Hello out there, all you blog-reading cyber space people! Welcome to my blog and my very first post (I know, surprising for a journalism senior). It may have taken me a while, but I've made it--- creating my very first blog on a topic near-and-dear to my heart: baking!
I suppose my fascination with baking started when I was young, though I've only recently begun to cultivate it. My mom has been slipping in a hint there and a secret tip there every time I've helped her make a batch of brownies or chocolate chip cookies. I suppose my love of chocolate, my spare time during Sunday afternoons in the summer and all those tips have added up to one thing: a love of baking. Though I don't get around to it as often as I would like, I love any excuse to make baking a priority. For my mom's birthday last weekend I made her a cranberry ricotta cheesecake that she loves (though I have quite a few of my own alterations: a store-bought graham cracker crust and canned cranberry sauce taste just as good), and my sister received a strawberry and vanilla creme cake for her birthday in July (pictured up top).
One thing that makes me completely different, I think, when it comes to baking is that I:
- Sometimes like things quick and easy
- Sometimes like things to be challenging and long
- Sometimes like a back-of-the-box recipe
- Sometimes like my grandmother's 50-year-old scribbled recipe
What's most important to me about the final product is also sometimes different. Often I just want something tasty (and probably chocolate), while other times I am working to master a new recipe or give a family member what they've really been craving. The only thing that stays constant in my baking is me!
So welcome and I hope you enjoy my adventures in baking!
p.s.- Did you guess the motivation behind the title of this blog? Only a fabulous biking movie, Breaking Away, from 1979 with a young (and hot) Dennis Quaid :).
