Cocoa Bread + Strawberry Butter

Sunday was that kind of drizzly, sleepy, daylight savings kind of day. The kind of day where you don't totally change out of your pajamas but find a way to modify what you're wearing into something semi-public appropriate. Ryan and I went to lunch together and then retired to our own homes to do whatever terribly boring, solitary things we wanted. I chose to spend an entire afternoon getting two sink fulls of dishes done and browse the internet while sipping tea and espressos. It was a bake-something kind of day, too, so I put this bread in the oven and then sat on my couch and watched the wedding scene from Rachel Getting Married four times over.

Some friends were coming over whenever they wanted to. It's like time didn't exist, yesterday. That was so nice. When they got here, I whipped up Chicken Korma and rice and we sat around listening to Bon Iver and Master P.

It was an excellent way to the end of my very long weekend. And now, it is Monday.

Cocoa Bread:
2 c. all purpose flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 c. cocoa powder
1/2 T. cinnamon
1 c. white sugar
1 T. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1 3/4 c. water
3 T. mayonnaise

1. Whisk all of the wet ingredients as well as the sugar in one bowl.
2. Whisk together all of the dry ingredients in another bowl.
3. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ones until no lumps remain.
4. Pour batter into a greased loaf pan. Melt 2 T. of butter and pour it over the top and then bake for an hour at 325 degrees.

Meanwhile, I wondered how I could make it just a little bit more special with minimal effort and then rememberd this post that I saw on A Beautiful Mess.

Strawberry Butter:
Add a few spoonfuls of strawberry preserves (if you have it on hand, I recommend finally busting open that jar of strawberry preserves that your grandpa canned at Christmas time) to one stick of softened butter. You could whip it if you want it to be perfectly smooth but my desire to only clean a fork rather than plug in power tools won in this instance. Plus, Sunday was all about that handmade feeling.

And because I know no one will think to ask but everyone will want to know: yes--this does make delicious toast at breakfast time.