Living in Fullerton

It has been a great thing that Alex and I decided to up and move to Fullerton for year 2 of our marriage.  We live on the 650-square-foot top floor of a triplex, with interior walls of a light grey color, some beautiful painted white woodwork and built-ins, and a bedroom with two large windows that peer out on a lovely tree.  We live on the edge of downtown, close enough to walk to a frozen yogurt place, to Starbucks, to shops and to get our haircut.  Since Fullerton is an older town, it is home to some of the more elegant and quaint architecture in our area of L.A., including Fullerton College, which has a sort of Spanish Architecture and to which I walk every Monday and Wednesday for my dance class.


Yes, DANCE CLASS. This fall I started dancing again, and it has been so good.  I enjoy the teacher, and have enjoyed feeling my body get used to modern dance movements again, by learning to let go and sink into the floor and maintain balance and be strong in the midst of it.


There are some fun and quirky things about living in our new place, as well. I have already mentioned the strange habits of our garbage man and the dripping flowers on our tree. I should also say that our kitchen is the size of a small walk-in closet and the counter-space barely surpasses the square footage of an ironing board. Our shower also resembles a cave, which you must sort of duck/climb in to - but the drain works and the water works so we are HAPPY.


Overall, I love it. I love the light in our place  --  the early morning darkness that becomes a cool blue light, the tired, late afternoon light, the brightness of light mid-morning on a Saturday, and at nighttime, when the only light comes from our lamps, a few overheads, and the glow of the computer (it had to be said). And the company? (meaning my husband of 1.25 years) Can't be beat. (It is Alex's birthday this weekend. Consider this the birthday celebration shout-out to the one I love).

Banana Bread

Tonight I had two things on the agenda -- make soup for dinner, and make banana bread.  The soup was a nice smattering of ingredients - I started with frying some bacon, removing the bacon and sauteing shallots, garlic, celery, carrot, mushrooms and potatoes (in the bacon grease, of course) - then throwing in some chicken broth, the crumbled bacon, and bits of cooked rabbit. Finished it off with a couple sprigs of rosemary and let it simmer while I worked on....


Whole-Wheat Banana Nut Bread (From Williams-Sonoma's baking cookbook)
This recipe makes two loaves.
2 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour, plus extra for dusting
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing
2 cups sugar
2 cups mashed ripe banana (4 large bananas)
4 eggs
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans


Preheat the oven to 350. Grease two 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 loaf pans and dust with flour.


In a bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until blended; a hand-held mixer is useful for this step. Beat in the banana, then beat in the eggs until completely mixes; don't worry if the mixture looks lumpy and curdled. Stir in the nuts. Add the combined dry ingredients and stir just until blended (At this point, it is totally fine to taste the batter. multiple times).


Pour and scrape the batter into the 2 prepared pans and spread evenly. Bake until a thin wooden skewer (otherwise known as a toothpick) inserted into the center of the loaves come out clean, about 1 hour. Allow to cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely (or if you're me, leave them in the pans for an hour because you decided this step was not worth 
getting up off the couch for).
________


The soup was pretty tasty. The banana bread - downright delicious. Alex and I each enjoyed a piece fresh from the oven, topped with a bit of butter and accompanied by a glass of cold milk. That's right - downright. delicious.