I feel like I’ve been so busy this year. Kids are growing and time is flying. Hardly any time or brain bandwidth for blogging. But here is a glimpse into what I’ve been up to all year.
We’ll start with baking….
Tag: baking
Goodbye, 2021!
Oh, 2021. So different from 2020. And still so different from everything before 2020.
See what I’ve been up to all year, in baking, books, and life events….
Baking Binge
“It’s Fall!” they say.
My favorite bloggers are sending out their new fall baking recipes: apple cinnamon and pumpkin everything. The local grocery stores have had giant bins of pumpkins lining the front sidewalk for at least a month. Pinterest and new memes are featuring flannel again. Not to mention a certain flavor at a certain coffee chain that’s already sold out in some places(???)! (But also can we be thankful that said coffee chain is open. This post is brought to you mostly by sitting in a coffee shop “dining area.” Unfortunately it’s the chain one, because my current city lacks ANY local options.)
Meanwhile….
Goodbye, 2020!
Happy new year almost!!!
I’m sitting on my couch, surrounded by leftover Christmas mess, watching my kiddies play together through the abundance of windows that look out into the backyard, listening to chill music that my hubby put on as cooking background music while he makes his grandmother’s lasagna recipe for our dinner. I’m feeling pretty good about life today. It’s a perfect day to reflect on the year.
I’ve compiled a selection of the new things I’ve tried/done/made this year for you below. Many of these have been mentioned before in previous posts, but some are new news. Enjoy! ….
The Worst Cake I’ve Ever Made
My baby girl turned one last month. She’s my third. We already have everything a one year old could possibly need. And we were about to be moving. So, I didn’t get her a birthday present. And there was a pandemic going on. So, I didn’t throw her a birthday party. I felt kind of guilty about it, because I got my other kids First Birthday Presents, and hosted First Birthday Parties for each of them. But, such is the nature of Baby #3 having her First Birthday in 2020.
I calmed my conscience about it with the intention of making her a cute and delicious First Birthday Cake. “The cake will be the gift,” I kept telling myself….
A History of Birthday Cakes
I think the first birthday cake I ever made, not from a box, was for Justin, the first summer we were dating. Back then, I said “I like baking,” but most of my baking was really simple. Boxed brownies and cakes, 4-ingredient meringue cookies, and occasional ventures into creative-baking-pinterestland.
So, taking on a homemade angel food cake was a little bit scary. Justin had told me that he only likes it from scratch, and “plain”: no icing and no flavorings other than vanilla. He also warned me that angel food cake requires some skill. What he left unsaid, but I sensed, was…
Goodbye, 2019!
Here is a quick compilation of new things I tried / did this year, broken into categories, with pictures and links where appropriate.
Pumpkin Roasting 2018
How seven pumpkins became 3.75 gallons of home-roasted pumpkin purée. (And how you can roast your own pumpkins, too!)
Last year, we made an irrevocable (but honestly, unsurprising) discovery: Homemade pumpkin purée really does taste better in pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread than what’s in the can from the store! I make a lot of pumpkin bread. Justin always makes his grandmother’s pumpkin chiffon pie for the holidays. Hence, we will likely be roasting our own pumpkins every fall for the rest of our lives….
The Chocolatiest Brownies
Sunday this week I didn’t feel well, and Monday I got some bad news. I was sad and therefore moping. Justin suggested that I do something to take my mind off it. I think what he really wanted me to do was call an appliance repairman to fix our top oven, which I had forgotten to do last week. …but I really didn’t feel like making phone calls, so instead I decided to make brownies.
I cited my current patheticness–and the fact that I’d made a berry crisp the night before–as good reasons to skip the “Justin style” brownies…
Bread
Majorly channeling the domesticity this week, because, after much prompting from Justin, I finally set aside my fear of failure and baked homemade bread—yeast and all, not quick bread—from scratch for the first time.
I texted one of my best friends, who is a fantastic amateur baker, during the first rise that I felt I had no idea what I was doing, but “can’t turn back now!”
It’s scary to try a new thing, especially when that thing requires time-specific steps, and one’s toddler might awake from his nap at any moment, or the dough might…