farms stirred in rich, sweet cream then studded with chunks of our housemade sweet & salty cornbread cookies. Or Timothy Liu’s poem “The Lovers”:

TWO VEGAN PASTAS

October 6, 2020 Posie Brien

One of us in this household is training for an ultramarathon, and I’ll give you a hint: it’s not me or the baby. [An ultramarathon doesn’t have a precise definition of length—it’s broadly considered to be any race longer than 26.2 miles. In this case, the race in question is 50 miles, the first 15 of which take place on the Appalachian Trail. No big deal. A totally casual workout.]

SOUR CHERRY SOURDOUGH STREUSEL PIE

October 5, 2020 Posie Brien

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One of the books that really affected me in high school was Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. I’ve since reread pieces of it and it surprises me how intense it is: violent and brash and deeply spiritual in a way that almost feels dark. But I can still understand why it moved me so—not unlike many formative experiences around that age, it was the newness of it, the way it simultaneously cracked open my world to become wider and spoke to something deeply familiar within me.

MINI CHOCOLATE MARCONA ALMOND WHOOPIE PIES

October 3, 2020 Posie Brien

Could I chart my life in chocolate? Probably. You could too, I’m guessing.

Second grade: Sifting through the shiny pile of miniature candy bars I’ve spilled out onto the carpet after a few hours of trick-or-treating in the frigid October air. The nubby multicolored rag carpet is soft under my knees and there’s a fire blazing cozily in the living room where all the parents sit together. My sisters and I are engaged in fierce, sugar-fueled negotiations with the other kids—three Mounds bar for one Twix; two Kit Kats for two Crunch bars; five Almond Joys and two Butterfingers and a box of Milk Duds for a single king-sized Snickers.

MARBLE LOAF CAKE

October 1, 2020 Posie Brien

Although I’m here today talking about cake, it doesn’t mean I’m not thinking about The State of the World—because of course I am, just like you are, because how could you not? Since this entire %#!*#$! year began (to borrow some lingo from an Archie comic as it were as I am a delicate, ladylike flower and prefer not to let loose a stream of real expletives here) I’ve been constantly recalibrating and readjusting my ability and desire to interface with the world at large.

Eating and adventuring.

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