Well, LOOK AT THAT (I almost wrote shiver me timbers but thought better of it, as I'd like you all to continue reading, not consider me too weird. Oh wait. Shouldn't have mentioned that.), it's July 6 and I haven't written anything in a full month! Strike that. I've written things: Grocery lists. Descriptions of the protein content of flour (I work for a baking company, so that's normal.) Impromptu, funny letters to my sister with limericks inside. A wedding toast for another sister, who is getting married in a mere few days, and I'm preparing to weep constantly at the ceremony (I'm a bridesmaid so, waterproof mascara?).
But I haven't written here. And it's 10:06 on a Thursday night. I've been on my feet all day on a photo shoot, making muffins and monkey bread and chocolate ganache. So in lieu of anything wise, I'll leave you with some instructions to make your heart soften and melt around the edges, and a great recipe. And a promise to write something of substance in short order.
TO MAKE YOUR HEART MELT
First, put on this song: The Long Way Home by Tom Waits
Now, read these few favorite lines from this long poem TEN LOVE LETTERS by Clementine von Radic:
Sometimes love will come to you like a fire to a forest.
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It’s 11 am and I’m sitting in a restaurant 3 beers in. I have been drinking about you for 2 days.
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I thought leaving you would be easy, just walking out the door. But I keep getting pinned against it with my legs around your waist. It’s like my lips want you like my lungs want air, it’s just what they were born to do.
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So I am sitting at work thinking of you cutting vegetables in my kitchen. Your hair in my shower drain. Your fingers on my spine in the morning while we listen to Muddy Waters. I don’t know why I’ve got so much hope pinned to someone who will never call me home, but the way you talk about poems like Marxists talk of revolution it makes me want to keep trying. In the mornings, in my shower drain, in the music, I am looking for reasons to love you. I am looking for proof that you love me.
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I wonder if you still sing Beatles songs while you make coffee. You said your mother sang them to you when you couldn’t sleep, 19 years before we met.
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I spent so many nights carving your body into pillows I can promise you nothing feels like sleeping with your arm slung over me and your breath in my ear. Still, it’s comforting to know we sleep under the same moon, even if she’s so much older when she gets to me. I like to imagine she’s seen you sleeping, and wants me to know you’re doing well.
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I know you and I are not about poems or other sentimental bullshit, but I have to tell you even the way you drink your coffee just knocks me the fuck out.
Okay that was a little heavy, so now put on THIS song and make some hippie crispy bars because they are deeeeeeelicious and better than classic rice krispie treats and also full of chocolate so everyone wins. And by everyone I mean you, and you (on the second bar) and you (on the third bar).
Hippie Crispy Treats
adapted from Food52
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup brown rice syrup
1/2 cup almond butter (freshly ground is best)
1/2 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate (70% or higher)
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
4 cups crisp rice cereal (Barbara's brown rice is best)
Line an 8x8 square pan with parchment paper. Make sure to cover the sides as well.
In a large saucepan, bring the maple syrup and brown rice syrup to a boil, stirring frequently. Once boiling, remove it from the heat and stir in the almond butter, chocolate, coconut oil, and sea salt. Fold the cereal into the hot mixture and pour it into your square pan. Pack it down with your fingers (if you wet your fingers, it will be easier and less messy!).
Let the bars set (about 2 hours at room temperature or 1 hour in the refrigerator or 20 minutes in the freezer if you are wildly impatient like I am).
Lift them out of the pan and cut them into 16 equal squares, or if you are feeling indulgent, just cut yourself big squares and eat them directly from the pan. I swear I will not tell anyone if you do.