Waves Hello!

 Helloooooo stranger! I just haven't gotten my blogging shit together lol 

Still not reading. And apprently I bake now??? 

I did want to touch base and get at least one more post in before the end of they year, so here's what's been happening in my little world.

I did read a whopping one book in the last few months.

My Roommate is a Vampire by Jenna Levine ~goodreads

It was cute. Maybe a 3 1/2 star read. The first half was fun but the second half kind of went out the with a whimper for me. 

I just got, what I thought, was the final Heartstopper, Volume 5, only to find out there will yet another one. Which is fine. I love the series and the characters but it was supposed to end at Volume 4 and, at this point, feels like a bait and switch. 

I Bake!

I am not really a great cook and especially not a great baker but apparently, I am getting better??

My sourdough starter is finally strong enough to bake with. I've made a focaccia and rolls. This latest feeding tripled in size so I'm going for bread next. I am a negligent starter mom so I'm kind of shocked at my success. I started with Ellie (einkorn flour) and Ryan (rye flour) way back in March and killed Ryan - he got moldy lol

Books and baking collide and I bought The Effortless Baker by Janani Elavazhagan ~goodreads at an author book signing for Gobble Up - an awesome foodie event in Portland. 

She's a food blogger and food photographer and I knew I wanted to get a prettier pan to show off her recipes. I baked the Blueberry Almond Breakfast Loaf and it was delicious. And honestly, easy peasy. It's a one bowl quick bread. It just looks fancy because of the loaf pan. But you can bake right in a regular loaf pan as well.

Then I baked cookies for Kevin to bring to his office for gift day. They always request my ginger molasses cookies & I added a batch of  Peanut Butter Marshmallow Cookies by Kale Junkie. Her version was gluten and sugar free but I used regular flour for mine. I also added peanut butter chips to half the batch and mini chocolate chips to the other. OMG sooooo good! Kevin reported that the peanut butter cookies were gone in under 10 minutes and the molasses within the hour. So whew! I'm always so nervous sending in baked goods. lol

This was such a weird year with a lot of personal things going on (a few of you know about some of it and THANK YOU for being there!). We're ok but it's been a lot and I hope next year is better. I know it's been that way for a lot of you too so {{hugs}} - this is not always a joyful time of year for everyone.

I'm grateful so many of you still pop in to visit and comment or say hi elsewhere on Instagram or even texting. I'm not on anything else very much these days but I'm still not ready to permanently quit blogging for some reason.

Anyhoo...I'll end with my two goobers that help me get through the stressful times. Even if they also cause some of my stressful times lol

 

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

I'll see you back here in the new year - maybe, hopefully, no promises 😂