(she writes too!)
Oh, my friends. I had such things planned for us today.
To go along with the announcement of the Classic Snacks Made from Scratch giveaway winner, there was going to be chocolate, and lots of it. I was going to share a gooey, sugary sweet candy fondant recipe and an DIY Easter candy hack that would make Pinterest proud.
Sadly, none of that happened…
Forgive me Reader, for I have sinned. I have committed a most egregious act of blasphemy and shamed an entire country.
Well, that’s not entirely true. [Read more...]
I can’t begin to process the horror that happened in my home state of Connecticut yesterday, but the words ‘close to home’ have taken on a whole new meaning. My newsfeed has been flooded with grief-stricken posts, pictures and anecdotes, from friends and acquaintances who had grown up with the victims, whose friends lost children, who were first responders, state troopers, grief counselors and reporters on the scene, who live and work in Newtown. My heart breaks for those innocent children, the heroic teachers and staff, their families and friends, for the entire town of Newtown and the state of Connecticut. I hold them in my thoughts and prayers and ask that you do the same.
Now that I’ve been teaching a few smaller classes this term, I’ve had to rely on icebreakers to help my students to get know one another. For whatever reason, at the start of class, after everyone had settled down, my mind went completely blank. I couldn’t think of anything interesting to have students share with one another, so I went with the first thing that popped into my mind: say your name and your favorite ice cream flavor.
I have a deep love for ice cream. It’s been loyal to me when boyfriends haven’t and a reliable stand-in for when friends weren’t picking up their phone. Did I mention it goes great with Katherine Hiegel movies? Anyway, when it’s my turn at an ice breaker, I always run through all the flavors of ice cream I’ve eaten, smiling at each one, remembering how great it felt to eat my feelings, convinced that I will choose something truly memorable to share like mocha coffee crisp or lemon mascarpone. But, just as I’m about to associate myself with something like complex Phish Food or fruity like black raspberry, my mind always drifts back to vanilla…
I was a pre-school dropout. Well, let me back up. Long before I locked myself in the pre-K bathroom and vowed never to return to a place that made me share play dough (the nerve!), I came down with a raging case of The Quits. I was a quirky kid who wanted to try everything from ice skating to being an actress, but if something proved to be a hassle or made me uncomfortable, I gave up. In elementary school that meant gymnastics, ballet, jazz, and tap. In middle school, it was a flirtation with music–chorus, piano, flute and a two week stint with the alto sax. In high school, it was boyfriends–I made for the door instead of making things work. [Read more...]
Never underestimate the power of your local farmer—they have the power to spark your creativity and change the way you think about ingredients. [Read more...]
***and by “regularly scheduled” I obviously mean the next post because if you’ve been keeping track, I hope you’ve noticed by now that my posts are anything but regular or scheduled…
If you’ve been living under a rock and don’t have access to the internet, you’ve probably never seen a meme, let alone the slew of them that have been flooding facebook since someone got hold of a meme creator website and singlehandedly stole the meme from geeks everywhere and made them suddenly mainstream. Now everyone’s meme-in’ (yeah, I made it a verb) about everything, funny or not.
AND GUESS WHO’S GOT TWO THUMBS AND IS JUMPIN’ ON THE BANDWAGON?
…THIS GIRL.
That’s right, kids! As if my failed attempts at humorous writing weren’t enough, every week you can expect a new baking-related meme by me, about me, making fun of me! I know, I know! You’re thinking, “Wow! It’s like I’ve won a contest without even winning!” Well, sit tight because I can also promise you a contest is coming in the very near future with a super duper prize that you won’t want to miss…unless you hate prizes and fun things and you like my blog comment section to be empty.
And speaking of my comments section… leave homegirl some love, already!
I’m a New Englander in almost every way. I love that I can drive an hour and a half in any direction from my house and either hit the ocean or another state. I know that there are 3 kinds of clam chowder, though Rhode Island and New England are my favorites (probably because they’re products of NE). In fact I’ll eat a clam any way it can be served–steamed, fried, baked, stuffed, and [my favorite] raw on the half shell with a little cider vinegar. I can say without hesitation that New England is hard to beat when it comes to fall foliage–nobody does leaves like us [especially VT--and can we talk about their maple syrup? heavens me. Mrs. Butterwho?] And it’s pretty nifty that when I turn on the television in any part of the country, the newscaster will speak like I do.
But, while I take immense pride in my region, pride is not all a New Englander makes! [Read more...]
[just some of my favorites]
As I sat down to write this post, I wanted to talk about the past year in a way that wouldn’t ignore the downfalls, but still highlighted all of the huge accomplishments and change that happened this year. And, next to that, I intended to talk about what a major role food had in shaping my year. After deleting a few really wordy attempts at the start of a post, it clicked in my head that food and ‘everything else’ weren’t mutually exclusive.
