The Best Coffee Cake

You Guys.

Exciting news: in my last post, I said that maybe Elizabeth and I found the perfect coffee cake recipe? We tested it again on Saturday, and came to the same conclusion: we did. It is sweet and tender and simply amazing. You should make it now, when rhubarb is in season.

Later in the summer, I plan on making it with blueberries. But the rhubarb version will always the the best, with the contrast between tart rhubarb and sweet cake making it the perfect brunch food. For serious, you should make it. Immediately.

Streusel Topping:
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
7 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Mix dry ingredients. Add butter, mix with a fork until crumbs form

Cake:

Stick of butter, softened (1/2 cup)

1 c sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup plain yogur

1/4 cup milk

1 t vanilla

1 1/2 c flour

2 1/2 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

1 t cinnamon

1/4 t nutmeg

2 cups rhubarb, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

Cream together butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Beat in egg with an electric mixer. Add in milk, yogurt and vanilla. Stir until well-blended.

In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg together. Stir them into the batter. Do not overmix.

Stir in rhubarb.

Pour batter into prepared pan, top with streusel. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes (muffins will probably take less time). Let cool for 20 minutes before serving.

Eat!

Happy Tuesday, friends!

Monday rushed in with a burst of productivity and before I knew it, I was going to bed without blogging. (Don't worry, the productivity has long since disappeared.)

Over the weekend, though, I got a little taste of what summer might feel like this year. Saturday, there was a two course (!!) brunch on the back porch, complete with popover breakfast sandwiches (spinach + fried egg + bacon + sharp cheddar on a popover = my new culinary obsession), and then, when we were still hungry, some biscuits. I spent all of Sunday outdoors, hiking, biking and gardening, and it was heavenly.

I am so, so ready for summer to begin.

Happy Monday, friends!

What a weekend. Saturday, there were no pictures. But there were nine and a half mile runs, plenty of iced coffee, and finally seeing ones' bestie for the first time in months. (Or maybe weeks. But it felt like years.)

Sunday was perfect. It started with a walk in the woods. Lily of the Valley were spotted, and they were magical, as always.

Sunday afternoon, Elizabeth came over and we baked up a storm. It started with a tart for a coworker's birthday, and then we needed to make an apple pie because who makes pies without also making an apple pie. Then, it's May which means it's practically sacrilege to bake without using rhubarb, so we also made a rhubarb coffee cake. Further testing is needed, but we may have found the coffee cake holy grail.

All in all, a very productive weekend.

How about you?

Porch Breakfast

I think I've mentioned before that one of my favorite features of our apartment is the back porch. (The front porch is pretty nice, too, but there's something especially magical about the back porch.)

Now that it's finally started to warm up in Boston, I've taken to running in the mornings instead of going to the gym. That means that I get to eat my oatmeal while sitting on the back porch, curled up in the papasan chair. It's kind of a perfect start to the day.

So.

I keep meaning to blog, but then I get busy. Doing crazy shit. Like running up a mountain, down a mountain, and then five more miles.

Swearing in my blog, apparently.

Doing these crazy athletic events with my roommates. (Tonight, one roomie, one former roomie, one upstairs neighbor and I ran a 5k "fun run" with the Somerville Road Runners. I got a little competitive. I beat my normal fastest pace by about a minute per mile. It was pretty fun.)

Working.

Getting Fancy with the fam for Easter. (Notice the lack of Dad. He was there, but he left before the picture-taking occurred. Which was too bad, since he was pretty fancy too.)

I said I was getting in the groove of this "working during work hours," but apparently I lied. I'm still working on it, though- there are plenty of hours in the day, I just need to figure out how best to use them, and how to fit blogging in. I've been doing a lot of living, not so much blogging, but I miss the process of recording my life, of contributing to the blogging community in some small way. I'll figure it out soon, I think, I'll work out this balance thing I hear so much about, and then my blog won't be so empty.

Until then, Happy Spring, Friends!

Hello again

Why, hello there.

How are you? It's been a while, I know.



I got a new job, you see, and all of a sudden, I had to work during working hours.

That's a little strange. It took some getting used to. (In my old job, they didn't really have very much for me to do.)



I think I'm figuring it out, though. Which is good, because spring is upon us. Last weekend, in addition to celebrating roommates old and new with birthday cake, biscuits, and bourbon, I wore flip flops and drank a lot of iced coffee.



Today, it is going to be fifty-six degrees outside. This girl is going to take a lunch break and go for a walk and enjoy the sunshine.

I love spring.

Item Number 4? Double Check.

S0. When I turned 25, I made this list.

One of the things on it, number four, was to run a 10k (that's 6.2 miles).
I'd recently kind of sort of started thinking about running again (I started running for the first time when I was nine, and then I stopped by mid-high school), and that seemed like a lofty but achievable goal.


{We didn't exactly remember to take pictures. So roomie Emma and I did a reenactment in our living room. It went down just like this, promise.}

This past weekend, I finished a half marathon. That's 13.1 miles, or more than twice my goal. Once I started really running last fall, I just kind of realized I liked it, so I kept going. Suddenly, a half marathon made sense. I signed up for one in February, but then I got horribly sick the weekend of the race, and it snowed, so instead, I raced yesterday, in New Bedford. The weather was perfect- it was sunny and not too windy, and I kept a pretty steady pace right through to the end, where they gave me orange slices and a medal.



You guys, it was amazing. It was so much fun, and the weather was nice, and we got to run along the ocean, and I pushed my body to go faster than I thought I could, and it was just awesome. Now, I think everyone should do a race like that.

Really, though, I only did it because seven months ago I told the internet that I wanted to do a whole bunch of things. I'll do a recap closer to my birthday, but now, I think everyone should make a list like that, too.

p.s. Thanks to Christine for being my super awesome race buddy and Nicole who doesn't read the blog for SCREAMING for me at the finish line. That was so super motivating.