Blonde Bread Summer
My hair grows insanely fast. So fast in fact, I cut my hair twice (at least 4 inches off each time) over the last year; all before my hair appointment last week. I am always excited for and simultaneously dreading hair appointments. The dread comes from being trapped in a chair for four hours having my hair tugged (someone find me a positive in this process). The excitement comes from having cute hair for the next five hours before I wash it and screw everything up. I honestly always regret going lighter because my hair loses all of its soft and silky texture and just feels like straw... but I must admit that the crisp and fresh feeling of a new haircut overpowers the texture of my hair... for a while anyways. Until it really starts to eat away at me and I decide to box dye it at home so I can get some of the soft texture back.
Anyways... I'm blonde-ish and shorter again. Woo-hoo. Do we need a before and after?
I've been on a little bit of a cooking kick lately. Which, under normal conditions wouldn't be labeled a "kick"... just doing what I normally do. I'm on a cooking kick almost all the time. After I lost Rob I didn't cook for maybe 10 months with two exceptions. Meatballs and Friendsgiving. That was it. Every single meal for about 10+ months was takeout. I truly just couldn't do it. Slowly, very slowly, I've started to reintroduce cooking into my life. It started with making ground beef and scooping that over instant rice packets, but I'll take that and run with it as a win.
It's been almost a year and two months since Rob's passed and I'm starting to dabble into cooking on a more regular basis again. Honestly, I love eating the food that I make. I appreciate myself and am grateful to be able to make a meal for myself. Yes, I am still enjoying the occasional takeout like the spicy and crispy bao bun from Steam Boys. But two weeks ago I made my homemade chicken and rice soup and changed the recipe up a little bit and it's absolutely amazing. Always a favorite and always a staple in my recipe book. Most of the reason behind me not cooking overly adventurous meals at this time is because I'm simply just cooking for myself. It's honestly not that exciting to put a lot of effort into making a meal that I'll sit on the porch and eat in about 10 minutes alone. But none the less, I've realized that taking care of myself and loving myself is important (thanks Chat therapy), and since I show love to others through food, I should do the same for myself. Not cooking for myself is essentially telling myself that "I'm not worth it", which is not how I would treat someone I love! Lesson in the text here - if given the opportunity to love yourself, please do it. I'm really good at giving this advice to others, but a terrible hypocrite when it comes to taking care of myself.
I did edit my recipe for dairy free banana bread yesterday... but I'm not thrilled with the way it came out. Does anyone else put their sweet breads in bags so that the bread softens and almost has a bit of a stickiness to it? Honestly, it's my preferred way. I also believe that this is the solution to most sweet bread baking mishaps... too dry - bag it. overcooked - bag it. Not enough flavor - bag it. Placebo effect or science, truly irrelevant, the fact is - it works. Occasionally the crispy bread top hits, but for the most part, I'm a big fan of sweet breads that are allowed to sit in a bag either in the fridge or on the counter. Banan bread, zucchini bread, lemon poppyseed... ugh. I suppose these are really more "loafs" than they are "breads" though... anyways, judge all you want. I don't care. I like what I like. I think one of the best ways to get the sweetest taste out of banana bread is to use excessively ripe bananas, not kind-of-ripe bananas... excessively ripe. I think this allows you to pull back on some of the added sugar if you choose.
So here is my dairy free banana bread recipe... and here are my requests...
Please don't overbake it. Please use extremely ripe banana bananas. Please don't replace the dairy free butter with a peanut butter (no matter who tells you this is okay!). Please don't add too many chocolate chips (if you wish to add them), we're just making a loaf, not a whole double recipe of muffins, you do not need the WHOLE BAG. :) Please don't forget to add the salt, it is an important part. :) Thank you for your attention to this matter.
