coconut-encrusted French toast

I love dark chocolate, I love basil, I love peaches, I love blackberries.

I love Olive Garden. I love raspberry ice cream in a big waffle cone with sprinkles. At my old house, we had a garden, we had a huge garden. We grew string beans and pumpkins and mint and huge, juicy tomatoes that Arden and I would just pick and eat right there, like you eat an apple. I love tomatoes.

I once cooked an entire box of macaroni and cheese and ate the whole thing. It was one of the best macaroni and cheeses I have ever had.

I went out to brunch with a friend once and had the most incredible breakfast I have ever had. It was triangular pieces of coconut-encrusted French toast topped with strawberries, and bananas, and blueberries, and raspberries. And it was served with the sweetest freshest syrup, and butter, but not just any butter… maple butter. I love maple.

I like lettuce, it tastes like water and like wet.

I like ginger ice cream from the Thai restaurant.

I like crepes, the kind with nutella from France.

I love crispy baguettes with cheese, or a light spread of butter. When I was in Scandinavia on a music tour – I play the violin – I remember being in Norway and having the best cup of hot chocolate I have ever had. Never before had I drank hot chocolate from a super wide mug, the kind of hot chocolate with decorated swirls on the top. And it was perfect.

I love s’mores, and camping with my family on Assateague Island and Blue Rocks campground. I love veggie dogs that remind me of the fourth of july, and biting in to one and mustard squirting out on to my lips, and wearing tank tops by the pool, and fireworks, and grills, and the woods. I love vanilla fudge from the Fudge Kitchen in Stone Harbor, NJ, where I spent many summers with my family. I love my Aunt Trish’s green bean casserole, and Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and my cousins and aunts and uncles, and my Grammy and Grampy. I love avocados and guacamole, that remind me of my friends, and Jason Mraz, and studying for final exams this May in Callie’s backyard.

I love the pancakes my dad makes.

I love the Double Stuf Oreos and crackers and Havarti with Dill cheese I always have at Hilary’s house.

Sometimes it seems like no one is probably even reading this; why am I writing about all of this stuff that seems meaningless; why just ramble about all the foods that I like to eat? But I guess my point is that I love limeade and I love avocado sushi and I love strawberries… oh I love strawberries. I love food. Some days I dream of being a chef, of owning a restaurant and cooking and baking and making people smile, like food makes me smile. Some days I dream of working for Kashi and touring the world searching for cocoa beans or chili peppers or new exotic flavors. I’m the kind of person that can’t say no; I can’t say no to the last bite, I can’t even say no to the first bite. For me, it’s worth the nauseous full feeling a few minutes later. I’m the kind of person who can be having a day where nothing is going right, but when I bite into a blueberry bagel toasted with cream cheese, everything seems alright.

Find what makes you smile. Because it is these little and seemingly meaningless things that are truly full of meaning, that let you enjoy a little moment of perfection, that bring you back to family and summer and parties and other countries and moments where you were filled with sublime joy.

Enjoy,

be happy,

☼Brooke

la dolce far niente

similar to my Thanksgiving break, this winter break has been a break of nothingness.

i have eaten at least one hundred cookies, i have read about Rome and about romance, i have slept for about a week straight.

i have pretty much been in isolation, not seeing really any friends at all but instead going to the park with my dad, an art gallery with my mom, shopping with my sister, the movies with my aunt and cousin. i enjoyed stepping back from that world into the separate world of my family.

i spent my new years snuggled under my covers struggling to stay up until 12 to say “happy new year” to myself and then drift off to sleep amidst sirens, firecrackers, and my parents’ snoring.

and while it was one of the worst breaks because i was sick once again, it gave me a new perspective on life, a new chance of life, and it forced me – and now i like to say it permitted me – to do nothing. and i guess i enjoyed this nothing.

today my sister came downstairs to see me drinking water slowly and reading a travel book while listening to blaring bob dylan. she said, aren’t you bored of doing nothing? no, rather, i am reveling in la dolce far niente, the sweetness of doing nothing.

and while this break was much much short of extravagant – i miss christmas already, i never went to nyc like i wanted to, i never did hot yoga, i never enjoyed cheese like i wanted to, and yes i do miss my friends very much – i did get to watch the movie elf way too many times, i got to sleep, i got to eat chocolate covered pretzels for breakfast, and i got to experience the sweetness of doing nothing.

and instead of getting down on myself and sulking because i accomplished technically nothing of great importance this break, i am instead choosing to celebrate that i had this opportunity and security to truly rest.

a while ago superforester mathew wrote to me in response to one of my posts, telling me “to make meaning out of the seemingly mundane and useless.” for some reason, those words stuck with me. and that is what i did this break, i found meaning in those pretzels and bob dylan and i love it.

you can do anything

i fell in love with this tiny flower in the windowbox outside of my bedroom. after the snow melted away and everything else around it was beyond dead, this purple and yellow was revealed, and it still persists. persist, superforesters. persist. you can do anything. 2011 is here and we will make incredible changes, and one day we will come to truly appreciate la dolce far niente, in which we may find our happiness.

☼Brooke

i would like to add my congratulations to jason and tristan, two amazing hearts