rhubarb bars (with cardamom + pistachio).

Have you ever not eaten enough during the day and gotten massive stomach cramps?

This happened to me recently and I swear, I would not wish this pain on my worst enemy. A long day at work meant 7 hours of not eating, followed by the really bad stomach pain. By the time I was able to scarf down an apple on my drive home, it was just too late.

peachy breakfast quinoa.

Oatmeal definitely gets all the attention for breakfast. Whether cooked in a bowl with some flax and sunflower seeds, or crumbled with cinnamon, butter and clumped over apples, it's always oatmeal.

I recently got Gwyneth Paltrow's cookbook It's All Good ("all iz well" what up movie reference, what up superwoman reference). In it, she talks about how she was really feeling the ill effects of her stressful, crazy lifestyle, and so went about eating better. The cookbook is a culmination of mostly vegan, pretty simple recipes with basic ingredients.

mango vanilla pastry cups.

I had this one dessert the other day. Its simple novelty stuck with me.

It looked like a teeny layered parfait. The very small glass was half-filled with vanilla bean pastry cream, topped with tiny cubes of cake, strawberry pie filling and then sweetened whipped cream.

I loved how perfect it seemed for summer. An upcoming BBQ was the perfect excuse to recreate them myself.

cream cheese fruit tart.

I always feel a little bad about incorporating fruit into batters and baking them. I would so much rather find ways to include seasonal summer fruit into desserts raw, in their natural form.

This tart was actually eaten on the fourth of July ... aren't I a little late. But it can be delicious even during less patriotic times; it's definitely an everyday, perfect make-ahead tart.

apple pie bars.

"In one moment, I lived centuries." It's my favorite line from one of my favorite songs. Well, that's what the lyrics translate to, anyhow.

Although not quite as melodramatic, I feel the same way about these past two weeks. It's been a whirlwind of meeting new people, doing new things, and getting new perspectives.

It's been exciting! Interspersed among there I've had random food quests and cravings. These apple pie bars - the perfect homey autumn dessert - were obviously included.

caramelized banana bread + browned butter glaze.

Have you heard of bananas foster? Butter and sugar are roasted in a pan, then sliced bananas are added until they start to soften. At the very end, some rum is sploshed in, before the whole mixture is spooned over ice cream while still warm.

The same concept is applied to this (relatively healthy) banana bread. The bananas are roasted with butter and sugar until they caramelize a little, and then the mixture is mashed together until everything is homogenous.

That sweet sticky mixture is incorporated into the rest of the ingredients, and baked in a loaf pan till golden. Afterwards, a thick glaze is spooned over the entire loaf, so that it dribbles into every crevice.

orange cornmeal cake + blueberry compote.

Hello.

It's been a while ... I think I'm losing my mind.

For one, I can't type. This will not come in handy during the essay portion of the MCAT.

For two, and this is even more trauma-inducing, I'm losing the deftness I had at baking. As in .. I used to do simple things really quickly- could make four wet mixtures and two dry without messing anything up, and I could improvise pretty easily. Now?

pear galette, with vanilla pastry cream.

I think my brother has been watching a significant amount of "Chopped." Recently, he told me he wanted to bake something "interesting."

By he, he meant me. And by interesting, he meant something super good & out of the norm of cake and cookies. Well, the younger brother kept yelling "flambe!!" .. me and the older one just kind of ignored him. I eventually decided on a fruit dessert, and also made a point of making them come with me to A&P to buy pears, because jeez, if I'm baking for them, they need to do at least a little bit for me.

pineapple cream cheese blondies.

I realized why I have so much more to blog about when I come home. Because when I'm at college & have something (anything) to say, someone is usually around to hear it.

I guess that someone is you, now! I think my parents have become proficient in tuning out the random stuff I think about.

I hope you're excited. You can hear about how I recently found out that one ostrich egg is the equivalent of about 22 chicken eggs. And how Rutgers is working extra hard to recruit more students directly from China. This greatly baffles me. Also, how the Affordable Care Act is going to affect our lives. I was not aware that it extended coverage for young adults! I can stay underneath my parents' plan till 26 now! WOOP WOOP.

Oh, and I guess you can hear about these blondies. I mean, if you really want to.

bran & pear breakfast.

Hm. Bran doesn't sound too good, huh?

Well I made the bran bread I always do when I bake stuff to eat for breakfast. I find making this bread (and others that are similar, containing things like oats, flax, and wheat germ) makes breakfast extremely easy.

It takes zero thought to take a slice of this bread with a glass of skim milk. Or in my case on busy work mornings, down a glass of milk, grab a slice of the bread, grab the keys in true relay race style as I dash into the car, and then take a bite at all of the red lights and on the straight roads.

It's a scene of great elegance and grace, I assure you.

mango pudding pops.

MANGO POPSICLES!

I mentioned in a post a while ago that I had come back from a run & had some inspiration.

That inspiration and desire for something cold and refreshing resulted in popsicles! I had one of those homemade popsicle tray things from .. whenever my mom got it. Probably since forever. Actually, I saw an exact replica of mine in a museum in New York, dating back to 1955. So yeah, this is historic art, folks.