When brainstorming ideas for this project, I started to think about how climate change affects me and I came to the conclusion that the reason I check the weather each morning is to decide what to wear that day. I moved from San Francisco to Eugene and my biggest fear was not being able to adjust my wardrobe to the weather. Whenever I go on vacation, I spend roughly three weeks researching past weather patterns of the location I’m going to so that I can pack accordingly. I wish that was an exaggeration, but yes, I’m that neurotic.

So, I tried to think of a way to connect my vision of the future after climate change to my interests and I decided to write a fashion/lifestyle blog set in 2094. I created Samantha Balcorn: age 26, Portland resident and a magazine editor. Because of the melting icecaps from the north, I’ve set Portland to now be a beach town. In the posts, I depict a scenarios such as how humans eat, be entertained, communicate, etc.

My goal of this project was to give a hopeful outlook on what can happen after climate change. As I’ve expressed in previous posts and during class time, I truly believe that everything will be OK. The world has experienced catastrophes of all calibers – natural disasters, social injustice, financial failures – and we’re still living our lives well. The human race has been able to evolve and adapt over the course of its existence, and will continue to do so. Sure, there will be struggle in the midst of this change, but I don’t think that it will be the end.

I titled this post Keep Calm & Carry On because, first of all, it’s catchy, and secondly, I don’t want to continue to talk about this subject in a depressing tone. Sometimes, I feel like some of you are going to end up like Mitchell Zukor and obsess over these possible disasters. None of us experienced the Cold War, but my grandparents, who did, told me that they were surrounded by constant fear that the United States would be bombed. Yeah, that’s pretty scary, but why does the fear have to take over?

“The other day I was going through my mom’s old recipe books, looking for some inspiration. I came across one entitled “Banana Bread” that I hadn’t heard of before. She told me that after South America decreased in almost half its size because of the flooding, bananas became extremely scarce and were seldom shipped to the United States. This included many fruits and vegetables that were very common in everyday households.

Can you imagine a time where we could only get our necessary nutrients from food? Even thinking about the obligation to eat entire meals every day makes me sick. And what if you didn’t like the taste of the foods? You had to eat it, otherwise you wouldn’t get that nutrient. Thank god we evolved.

So, after a little experimenting with potassium pills, I created a recipe for cake pops that somewhat resembles what my mother remembers bananas to taste like. One pop has the daily-recommended amount of potassium and small enough so that they won’t fill you up. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

 

Cake:

• 2 cups All Purpose Flour
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 1/2 cups Sugar
• 1/3 cup Vegetable Oil
• 1/3 cup Heavy Cream alternative (I used the gelatin form)
• 2 Large egg substitutes (I used the powder form)
• 12 potassium pills, crushed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1. In a medium-sized bowl sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and egg substitute. Set aside.
2. In a small bowl whisk together oil and heavy cream alternative until well combined. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, break up the pills and add sugar.
4. Using a hand mixer, whip together until fluffy, about 1 minute. With the mixer on low, slowly pour in the wet ingredients and beat for 2 minutes.
5. Add the flour mixture (I added 1/2 cup at a time) and continue beating for 2 minutes longer. DO NOT OVER BEAT! Pour into the loaf pan and bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until inserted wooden toothpicks comes out clean. Set aside to cool for an hour.

Frosting:

• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 tbsp Lemon Juice
• 1 tbsp Milk alternative (I used the gelatin form)
• 3 cups sugar

1. In a large bowl mash the milk alternative with the lemon juice. Mix in the vanilla.
2. Using a hand mixer, blend mixture together on medium-low speed until slightly smooth. Add the sugar in slowly and continuously with the blender on medium-low. As the frosting becomes thicker, increase the speed of the mixer. Frosting should have a thick and creamy consistency- you don’t want it to be too thick. If it is too thick, you can add a little milk alternative.

To make pops:

1. Once the banana bread is cool, break it up into a large bowl.
2. Use a little more than 1 cup of the banana frosting, and stir into the crumbled banana bread. Mix well. The consistency should be almost like a thick, crumbly dough.
3. Using your hands, grab a little bit of the dough and roll into 1-2 inch balls. As you are rolling, press the dough together to make sure its compacted tightly- you don’t want them falling apart later on! If your hand gets super sticky, just dab a little warmer on them and continue rolling. Place balls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper:
4. Freeze for about 2 hours, or until the balls are cool and hard.
5. Once the chocolate is melted and cooled to room temperature, stick the cookie stick into each cake pop, and dip the balls until completely coated and smooth. Remove and carefully place back on parchment lined sheet. Dip each ball, making sure that they’re dipped all around, and there are no rough edges. If decorating with sugar pearls, coat the tops with a few pearls right after you dip the cake pops. If decorating with white chocolate drizzle, let cool (overnight preferably).
6. EAT!”