Treats for appetites of every size
I don’t think anything wears you out like hiking up a mountain in the snow. Getting up early, layering up, climbing, and slide-walking back down really take it out of you. Though I do think I’m officially a winter hiking convert.
You know you’ve found some great friends when they show up at your apartment, start rooting around in your cabinets, and ask if there’s enough time for them to bake a batch of cookies before taking off on a 6 day vacation sure to be full of kitchen time. That’s what happened on Wednesday when a couple friends from college showed up (Happy Birthday, Marj!).
Procrastibaking: the act of baking 4 batches of cookies rather than opening your notes to study for final exams. (Thanks, Pete, for the new word.) That is what I engaged in this weekend.
After the week we’ve had, you may be asking yourself how to incorporate alcohol into every meal. We’ll I’ve got your answer: Bourbon Apple Crisp.
I am solidly back into procrastination cooking mode. As tends to happen when my work picks up, I convince myself to make increasingly elaborate recipes in an effort to justify not doing that work. This week, I did this both with my baking AND my regular cooking.
Today I didn’t so much bake as provide a kitchen and hover while a true master did the hard part. Kind of a nice change, though I did have to fight an urge to micromanage – I’m not used to being less knowledgeable about a recipe than someone else in the room. Regardless, the result was delicious.
When Marj comes to town, it’s pretty much a given that we’re going to bake. So when she offered to pick up cherries at her market in New York, I asked (OK, maybe told) her to bring a recipe to use them in as well. And did she deliver.
I’ve been on an uncharacteristically non-chocolate kick with desserts for the past couple of weeks. Something about the beginning of summer makes me think of light and fruity desserts. Which I guess is good if you’d (like me) spent the previous 9 months making heavy and rich desserts.
I’ve been at my summer job for two weeks and haven’t brought in any baked goods yet. Last week I was baking for a cookout. The week before I baked for school friends who were still around. This week, I’m finally bringing something into the office: Coconut Cake.
Remember last week when I was saying some weeks I have loads of free time and don’t want to bake? This week I was the opposite – I had a free morning and decided why not make some cookies! Of course, I had a recipe in mind, and usually that means I can’t not make it, so it wasn’t that difficult of a decision.