I know I was just extolling the virtues of having access to a kitchenaid, but last night I was reminded of the joys of baking with nothing more than a wooden spoon.

I was craving banana bread when I went grocery shopping last Sunday (I love banana bread), so once I finally had some free time after the birthday cakes of doom project, I had all the ingredients. I wanted to use my family's favorite recipe, which comes from a worn-out booklet of children's recipes that my mother ordered for fifty cents from Gold Medal Flour at least five years before she had any children, but I couldn't get her on the phone to read it to me, and I couldn't find it anywhere online. Instead, I went to that bastion of deliciousness, Smitten Kitchen.

Unlike a lot of the other recipes I found online, this one doesn't call for the butter and sugar to be creamed together. Neither does my family's recipe. Instead, I always use the biggest mixing bowl and my favorite wooden spoon to stir all the ingredients together by hand. Using a wooden spoon always makes me feel earth-mothery and old-fashioned, like I'm cooking the way Laura Ingalls Wilder and family always cooked.

And cleaning a wooden spoon is way easier than cleaning all the crevices in a kitchenaid.

Happy Friday, friends!

I hope your weekends are full of homemade baked goods and not too much cleanup.

Sometimes I think a personal assistant would be helpful.

{My kitchen isn't quite this bad anymore. But almost.}

Man oh man, you guys.

I have been so busy lately. Work is busy, and for the past week or so, I have been on a cooking bender. Just tonight, I made two cakes, challah, and then my whole dinner (salmon, green beans, asparagus and brown rice). And I didn't even get home until 8.

Sometimes, I am crazy.

p.s. I am a very lucky girl- my dad lent me his kitchenaid. It really does make baking a million times easier! He won't notice if I never give it back, right?

A petite blizzard!

Every so often, you get exactly what you asked for.

Don't you love it when that happens?

{Isn't Emily pretty? She's a librarian. It's why she's sitting by the books.}

This is Emily.

As some of you know, Emily is my bestie. Yesterday was her birthday.

I love Emily for more reasons than I could possibly enumerate here. (In fact, when I started making these little lists, one of my first thoughts was "but how can I do one for Emily? I would just want to write 'I love her because she's Emily,' and that would be kind of boring.")

Nonetheless, I shall try to provide a partial list:

1. Emily always has my back. Emily has been known to get madder at people for being mean to me than I have gotten at them.

2. She can bedazzle anything. (You should see her cell phone case!)

3. Emily is incredibly generous with her time and space. She has volunteered countless hours of her time for a variety of purposes, and whenever our gang needs a place to have a party, cook an elaborate meal, or just hang out, she is always the first to volunteer her condo. Or sometimes even, her mother's house.

4. Until recently, despite the fact that Emily has hosted numerous cooking extravaganzas, she did not own a whisk.

5. Emily is able to perfectly tow the line between being supportive and listening to her friends obsess and whine and freak out and telling us when to cut the crap and get over ourselves.

6. She's Emily. I really don't know how else to say it. She's my bestie. Life without her would be so lonely, so sad, and a hell of a lot more boring.

Happy Happy, Emily!

I am so glad you were born.

I moved back to Boston because more of my favorite people were here than any other city.

One of the best parts is that I get to see my family all the time. Having that support system nearby is so much more valuable than I realized when I moved to California, and I'm so grateful for it now that I'm back.

Burgers with my dad on Thursdays is a pretty nice perk, too.

On Blizzards.

You guys.

Am I the only one who is terribly disappointed in the blizzard that wasn't?

I know the mid-Atlantic is sick of snow by this point, but we haven't had a single real storm all winter, and I'm feeling a little let down.

See, snow is magical. That feeling you get when you wake up and look outside to see the whole world covered in white, or bonding with your neighbors over the hassle of shoveling the sidewalk, or going inside once you're all done and curling up with hot chocolate and a book: that stuff can only happen when we have a blizzard, and that didn't quite happen around these parts today.

Oh well. Winter's not over for another month, right? We still have time.

Just one little blizzard, please? Come one, Mother Nature. I'll be good, I promise!

What did you do over the weekend? Any adventures?

Me? I went to New York.

Late night talks about feelings, cute boys and online dating, the furthering of my beer education, my first ever trip to Zabar's, major foot-in-mouth insertion, and brunch with a Commie at one of the pinkest restaurants ever.

{We're not Communists, we just went to Commonwealth!}

{I made them go to Shake Shack. The caramel milk shake was so worth it.}

New York? I love you.

Friends? I love you even more.

Oh yes, I have a blog. Sometimes I forget, and I get too busy doing things like having my mom over for dinner and making valentines and watching Teen Mom reruns to post to AbbieBabble.

Sorry 'bout that.

Anyway, I have looked at this post every day for a week. These bedrooms are so inspiring to me- so comfortable and, yet, still absolutely breathtaking. These two both have a similar feel to that which I'm trying to create in my room. (More pictures of that, soon!) I promise.

In the mean time, happy happy friday!

p.s. Want a homemade valentine? Email me your snail mail address and I'll send one right your way. I'm still kicking myself that I was too late to enter Sarah and Angelina's swap. So anyway, send me your address at abigail.cyr{at}gmail.com and I will happily make a valentine just for you!

Pictures from House to Home, via Bliss.

Hey Boston

Have I mentioned that I love you?

I think I spent at least eighteen of the last forty-eight hours in the kitchen.

Yesterday, mexican pork stew, avocado quesadillas, churros and hot chocolate with Holly and Ben, and roommates filtering in and out. Then, today, the most epic cake project I've ever taken on, a fantastic Caribbean-themed potluck downtown and cake leftovers in the kitchen.

That was a good weekend.

How about you? Good weekend?