What's in a Year?

Why Hello Blog!

Long time no write! A year, actually. And what a year it was.

I come to you live from the train, en route to Montreal from Toronto, where I've been hiding for the last couple days.

Proof:



You know those horrendously awkward faces you make at yourself in photobooth? Turns out they're even more awkward to make when you're on a fully packed train and practically sitting on the person next to you (see the above photo for proof of said awkwardness). I thought about asking my seat-buddy to join in on the fun, but it's still early on in the 5 1/2 hour commute... Unfortunately, he has a terrifying resemblance to Hannibal Lector. Also, I doubt he would be able to respond to such a gracious offer over the death metal blaring out of his retro headphones. Hm.

ANYWAYS, I'd like to say, "I don't know how I've neglected this blog for so long", but I actually have a confession to make: I haven't been cooking. Or baking. Or eating homemade food at all.

And yes, that was as painful to type as it was to read.

I've spent the last eight moths working in a residence, and as a perk to the job, I was given access to an unlimited meal plan a la my university's Food Services. I promised myself I'd be honest in this post, so I won't strategically leave out the fact that I DID have access to a kitchen... I just never really used it.

Again, yes, that was as painful to type as it was to read.

Sigh.

Sometimes convenience is just that: convenient. The silver lining of this cafeteria cloud, however, can be found in the pent up kitchen energy I've accumulated, as well as the unorganized file folder of recipes I've been squirreling away.

But before I get to the good(ies) stuff, I want to vainly fill the blair (that's blog air, obviously) with some life updates. It has, after all, been a year since I last wrote...

1. This summer will be my first spent in Montreal since I moved here three years ago, and I couldn't be more excited. It's crazy that we students spend only the most dreary, cold and miserable of the Montreal seasons in the city, and spend the summers back home. I've decided to put this funny pattern to rest, and spend the next four months, the best the city has to offer, taking advantage of my time here. Clearly more on this later.

and

2. I'm working! At a publishing company! Yes, M'amm, I am the new(ish) editorial intern at Black Rose Books Publishing, one of the few primarily English publishing companies in Montreal. Its pretty small, which is great, as I have yet to work the photocopier or make coffee. Actually, I make a lot of coffee... but it's always at my own leisure. But that's not the point. The point is that I'm doing real work, real editing, real research. I applied on a whim quite a while ago, and was thrilled when I heard back from them a few weeks ago. I have three projects under my belt right now, one of which has a deadline coming up reeeallll soon... It's a great internship, and it's already giving me insight into some potential goals for the future. The publishing world is looking pretty intriguing to me these days, and a skim of my google searches offers some serious insight into this possibility: This morning, over coffee, after typing in the 'How' of 'How to tell if espresso beans have gone bad', google politely offered me some of my recent searches:
'How to get into the publishing industry'
'How to dress as an intern at a publishing company'
'How to fact-check', and, my personal favourite,
'How to get out, and stay out, of your pajamas when you're allowed to work from home'

Yep, I am allowed to work from home. At first this possibility put me over the moon, but it really didn't take long before I had rewatched the entire first season of Madmen, and couldn't remember whether I had slept in, or changed mid-day, into the pajamas I was currently wearing. You can imagine my dilemma. So I've been spending most days in the office, but will have to fend for myself the next couple weeks, as my lovely boss is getting married this weekend (!!!) and taking some time off to honeymoon with his (soon to be) wife. I'm either going to have to force myself to make some cafe work dates with other home-working friends, or somehow avoid netflix, youtube, and my relentless affinity for googling things... at least until I can get back into the office.

Now –finally– a recipe! Yipee! Two posts ago ('last year' just sounds way too sad...), I posted some pictures of vegan brownies I had made, and have since received quite a number of requests for the recipe. They are deee-licious, and can be made with either a peanut/almond butter, or (vegan) cream cheese topping. I was originally given this recipe from my brother, a vegan by day/jazz musician by night, and have since found it on a number of other tasty sites. I'm not sure of the original source, but I'll edit it in if I ever figure it out. For now, let's just call them...

*Dave's Jazzy Vegan Brownies*

2/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
6oz (roughly half a bag) of semi-sweet chocolate chips (melted)
1 T. oil
1 T. vegan butter
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup soy milk
8 oz. Tofutti cream cheese OR peanut butter OR almond butter

1. preheat oven to 325
2. mix together all dry ingredients EXCEPT for the sugar.
3. add in melted chocolate, 1 cup (not 1 1/4 cup!) of sugar, 1 tsp (not 2!) of vanilla, butter, oil, and soy milk.
4. Cream the cream cheese/peanut butter/almond butter with the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and tsp of vanilla.
5. Pour mix into an 8x8 pan, then pour topping on top, swirl with knife to your inner artist's content.
6. Bake 45-60 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

OMG YUM. Here are some pictures I took when I made them last summer...



And here was the second batch of the day about 30 seconds later...



Thank you so, so, so, so, SO much for reading! I love writing these blogs, and even though I have an excuse as to my one year hiatus, I still can't believe I went a year without updating. But I am back, and more excited than ever to keep on keeping on.

Having just crossed the border into Quebec, I think it's only fair to end this post with a "Bon Appétit", straight from my heart to your kitchens.

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