Treats for appetites of every size
There are days when I fully buy into the whole personality-based-on-your-astrological-sign business. Today is one of those days. The rational, scientific side of me knows that of course they aren’t true. But, you see, my mom and I are Geminis. And, together, we bring a whole new meaning to the word “indecisive”.
Thursday marked the end of my two year commitment to Teach for America. These two years have been far more challenging, meaningful, and transformative than I possibly could have imagined at the front end. There were days that I just wanted to go home and forget by watching hours of Netflix. There were other days that I couldn’t contain my excitement to the point that I had to call three separate people to tell the story before I could finally calm down. But most of all, TFA was amazing because of the people I met.
Before getting into this week’s post, I of course have to say Happy Father’s Day to the best Daddy-O a girl could ask for! Love you! I’m sad I don’t get to spend the day with him, but in five days I’ll finally be moving back to Massachusetts and will be able to see him all the time! Also, in light of that, my dad recommended a theme for this week: my Parting Post from Passaic.
Last week was my birthday, which is the best day of my birthday week, which is the best week of my birthday month. I’m not sure when exactly I decided my birthday was in fact a month-long event, but it was definitely a decision that I stand by. In fact, I was still celebrating my birthday week this weekend at Taste of Country Music Festival, which is why this post is a day late.
Strawberries are a happy fruit. I’m not sure what exactly makes them happy, though. Maybe because they are red. Maybe because they are the June’s fruit, and June is my birthday month. Maybe because they are the only fruit that I would consider eating as a dessert unadorned. Maybe because I just finished reading The Happiness Project and am looking for happiness everywhere. For whatever reason, they are happy.
This was both an amazing and absolutely terrible idea. I’ve had Serious Eats The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe saved on my Pinterest for literally about 3 years. In that recipe, Kenji, who runs the food lab (a science person’s dream baking blog) painstakingly adjusts every ingredient in chocolate chip cookies until he arrives at his ideal. And I finally gave it a try.
Tuesday is my mom’s birthday, and despite the fact that her daughter would like nothing more than to make her a coconut cake, she will only accept Sara Lee Coconut Cake from the grocery store. And by Sara Lee, she actually means Pepperidge Farm, but you only would know that if you’ve spent 15 minutes frantically combing through the freezer section stressing out that you couldn’t find it. Sometimes, there really is no replacement for your childhood favorite. Love you, Mom! Enjoy!
I’m running out of weekends baking at the first location of SMiLes by Meg. There are six more weeks of school, and of those, there are only three weekends where I’ll actually be at my apartment. In fact, there are all sorts of “lasts” going on over the course of the next couple of weeks, which is both exciting and a little sad (but mostly exciting).
Happy Mother’s Day! As is my tradition (if two years can be considered a tradition), I’m dedicating this week’s post to my amazing mom, who also happens to be my best friend. Love you, mom! Yesterday, when I was wondering what to bake, I called her for ideas. Normally, I would go the coconut route, but I feel like I’ve done that a lot recently, and since she won’t actually get to enjoy the treat, it seemed more mean than thoughtful.
I was a little bit miffed with my students this week. They were waxing nostalgic about some brownies I had made for them once, asking when I would make them again. Now, I know that they meant well. They were saying that my brownies were the best brownies they had ever had. And normally, that would make me very happy. But the brownies they were talking about? I made them from a mix.