Peanut Butter!

I am having an all-out, adult love affair with peanut butter! Oddly enough, I couldn't say I was this passionate about it as a child when PB&J sandwiches were plentiful and commonplace. No matter the reason, I love peanut butter now. Although, I'm more into its iterations than the spoon out of the jar kind of thing. Without further ado, here are three spectacular variations that I have personally vetted for you in Chicago!

 Molly's Cupcakes
Peanut Butter Nutella Cupcake

This will knock your socks off! It has the chewy texture of a real peanut butter cookie and it's filled with nutella (um, yum!). I...seriously...need an intervention every week to hold me back from running over to Clark & Diversey to gorge on this. I find new friends to take here, I go by myself, I bring this cupcake to gatherings, I have my husband illegally park while I run in.
It's my favorite cupcake...EVER. It's a problem. I admit it.

 Pierrot Gourmet

Giant Peanut Butter & Jelly Macaron

 I love this macaron so much I've returned a couple times, just for this, even though the rest of the menu at this casual, European eatery is quite good too.

 Firecakes Donuts
  Peanut Butter Cup Donut

I wish there was a little more peanut butter in here, but overall this is a great little piece of peanut butter and chocolate heaven. And you don't need to feel so guilty, it is actually quite a petite donut.

Do you have a favorite peanut butter-oriented food in Chicago? Please do share!

Banff = Beautiful

Lake Peyto, Banff National Park

Ten years ago hiking sounded...well...HARD. Enjoying a Chicago summer festival fit my world better. But years do change us. What I wanted ten years ago isn't the same today. So I find myself, while still loving the hustle and bustle of the city, equally pining for the serenity of wide open spaces, countryside, and mountains. 

Camino de Santiago, Spain

It all started last summer when I got a grandiose dose of nature by walking the last 125 miles of Spain's Camino de Santiago (pictured above). The personal peace I found while walking sometimes 8-12 hours a day was indescribable. I soaked it all in and luxuriated in it like a warm, bubble bath with a good book to read. The smell of the trees, flowers, and manure! The sound of the babbling brook. The feel of the early morning fog lifting. The beauty of the magic hour as the sun rises. Heaven!

Emerald Lake, Yoho National Park

In the words of John Burroughs, "I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order." Nature has a profound way of instilling peace and helping to put life into proper perspective. All of a sudden, obstacles that are hard in everyday life, really become small and trivial. The important themes in life resound.

Lake Moraine, Banff National Park

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." Henry David Thoreau

Oh Henry! You say it best. I do yearn to learn while in these reflective places and apply these lessons for a more meaningful life. These messages are always along the lines of enjoy the present, don't worry about the future, slow down A LOT more, love others, have faith, be grateful. The trick is not letting these go by the wayside once one returns to everyday life.

Valley of the Ten Peaks, hike up from Lake Moraine

And when I am here in these places, I am thankful. The gratitude pours out of me. Thank you God for my husband, home, dogs, family, and friends. Let me not forget to thank you for my nifty bike, farmers markets, lazy weekends, and Stanley's Fruit Market that sustains my juicing regimen. 

Lake Agnes Teahouse Hike, backside of the lake

I cannot stop and the thankfulness reaches a whole new level of the quirky and sublime. Thank you God for the Walgreens on the corner that saves me in a cooking pinch (case in point, just this last week, instant oats). Thank you for my bike that helps me get to my favorite peanut butter & nutella cupcake obsession at Molly's Cupcakes on Clark Street. Thank you for all the free books and e-books from Chicago Public Library and the kind but odd librarian who always checks me out. 

I love this quote by by e.e. cummings which encapsulates my point ever so much more eloquently, "I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes."

Takakkaw Falls, Yoho National Park

Johnston Canyon, Banff National Park

So nature beckoned this year again. Mike and I set our sights on Banff National Park because of all of the awe-inspiring, almost fake-like pictures we had seen. We wondered if it really was that beautiful. {It was! As evidenced by all the pictures in this post.} Banff is the oldest national park in Canada. It is part of the Canadian Rockies and is connected to several adjacent national parks like Jasper National Park, Yoho National Park and Kootenay National Park. There is so much to see, you could spend one week, two weeks or even three weeks here.

Lake Agnes Teahouse Hike started from Lake Louise in Banff National Park

We spent 5 glorious days here in this wonderland of nature. We hiked, tackling a number of moderate hikes which led us on a new journey (spiritually, emotionally & physically) every day. Every direction, every view, every hike, every drive was inspiring. Even on the last day I was still in awe of the beauty surrounding us. And I did not want to leave - a true sign of a great place.

Bow Lake, Banff National Park

View from Tunnel Mountain, Banff the Town

Bow Lake, Banff National Park

Athabasca Glacier, Jasper National Park

Go to the woods!