Those Who Can, Do

Those who can't, teach.

And those who don't really want to do anything remotely resembling real adult life just yet, adjunct a night class or two at their grad school alma mater.


What can I say? If refusing to get a job that I can't schedule around my running, cycling, yoga-ing, swimming, lifting, spinning, and cooking schedule is wrong, then I don't wanna be right.


Still, the start of fall quarter is always busy. Roomie is back in classes, back to coaching, back to competitive rowing training full-time. And even though teaching isn't the center of my world, I'm still spending a lot of time planning/prepping for my classes.

Knowing that this hustle-bustle was approaching, I spent Labor Day turning the last of the mouldering, fresh fruit in my fridge into something resembling edible baked goods. And, if I may be so bold, they turned out pretty damned good.


Forever Young Tropical Fruit Bread
"when the fruit has matured, but you refuse to"


1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup almond flour
2 tbs wheat germ
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup vegan butter, very soft
2/3 cup brown sugar, loosely packed
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbs flax seed meal mixed in 6 tbs warm water (equivalent of 2 eggs)
1 cup very ripe, very black-skinned, very mashed bananas
1 very ripe mango, chopped
1 tbs pineapple juice


Sift together the flours, wheat germ, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Set aside.
Place the chopped mango in a bowl and cover with the pineapple juice. Set aside.
Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Add the vanilla and flax seed mixture and mix well.
Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar, mixing well.
Add the bananas and mangos and mix thouroughly.
Pour the mix into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350ish degrees for about 45-50 minutes depending on your oven's temperment.


This bread is so sweet and soft it's practically a cake. If you made it with white flour instead of wheat it probably would be. Add a glass of hot dandelion root tea and a stack of student response papers and you've got yourself a fairly decent Tuesday night.

Sugar-Coated Berry Cakes
"like how adjunct actually means bitch...you know, sugar-coated"

1 1/4 cup white flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 tbs lemon juice
1 egg worth Ener-G egg replacer
1/2 stick vegan butter, melted
1 1/2 cup fresh blueberries and on-the-verge-of-spoiling strawberries
1/2 tsp orange zest (optional, but worth the effort)
1/2 cup or more of raw sugar (for sprinkling)

Mix the milk and lemon juice together and set aside for at least 3 minutes (this makes buttermilk).
Sift together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside.
Mix the Ener-G, butter, zest, and milk. Add to the dry ingredients and mix well.
Fold in the fruits, distributing evenly throughout the batter.
Pour the batter into a greased or paper-lined muffin tin, filling the cups about halfway. Sprinkle the tops with raw sugar and bake at 400 degrees for about 15-18 minutes.

Tops all crinkly and sugary, insides hot and fruity...there's nothing not to love. Serve these warm with a cold glass of milk (Roomie's partial to chocolate) and you can face even the most dead-eyed class of freshman.

And continue to refuse to grow up.