from Cooking Light

This Coconut Banana Bread with Lime Glaze is one of the highest rated and most popular recipes on the myrecipes website for a very good reason: it’s absolutely delicious. Plus, it gave me an excuse to use my (sadly) underutilized fancy mixer, which is always great.

The site indicates that you can sub apple juice for the rum, but come on teetotalers!

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Posted on February 14, 2010

by E.E. Cummings (1931)

There are few poems that I’ll carry with me through my entire life and somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond by ee cummings is one of them.

I can recall copying this down in a junior high journal (“nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands” still makes me sigh inside). I was very, very romantic back then, as I’m sure most girls were at that age. Strangely, now that I live with the love of my life, my interest in things romantic has dwindled… I guess reality is just too good to compare to fiction. The poem was published in the collection Viva.

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose

or if your wish be to close me,i and
my life will shut very beautifully,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands

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Posted on February 7, 2010

by Chet Baker (1954)

Smooth and sultry and oh so romantic, the voice and trumpet of Chet Baker is incomparable (as you’ll see in this week’s hunk category, he was also incredibly, mind numbingly handsome). So sad then that a substantial drug addiction ruined his career, resulting in his name attaining less than household status; he deserves to be remembered as a true jazz great. If you love the standards like I do, and are interested in delving into his work, there’s no better place to start than one of his early recordings, My Funny Valentine.

Released in 1954, the soft and haunting album which includes the title song, Someone to Watch Over Me, Let’s Get Lost, and Isn’t It Romantic, is appropriately dedicated “to lovers”.

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Posted on February 7, 2010

Builder of the Taj Mahal

Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal in memory of his beloved third wife Mumtaz Mahal, said of the magnificent structure this:

Should guilty seek asylum here,
Like one pardoned, he becomes free from sin.
Should a sinner make his way to this mansion,
All his past sins are to be washed away.
The sight of this mansion creates sorrowing sighs;
And the sun and the moon shed tears from their eyes.
In this world this edifice has been made;
To display thereby the creator’s glory.

I hope some day to see the popular site myself, which I suppose is more likely than my other wish: to someday have something equally epic built in my honor.

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Posted on February 7, 2010

394 Broadway, Brooklyn

More romance can be found among the trash-stuffed-pillars, fried chickenries and noisy dollar shops underneath the roaring JMZ track than one might ever expect at the cozy, Europeanesque Moto. It’s been ages since I headed down there for their impressive menu, jazz and hand cobbled together ambiance, and delicious desserts (years ago I praised their grilled donuts).

We ordered cappuccinos, despite a strong curiosity (particularly on my part) of the breakfast beer listed on the menu (Guinness plus espresso) which, unlike angry reports on Yelp, did not take forever to arrive at our table. Moto’s weekend brunch offers much to choose from and we were both very happy with our entrees: ham and cheese baked eggs for Jim and a fresh Turkish breakfast with olives, figs, tomatoes, cucumber, feta, and soppressata for me.

The real highlight of our meal was the warm date cake with toffee sauce and whipped cream; it was absolutely heavenly and is one of the restaurant’s signature dishes (it’s even on the menu at all meal times). Order it!

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Posted on February 7, 2010