I'm totally not a thief or a stalker (don't ask any of my exes about that, please), but I am: 1) obsessed with Orangette's beautiful and delicious blog and 2) completely appropriating this banana bread recipe. It is DIVINE. And easy. And eggless, which seemed weird to me before I tried it, but was absolutely not an issue at all. This banana bread hits the perfect balance of moist and cakey and has just the right amount of sweetness. The demerara sugar that is added before the loaf goes in the oven makes the best craggy little sugary crust I have ever tasted. And even if you don't like coconut (I think I'm on a serious coconut kick, by the way), it is subtle enough that it simply adds to the texture.

You can find demerara sugar at Whole Foods and some other gourmet markets-- don't skip it or substitute it if you can (though I am thinking that the next time I try this recipe I will sub bourbon for the rum and bourbon sugar for the demerara for a little southern twist).

PostedNovember 30, 2012

Authormelissa mcclure

Categoriesdesserts & sweet treats, vegetarian

Tagsrecipe, coconut, sweets, blog love, banana bread, demerara, vegetarian, orangette, gift idea, dessert

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There have been way too many comings and goings around here lately. In some cases this is kind of heartbreaking and it's killing me, but in others, well, it's a welcome relief*. But to be honest, I'm completely emotionally depleted from all of it and that does not bode well for the coming endless onslaught of holiday family meshugas, shenanigans and triangulations. It's never awesome to attack this season on an empty emotional stomach, but unfortunately that seems to be my situation this year. I'm so thankful I'm not turning 40 on top of all of it, though the fact that I'm turning 41 does mean I'm really in my 40s now (do I buy the orthopedic shoes and cut my hair off?), so I've got that to remember when I need an emotional appetite suppressant while I'm visiting my family in Texas. Which is good because I'll need it.

Please don't get me wrong, my family is made up of seriously fantastic and totally weird personages and I couldn't love any other human beings on the planet more than them, but for some reason if I go into a situation with all of them all at once I revert into an incredibly petulant twelve year old, almost without exception. And this behavior isn't reserved for just my parents, oh no, it extends a full 100 yards on a multi-generational football field. Like a couple of years ago when I was stuck riding on the hump in the backseat of my brother's family car squished between two child car seats (I love how 40 years later it's still the place I always get relegated to in the car)...I got into a very interesting game of "I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I" with my young nephew that was not happening in the I'm-older-and-pretending-to-be-Pee-Wee-Herman-because-I'm-the-cool-aunt kind of way but more in the you-and-I-are-the-same-emotional-age-and-you're-pissing-me-off-and-I-don't-have-a-rational-argument-for-you kind of way. It ended with me getting so annoyed that I popped his balloon, literally, that he had gotten as a souvenir at a baseball game while my niece tried to feed me cheerios, dropping them onto my white pants with her sticky fingers. My brother had to inject some rationality and break up the ruckus. Yes, I am Auntie of the Year in everyone's book. I fully admit to extreme assholery.

PostedNovember 16, 2012

Authormelissa mcclure

Categoriesdesserts & sweet treats, vegetarian

Tagsbrown sugar, recipe, sweets, coconut, explain the single away, worlds most awesome aunt, I know you are but what am I, chews, oatmeal, soupapalooza!, cookies, dessert, peter pan

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I'm typing to you large and in charge from business class on my flight to JFK. Yes, it would seem that my August Humble-Pie-a-polooza is off to a pretty great beginning. I mean there's pomegranate hand soap in the lavatory, for shizsakes. That alone was worth waking up at 4.30am and having the Supershuttle driver text while he drove the entire expanse to LAX with the A/C off. Though it was kind of like a little eastern european adventure all its own, with his smoking outside the van, crappy attitude and the general pre-dawn steam bath ambiance.

If I had thought, even for a second, that the slightest hint of a possibility of an upgrade existed for me, I may have passed on the $15 La Brea Bakery panini I bought right before I got to the gate. But as it is, I've had two fat breakfasts and a bloody mary (two turntables and a microphone!) before 10am and there's wifi and a footrest and a tablecloth and I must look like the biggest rube ever to fly taking pictures and grinning ear-to-ear like I just won the flipping lottery. It's like I've never even seen a plane before. It's no surprise that the guy next to me gave me the side eye an hour ago and is pretending not to speak English.

I was sitting in my coach seat when the flight attendant came to my seat, and, addressing me using the very proper sounding "Ms. McClure" (is my stepmother in the row behind me?), told me that I had been given a seat up front. It must be a good omen for what I'm sure is going to be an anxious few weeks for me, right? But here's the thing, I can't help but remember the other times I've been unexpectedly upgraded on my out-bound flights and how those trips kind of blew up in my face.

PostedAugust 7, 2012

Authormelissa mcclure

Tagshumble-pie-a-palooza!, recipe, Barcelona breakup, sweet biscuits, Evil College Boyfriend, upgrade, Crocs of s*&t, adventure, soupapalooza!, blueberry cobbler, stagiaire, pack your knives and go, biscuits, dessert

9 CommentsPost a comment

Go get a copy of the October 2010 Bon Appetit if you want to see what a little photoshop and a hair and makeup team can do for a gal. Or if you just like soup. Take your pick.

Here is a link to the article and here it is in person below.... and a recipe for macerated strawberries and crème fraîche ice cream and some behind the scenes pics from the shoot.

You’re welcome.

Now I’ll put a sock in it. Or mittens on my hands, to be more accurate (you know what I mean, One Night Stand-Up).

PostedSeptember 19, 2010

Authormelissa mcclure

Categoriesgear and miscellany, desserts & sweet treats, vegetarian

Tagssoup and the single girl, Bon Appetit, I'll shut up when it's off the newsstand, recipe, soupapalooza!, Bossy, ice cream, creme fraiche ice cream, creme fraiche, dessert

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I’ve been home from Italy for a week now, and I can no longer claim jet lag as a reasonable explanation for my lack of posting; I’m going to sum up, with as much efficiency as I can muster, the last tidbits of the soupapolooza! goes to Italy summer.

There was a shin-dig for Ferragosto, which is an Italian holiday that has something to do with the ascension of Mary, but don’t ask me what that means since I was raised by godless heathens, thankyouverymuch. But nonetheless, Bossy and I chose to celebrate this holiday by braising a shinbone (called a “stinco” in Italian, tee-hee) and inviting our international friends over for some drunken reveling.

There were also two more trips into Florence, both unsuccessful in their promise of the now unicorn-like vintage silver gelato spoons. On the first excursion, a Sunday, we blindly brought the Cinquecento into the city center without consulting a map. It wasn’t pretty, made even less pretty when we found ourselves squeezing (and screeching) down a one-way street exactly the wrong way. We did get another excellent lunch and dinner (pizza!!!) with Beefcake and the Baron before we drove back to Panicale, dejected and stuffed.

Orangette's eggless banana coconut bread: I'm stealing this recipe in a big, bad kind of way

brown sugar coconut oatmeal chews: I know you are but what am I? Wait, don't answer that

blueberry drop biscuit cobbler and buttermilk ice cream: Bon Appetit, badass upgrade

Bon Appetit, y'all!: I promise to totally shut up about it after it’s off the newsstand

olive oil gelato: the Baron of the Borgo, Bossy, Beefcake and Bologna... and a club sandwich at the Four Seasons

Why? Because soup is cheap, delicious and easy. Kind of like me.

a weekly attempt to eat well and to savor life. or to see how much food I can get on my clothes.