nauti-cal by nature

I should preface this by saying that I suffer from from debilitating seasickness. As in-  I got seasick on a cruiseship. As in- I got seasick on a drydocked boat. Seriously. 

Despite the fact that I'm not clearly not seaworthy, I love the look of all things nautical. Anchors, canvas, rusty metal chains, weathered timber, faded paint...you're speaking my language.  Not to mention ropes and knots, which I became so obsessed with in college that my entire senior thesis centered on them.

I'll never know why, but there is something about the iconography of ships, boats, docks and life at sea that appeals to me. Perhaps I was a mermaid in a past life. (I've still got the mane for it.) Or maybe I just love old rusty stuff.

Either way, I got my visual fix during our quick trip to the Pacific Northwest last month. And I didn't even get seasick.

More shots of our trip here.

SUMMER YUMMER

On a recent hot (horray!) day in Seattle, I had friends coming for dinner and nothing planned for dessert. It was getting late and I didn't have time for my usual cake-baking antics. Walking into the grocery store, I was blessed with an epiphany. Maybe not a life-changing revelation, but a day-changing one at least. Ice. Cream. Sandwiches. I imagined two huge golden cookies with a thick layer of ice cream between them. Some dreams must become reality. Especially cookies and cream dreams....

Aren't they charming? I love taking simple, classic concepts and blowing them up with super high quality ingredients. In this case, the cookies start with a base of whole wheat pastry flour, wheat germ, natural sugar, butter, vanilla, eggs and a touch of coconut oil. Then the batter is studded with whisps of coconut, huge chocolate buttons, crunchy banana chips and buttery pecans. Mortar the cookies together with any natural ice cream made with real vanilla, and that seals the deal. Literally.

Check out the recipe here. And remember, when comes to ice cream sandwiches it's worth the effort. Because summer yummer than others.