Life’s been moving pretty fast for me lately.

Over the past three months, I’ve gone through a lot of changes. From moving to a new city to changing my diet to picking up running as a new hobby, my day-to-day is almost unrecognizable now. To butcher a quote from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” I feel like if I don’t stop and look around every once in a while, I might just miss my chance to enjoy it.

Feeling the tension of it all, I knew I needed to take a few hours to slow down this weekend. Enter baking, my lifelong, beloved hobby. Give me a few hours on a weekend and an oven, and suddenly, all of life is calmer.

Preheating the oven, getting out the mixer, carefully measuring and leveling ingredients – it all feels like a choreographed dance. All I have to do is follow along and enjoy when the music swells. Or, while the loaf rises and the delicious smells swirl through the air.

Of course, baking does come with pre-planning. Just like how professional dancers have to buy the right shoes, stretch and go over the steps before they hit the dance floor, bakers should prepare before the oven is on. Anything else is folly.

So when I wanted to bake something this weekend, I did a little bit of preplanning. I looked around online and found a Super Moist Lemon Blueberry Loaf recipe. I rummaged through my pantry to check for ingredients, and I made a list of everything I was missing. I gave that list to my biggest baking fan (AKA my husband), and he got everything we needed while I cleaned the kitchen, including the mixer and pans I needed.

By the time Hunter was home with all of the ingredients, all that was left was to carefully follow the steps of the recipe. With my favorite headphones on, I cracked eggs, whisked dry ingredients, carefully measured oil and yogurt and let the mixer run. I was in the groove.

But then, at the end of the instructions I was following, I realized something. I had made my batter for the loaf, and I only added blueberries to half of it, like the recipe said. But the video that had been paired with the recipe, showcasing a yellow and purple swirl of batters, did not match what I was looking at. My fresh blueberries did not turn the batter even slightly purple, and there was nothing else blueberry-flavored to add to the recipe.

I had followed all of the choreography to the end, and the music was still playing. The loaf was swirl-less. At that point, I knew I would have to improvise. I was in a parade in the middle of downtown Chicago, and someone had passed me the mic, and I had to keep the crowd happy.

Sorry, I think I’m getting lost in my metaphors here. I do love that movie. And baking.

Luckily, I had some food coloring in the pantry from another project, and the wherewithal to follow my gut and mash some more blueberries to add to the dish. Because if I’m eating something lemon and blueberry flavored, I want both in every bite. And just like that, the Lemon Blueberry Loaf of my dreams came into being. It’s still not perfectly swirled purple and yellow, but hopefully, now it’s a better-written recipe.

I hope you all get to try this sweet, delicate loaf, or another activity that gets you into your groove this week. In the middle of rushing around and trying to get everything done, try to slow down, take your time and enjoy yourself at least once this week.

And if you do plan to dance in a parade in the middle of Chicago by any chance this week, take a minute and stretch for me first. You won’t regret it.

SUPER MOIST LEMON BLUEBERRY LOAF

(For a standard sized loaf pan)

Ingredients
Dry:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tablespoon corn starch
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Wet:
3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter
Zest of 2 lemons
3/8 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil (adjust down if you want drier loaf)
3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 cup fresh blueberries (I used almost double this because I like more blueberry flavor, but the original is more lemon-forward)

Icing:
3/4 cup powdered sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions
■ Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and line a loaf pan with parchment paper.
■ In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
■ In another bowl, beat eggs, sugar, and room-temperature butter on medium-high until pale and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the lemon zest and lemon juice.
■ With the mixer on low, slowly drizzle olive oil into mixture, allowing it to become smooth and emulsified. Stir in Greek yogurt.
■ Add the dry ingredients in three parts, folding gently with a spatula until just combined. Be careful not to overmix. Divide the batter into two bowls. To create a purple swirl in your loaf, mash blueberries before adding to one of the batters. (I also added a touch of additional red and blue food coloring while making mine, since my blueberries did not add much purple to the mix.)
■ Using an ice cream scooper, add batter to pan in layers. I did three scoops of yellow across the length of the bottom of the pan, then three scoops of purple on top of that, alternating until I ran out of batter.
■ Bake for 50 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs. If the top browns too quickly, cover loosely with foil.
■ After bake is done, cool in pan for 15 minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack. While still slightly warm, wrap the loaf in foil to keep it tender.

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