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graceless

I figured out how to be faithless
but it will be a sheme to waste this
you can't imagine how I hate this
graceless

I'm trying, but I've gone
through the glass again
just come and find me
God loves everybody, don't remind me
I took the medicine and I went missing
just let me hear your voice, just let me listen

all of my thoughts of you
bullets through rock and through
come apart at the seams
now I know what dying means

I am not my rosy self
left my roses on my shelf
take the wild ones, they're my favorites
it's the side effects that save us

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[GRACELESS]

a r t i s t : THE NATIONAL

a l b u m : TROUBLE WILL FIND ME

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sweet: BANANA CRANBERRY BREAD

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Posting this a little while after baking this glorious wonder, I still find myself daydreaming of how incredibly delicious it was. I didn't think any other recipe would beat the one my mom uses and has used for years and years. But my accusations were FALSE. And my family accepted this after one oversized bite. Another loud applause goes out to Joy the Baker for this one. The smooth and rich taste of the banana with the tartness of cranberries joined together with a fragrant aroma of the nutmeg and cinnamon is just... I don't know... Maybe, pretty darn amazing and heavenly?!  The only ingredient omitted from this recipe were the cloves only because my family and I are just not fans of cloves. I feel like this bread is the epitome of a make-again-and-again-and-again recipe. So obviously it's good, so go make it why don't you! 

enjoy!

emily
x

some beginning of the week typographic inspiration.

One of mine and Rachel's favourite things to do is search out new and unvisited places amongst the city, filling a memory card of photographs. Last week we found ourselves in a place downtown where the canopy of dark foliage made forgetting you're in a city usually marked by a skyline of sharp edges and towering heights easy. Nothing is sweeter than these afternoons with my best friend. Missing her as she is having the time of her life at camp. and these dear-to-my-heart photos aren't helping that!

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two of my favourite things all baked together in one little humble loaf of joy.

recipe taken from Lady and Pups: an angry food blog who derived it from a Martha Stewart recipe. she's so very witty and sarcastic oh my gosh I love it!

the recipe:

yield: one loaf 
3 tablespoons (10 grams) black tea/Irish breakfast/English breakfast [I used Irish breakfast.]
1 cup whole milk
1 1/2 stick (170 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup honey + 2-3 tablespoons
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups cake flour, or all-purpose
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine salt

Preheat the oven on 350ºF/175ºC.

Grind black tea-leaves in a spice-grinder until coarsely ground (like the consistency of ground coffee for French-press), then add to the milk in a small sauce pot.  If you don’t have a spice-grinder, combine tea-leaves with milk in a blender, and blend to the same consistency.  Bring to a simmer on medium-heat then turn the heat off.  Leave the ground tea-leaves in the milk and let steep while cooling down to room-temperature.

Cream the butter and sugar together with a stand-mixer/hand-held mixer until light and fluffy, approx 3 min.  Add the eggs one at a time and beat it into the creamed butter until the mixture is light and fluffy again, 2 min for each egg.  Then add 1/3 cup of honey and vanilla extract, beat until smoothly combined.

Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.  Beat the flour-mixture and the black tea-milk (that’s cooled down to room-temp) alternatively into the creamed butter-mixture, starting and ending with the flour-mixture.  Basically: 1/3 of flour-mixture + 1/2 of black tea-milk + 1/3 of flour-mix + 1/2 of black tea-milk + the last 1/3 of flour-mix.  Mix each step until just smooth and don’t over-work the batter.

Butter the inside of a loaf-pan and dust with flour.  Make sure to tap the pan to release excess flour.  Pour the batter into the pan, and swirl 3 tbsp of honey into the batter with a spoon.  Bake in the oven until golden-brown on top and a wooden skewer comes out clean from the center of the loaf, 50-60 min.

Let the cake cool off slightly.  

Serve the sliced cake with honey whipped cream (optional - see her blog for the recipe!)  

                     And you know what goes well with this?  A cup of strong black tea with milk :)

enjoy!

emily
x