mostly goodness...

Over the past few days my world of yoga and food has been stellar, and my luck and success with backgammon has been abysmal. Steve and I, being the super-nerds we are, are playing in the Romanian Backgammon Championships, and are currently in playoffs – semi-finals to be precise. In a best of 11 series, he, with his army of lucky charms, defeated me 6-1; good thing there are only two of us, otherwise I wouldn’t have made it to the finals. His luck has been incredible – no matter what I do, he trumps it with last-minute doubles and then doubles again. I’m telling him that maybe he should save some of his luck for volleyball and next weekend’s Final Four – not that they need it, but he could do with a little less of it right about now – I don’t want to get bageled in the finals. Meh.

Anyways, on to more exciting things – like FOOD. I’d sort of forgotten about Tastespotting, and I LOVE it. Last night Tammy and I were perusing the recipes (and pictures) and immediately fell in love with and felt the need – the compulsive need – to make this cake. It looks so absolutely sinfully delicious, I don’t care if there are only two or three of us around to eat the thing… And even though there are no birthdays or anniversaries coming up, I’m planning to give it a try on Sunday. Ooh! It can be a send-off cake; the guys leave on Tuesday for a week-long road trip to Turkey, stopping in Istanbul for an exhibition match before continuing on to Izmir. A send-off cake and a cake to mark the Ides of March… not that we need an excuse to make Black Magic Chocolate Cake - we could just do it in the name of chocolate and beauty and goodness. Seriously…

Beautifully created and photographed - thanks to The Repressed Pastry Chef!

I admit that the chocolate cake recipe wasn’t the only one to grab me, and I tabbed five or six food blogs – there are so many good ones out there! So much to be made, and so much to be eaten… egad. So, because we had a pile of black bananas, I made BANANA bread… with walnuts. Finding for a good, lower fat (I’m okay with cakes being high in fat – but breads… not so much) recipe was a bit of a challenge, but I came across Aunt Holly's recipe at Epicurious, and it's pretty similar to the recipe I use to make banana muffins. A double batch in my new loaf pan (care of Agustina) – with walnuts on the inside and walnuts on the outside - it came out perfectly. It was in the oven for almost an hour and a half but wow, was it ever worth the wait. And the apartment still smells like it just came out of the oven - double yum.


Yoga tonight was fantastic – there were 10 or 12 people, and the flow of the class totally synched with the music, and everything just fit perfectly. Afterwards, two “students” came up to me to say thank you and tell me how much they enjoyed it, and one of them told me that I was a “genius.” Well, yes yes thank you very much yes, but - huh? She explained that since she started yoga last month, her back pain has all but disappeared… yay! I had to admit that no, it wasn’t me, it was the yoga. It feels great not only to be helping people do something that they enjoy, but helping – somehow – relieve or facilitate the relief of pain. On that note, I may just have to facilitate the relief of some banana bread from the makeshift Tupperware container in the kitchen… mmm... bye!