Great Life Choices: Apple Crisp

A common theme for me seems to be my baked good for breakfast. I'll eat anything I bake for breakfast. Cookies, cupcakes, cake, pie, anything.

I have a role model for my blog. Her name is Joy. (Unlike Martha, I don't think she's ever had a very elaborate court problem) Some days she says that she eats only one thing all day. She loves to cook. And bake. She has fun tattoos and cool cook books and silly ideas in her blog. I like her so much I used to look at her blog every single day to see if I could bake something new from her.

Sometimes though, I just like to read for content. She has much more developed taste buds than I do.  And it seems a bit more time than I do. She lives on the beach and rides her bike and spends a lot of her time in cahoots with other really cool bloggers.

Her recipe for "Sit and Stay A While Apple Crisp" is hands down my favorite recipe I've ever pulled from the internet. I've made it for many many friends when they come to visit. I ALWAYS pair it with vanilla ice cream. Lady eats it cold and then heats up another piece to eat with ice cream because she can't wait for the first slice to heat up.

It is definitely a keeper.

It is DIVINE. Divine enough for breakfast.

Old Friends and an Old Favorite: Chocolate Chip Cookies

There was an annoying new kid in my class one year. He was the second Jewish person I had ever met. He was intelligent, but frequently getting yelled at for one thing or another.

Sophomore year of high school, we were sitting in a class. A conniseur of music, he was (loudly) drumming a beat waiting for class to start. He was leaning his chair back, in his own mind, banging wildly and methodically on the table. Popular Girl #1 yelled, "Stop it, Ben!" Popular Girl #2, "You're driving me insane! Quit it!"

Sitting at the end of the table with the Popular Girls, I was suffering from a headache. "Ben, please stop. I have a headache." A smirk crossed his lips, he put his chair down, and stopped banging on the tables.

I learned from him that day that being polite will get you much further than telling people what to do.

I learned a lot more from him in the coming years as we teamed together to run our class and became friends who disagreed on many things, but respected each other nonetheless. One of his best friends was one of my least favorite people, but I was civil and Ben didn't try to persuade me.

So when I moved out of NY and much closer to Hartford, I decided to meet up with him. As always, a baked good between two people either leads to a heartfelt hug or an excuse to not hug. As it were, I was able to hug him with the cookies behind his head and we had a long afternoon not discussing politics, eating pizza, enjoying his brother play music, meeting his friends, walking around, and talking about love and people. 

For such a classic friend, I made classic chocolate chip cookies. These are my no-fail compliment cookies. I am very humble about them because they are just the Nestle Tollhouse recipe. But as my cook says, they're always made with L-O-V-E.

An Experiment with the Same Desired Outcome: Pumpkin Spice Streusel Cupcakes

It was pretty much a year ago when I made these.

The only thing going through my mind was a prayer that went something like this:
             "Pleasepleaseplease let these come out okay. Please let Brenna's intelligence rub off on me and teach me how to add something new to a beloved recipe without messing it up to the point of garbage. Please let these people love these baked goods so much they don't mind me hanging around."

I had decided to take the streusel cupcakes that I loved so much (that I had made more than once in the year prior) and change it. I wanted to White-Girl-Loving-Fall it up, yo! Because who doesn't love a pumpkin spice caramel latter with whipped cream and caramel drizzle?! (News: I don't. Shudder.)

I went to Trader Joe's and found a Pumpkin Spice spice. I figured that I could find a recipe that called for it. I was too lazy. I figured, the streusel cupcakes were so damn good, I would try to bring them to another level. I tried. I was told it worked.

I then packaged them up neatly in an old pizza box and brought them to make friends. They were gone before I fell asleep.

Strangely enough, those friendships and these cupcakes were gone and forgotten almost by the time a year had passed.

I frequently fail at making friends.

A New Home Deserves Baked Goods: Cinnamon Rolls in Shrewsbury

A little more than a year ago, I pulled up my roots that had grown in upstate NY and decided to turn my world upside down, pull my Dansko shoes off, and move to MA to do something with that Clark University BA in Psychology degree that I felt I had worked so hard for (read: SPENT TOO MUCH MONEY ON).

I put all my faith in College Roommate and moved to an apartment I had never seen. My parents moved me in, dropped off my UHaul, bought me essentials and dinner, and left me alone (let's not talk about the visitation rate in Shrewsbury in over a year: ONCE).

I spent the first few days pretty much alone without cable, internet, or a couch. College Roommate already had her job in Worcester and I was waiting to hear back from HelpTheWorld job and waiting for a new week to begin at the restaurant.

What could a bored baker do but somehow make SOMETHING? Keep in mind, uprooting myself meant I left behind all the "shared" baking goods (read: all equipment) because it didn't belong to me.

What I managed to make was delicious and then posted to Instagram (hello, white girl) using Panera or Dunkin wifi due to the fact that I had nothing but hipster music, tea, and an electric kettle.