When I decided to sit down (read: curl up in bed under a duvet) to finally write a blog post tonight, I didn’t even realize I would do it while watching the new season of The Great British Bake Off. As I wrote about cookies. As I wrote about cookies well-suited to ice cream sandwiches. As I watched a bunch of Brits bake biscuits destined to be biscuit sandwiches for Paul Hollywood and that new lady who isn’t Mary Berry. THIS WAS MEANT TO BE.
Not to hit you with two dessert posts back to back…but that’s exactly what I’m doing. I’m here to give you another dessert post and there’s nothing to be done about that.
You’re probably thinking, “Welp, Tory’s off the blogging again, what a flake. In the summer she travels, in the fall she travels, and I guess in the winter, she travels. What she doesn’t do is blog. This blog is dead. I’m over it.”
I love a good kitchen adventure. While it’s important that I have my regular and dependable recipes to pull out when needed, I also want to try making something new every now and then. I mean, let’s live life, amirite? Who wants to become the predictable girl who always brings the same Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt into the office? Not me. So last week, inspired by both King Arthur Flour’s instagram and a snack-loving coworker, I set out to make my very own Pop-Tarts®. Let’s just call them Breakfast Hand Pies.
Several months ago, a coworker of mine gave me a gallon of pure maple syrup. She got it as a gift for Christmas and said she’d never go through all of it. In my Vermont crazed mind, I thought I would go through all of it super quickly. You can do a lot with maple syrup! And, I don’t know if you knew this, I love Vermont. (see here, here, and here)
I don’t want to make any sweeping generalizations or anything, but I think I’ve found the most popular cookie recipe. I’ve made these Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt a handful of times in the past few months and every time I bring them into work, they’re polished off in no time at all. Co-workers travel far and wide (at least as far and as wide as you can get with 3 floors) to get their hands on these tasty treats.
Coziness is one of my favorite feelings, and therefore “cozy” is one of my favorite adjectives. When you’re cozy, you feel safe and protected. I believe that’s why coziness is such a part of fall – it protects you from the sometimes harsh fall elements. Everything during this season emanates coziness: the food, the apparel, the setting. For the second year in a row, I spent a Sunday afternoon making pumpkin doughnuts followed by having a drink at a local bar. In the midst of all the warehouses and graffiti in my neighborhood, several quaint bars are scattered. During this time of year they decorate their exposed-brick interiors with festive fake cobwebs and romantic candles. It’s mad cozy, and I love it. To be honest, when I did this last year, it was all part of a hangover cure. It was so lovely that I just wanted to do it again this year, hangover-free. As it turns out, I needed cozy comfort badly this past Sunday. Let me tell you why…
A Pinch of This 