Five for Friday, Edition #34

1) Holiday cards - I put them in the mail Wednesday night. I presume that means my international friends will get them sometime in 2026. Woot woot! YOU GUYS. When I was cleaning my mom's house, I found my high school senior photos and there were a bunch of wallet-sized ones left, so I put them in all my high school friends' cards. Oh, and Allison got a couple. If you want to know what I looked like in high school, just imagine me with long hair and fewer wrinkles. 

I ran out of stickers, so the last few didn't get a sticker. How much am I going to let this bother me? (I think you all know that it's going to bother me, but if you get an envelope that doesn't have a sticker, it doesn't mean I don't love you.)

2) Secret SANta - Sarah was my Secret SANta and look what goodies ended up at my door! A fuzzy scarf and hat set. I think you all know I'm always cold, so what a thoughtful gift.

The deadline San set for us to mail our items was December 6. That seems reasonable, but I wanted to buy something for my swap partner at the local Holiday Market that was on that date, so I went to the market in the morning and got to the post office with five minutes before it closed. I told the rest of the story on Nicole's blog, so why am I redoing this?

3) Weather - Friends. It's batshit here. And do you know what the highs this weekend are supposed to be? I can't even. A high of five (that's -15 to you Celsius folks). Dumb. So dumb. 

4) Murderbot - Well, I am not going to let the weather bother me because my plan for the weekend is to sit on the couch with my favorite cat and watch Murderbot on Apple TV. My husband recently bought a laptop and we have three free months of Apple TV and you better believe we are watching A LOT of things. 

Do you see that car covered in snow? It's an Audi wagon and I'm so jealous of it. It's beautiful and perfect and THEY DON'T SELL IT IN THE US ANYMORE. Ahem. 

5) Cookies - Workplace demerit and gold star incoming. 

Demerit - Our holiday employee celebration was on Tuesday afternoon. It was an event running from 1-3 and we turned up about 2. I trudged across campus with some of my colleagues and arrived to find the worst food spread imaginable. There were meatballs in some sort of grey sauce (*gag*), an empty tureen of soup, some sad looking tiny sandwiches with one slice of lunchmeat (*heave*) on them, and a cheese plate. I liked the cheese, actually. There was a hot cocoa and coffee bar, but I don't drink either, so that was a bust for me personally, but went over well with everyone else. 

But the kicker? They had put a lovely sugar cookie at each place setting at some tables and there was frosting and sprinkles to decorate said cookies. But, hypothetically, if you arrived at 2, there were NO MORE COOKIES. Did I need a cookie? No. Did I trudge across campus with the thought that maybe I could get a cookie? Yes. 

I was actually more insulted with the lackluster food than if there had just been no food. That is all. Are you listening, Big Guy in Charge? (I actually really hope he doesn't read my blog.)

Gold star: The dean of our college

 (This might actually be confusing for non higher ed folks. I work at a university that is made up of six individual colleges. I work for one of those colleges. People frequently say they're going to college and that's technically true, but not all colleges are universities, but all universities have at least two colleges.)

hosts a Cookies and Cocoa event every year. His partner is a baker extraordinaire and she makes SO MANY COOKIES. And guess what? On Wednesday, I got cookies and the leftovers stay in the kitchen on our floor! Woot! Cookies galore at the end of the week. 

Also, I was bringing a friend a meal on Monday, so I made spiced chocolate chip cookies and brown butter sugar cookies AND we're going to a dealio tonight, so I made buckeyes last night. There has been SO MUCH BUTTER AND SUGAR usage in our house. It's going to be brutal when I have to go back to reality in January. But right now? My candy/cookie game is great.

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Are you going to be caught up in this Arctic blast? What's the last cookie you ate? 

Five for Friday, Edition #28

1) Does anyone remember the Great Cookie Plan of 2025? Well, last weekend I made some of the brown butter sugar cookies (of course I made them gluten-free, blah, blah blah) and they were delicious. My husband really liked them and it was really easy to make. I also brought them to book club and the non-GF people also liked them. They're a hit! (Also, A LOT of butter and sugar.)

2) I want to talk about this because I feel like it's important, but I also kind of don't want to talk about it. I had a concerning health screening and today I'm going in today to do a follow-up and I'm kind of nervous about the whole thing, even though it should be fine. In the meantime, I'm sorry to be so vague. I promise that once I find out if it's fine/it's not fine, I'll be more open about what's going on. Maybe especially if it's fine so that everyone else can learn from my (what I'm learning is) common experience. 

3) This weekend is the big Labor Day extravaganza! I will bringing two salads. I am not overthinking this and I'm going to bring green bean salad and my regular green salad with berries. 

4) Tuesday was a bad day for me. I got a phone call about point #2 in which they tried to reschedule me. At first they were going to reschedule me for Wednesday instead of Friday, but when I asked a follow-up question, it couldn't be done on Wednesday, so they were going to push it back until mid-September. I may have started crying on the phone. She called me back and said she could do it later in the day on Friday. And then I got off the phone, sobbed for a bit, and took the day off on Friday. Today! I'm off!

With some perspective, I realize that my reaction was over the top, but here we are. 

5) Once more with a random photo collage from this week. No explanations will be given.

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For my American friends, what are you doing with your long weekend? For everyone else, do you think it's weird that I made sugar cookies outside of Christmas? 

The Great Cookie Plan of 2025

 I want to thank everyone for their thoughts about cookies, raisins, and coconut in my post asking for cookie ideas. I have once again checked out America's Test Kitchen's Gluten Free Cookbook from the library and I'm going to use that, along with some of the recipes you friends linked to, to attempt the following cookies.

1) Peanut butter blossoms - I should definitely have a PB cookie in my arsenal. 

2) Sugar cookie - My husband requested it. I'll start with the cookbook and go from there. Sarah also linked to a brown butter brown sugar version. 

3) Lemon cookie - I think I'm going to start with a basic lemon sugar cookie, but then I'm hoping to move on to an iced lemon cookie. 

4) Meringue - Straight meringue with chocolate chips or without chocolate chips? I don't know. Game day decision? Maybe I'll try both? 

5) Spanish almond cookies - I think this might be my excuse to purchase a food processor. 

6) Thumbprint cookies - I'm concerned that I cannot make these structurally sound with GF flour, but I'm going to try. 

BONUS!

For Christmas, I'm going to try snowball cookies - it's base is shortbread, which I've struggled with in the past, but since you just roll it up in a ball, I think I can make this work.

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Do you have season-specific cookies? Something you only make at Christmas? Easter? Fourth of July? 

Baking Things

I've written about making vanilla extract and my special gluten-free flour before, but I think I have some new readers who might now know about it, so let's do it all over again before I talk about my Great Cookie Plan of 2025 based on comments from last week's post. 

My husband has celiac disease and is very sensitive to cross contamination. Because I didn't realize that the vanilla extract I was using was not labelled gluten free and I glutened my husband once and the stuff that was labelled gluten free was super expensive, I started making my own.

Ingredients: Gluten free vodka and vanilla beans

Basically you just split the beans and put them in the vodka. Let that marinate for 6-8 weeks (or longer - the longer the better, so if you have it in there for a year, so much the better) in the darkest recesses of your pantry.

(I have been using Tito's because it's labelled gluten free. I have recently read a couple of concerning things about them supporting Republican candidates, but it doesn't actually look too bad on OpenSecrets.)

The on the left is just poured. The one on the right has been hiding in my pantry for a few months. 

Someone asked me how much vanilla I need and I'm going to be honest with you, I use one of these bottles every few months. I bake a lot of cookies and granola!!

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My preferred gluten free flour blend for cookies is:

6 Cups White Rice Flour

1 Cup Tapioca Flour

1 Cup Potato Starch

1 Cup Corn Starch

1 Tbs. Xanthan Gum

I will use King Arthur measure-for-measure gluten-free flour in a pinch, but I don't think it tastes as good. 

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Have you ever made your own vanilla extract? How often do you have to buy a new bottle?

Cookies: I Need Your Help

One of my goals for the year is to bake six new cookie recipes. This should be easy, but I am so frugal that I hate the idea of spending tons of money on ingredients to try a new recipe only for it to fail, so I always make the same three recipes repeatedly (a chocolate chip, molasses, and spiced chocolate chip). Yesterday when I wrote about this, I realized I didn't have a plan for what my new recipes would be, so let's work together to CREATE A PLAN.

Here are some picky bits about me. I do not think raisins should be in cookies, so if you DARE to suggest oatmeal raisin, I will decide you are an unreliable advice-giver re: cookies. Also, oats are basically off the table - Gluten Free Watchdog has found gluten in every oatmeal they have tested, so they do not recommend oats for GF people AT ALL. Oat-based cookies are OUT. I do not like chocolate to be the dominant flavor of a cookie - I'm fine with chocolate as a part of the cookie, but I am not a fan of things like chocolate chocolate chip cookies or whatever. 

Whatever cookies I make I will make with GF flour, but I'll figure out those substitutions, so just pretend that's not a thing. 

So, based on those caveats, what are your favorite cookies? Do you have specific recipes you'd like to send to me?

Currently I think of the following for my six "new" cookies:

1) Those peanut butter cookies with the Hershey Kiss in the middle

2) Iced lemon cookies

3) Thumbprint cookies with the jam in the middle

4) White chocolate macadamia nut, although to be honest I don't think my husband would like these

5) Snowball cookies

6) ?????

I am not wedded to any of these, though. If you were going to make a cookie today, what would it be? If you're not a baker, tell me what kind of cookie you would eat right now if a cookie could magically appear in front of you?

Tuesday Tidings

I'm leaning into the dark these days. Hannah and I have been LOVING our morning walks in the pitch black. It's just me and her and I like to just let her sniff and enjoy the world. I mean, don't get me wrong, she's nervous as all heck and jumps if so much as a leaf falls near her, but at least I'm having a good time. 

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On our walk on Sunday night, I even took the holiday cards to the blue mailbox and dropped them all in (except for my five Canadian cards - I have yours sitting next to my goal journal all stamped and ready to go out as soon as the strike is over, Canadian friends) and whispered happy travels for them. I ordered my cards through Minted again, despite the fact that I literally have never been 100% satisfied with my orders from them.

One year, we did not get any envelopes. One year, we actually got two orders sent our way. One year some of our envelopes were duplicated, so I had to go through and make sure people only got one card from us. This year? This year some of the addresses were addressed incorrectly. The number 3 became the number 8.  Apartment numbers were added where apartment numbers did not need to be added. The abbreviation MN became MI. Now these are all things that could be blamed on me, but MY SPREADSHEET HAD THEM CORRECT. So I stuffed all the envelopes, but then had to go through each address VERY CAREFULLY to make sure things were correct. (If there is a handwritten correction to your address, I did that!) 

And let me tell you, I am not a detail lady. I am a lady who doesn't notice things like MN is MI. This took me a long, frustrating time. I don't know if I'm going to stick with Minted again. (Also, our card is HUGE. Like 5x7? This is on me, though. I just didn't look at the dimensions because I thought it was normal card size. I was wrong. I'm SORRY, friends. I'm bad at holiday card sending, I guess.) 

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But, in more cheerful holiday news, my Secret SANta gift arrived from Jenny! If you don't think that dog ornament went right on my tree, you don't know me very well!

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Also, we went on our annual trip to see the lights at the Rotary Gardens.

I did not ask my friends if I could post their photos, so I am protecting their privacy. Not my husband's though. If you see him around, maybe don't mention you saw his photo on my blog? 

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Last week, the dean of our college did a "Cookies & Cocoa" event. His partner made like a million cookies and all the leftovers made it to the kitchen on our floor and every time I go by the kitchen, I eat more cookies. The eggnog shortbread cookies are AMAZING, but I have to admit that I have not been making good choices re: sugar this December. January is going to HIT HARD.

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Speaking of cookies, do you know what my husband sent me a photo of today? 

A new KitchenAid!!! My beloved KitchenAid finally gave up its battle. We looked into fixing it (of course we did) and it was $200 to fix it and about $300 to get a new on, so Dr. BB took the plunge and bought me a new one! Who's going to make chocolate chip cookies tomorrow? This girl. (Yes, I'm going to make cookies despite the fact that I've eaten my weight in eggnog shortbread cookies this week. Don't judge my December baking decisions.)

(As part of the November/December hemorrhage of money, why not buy a new kitchen appliance? Fortunately, this came out of my husband's budget. He also paid for an oil change and the cat's trip to the emergency vet last week. Yes, all three things should have been mine to pay for, but that's how the cookie crumbles when you have a six-week winter break and your wife has to actually go into the office.)

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Have you sent out your holiday cards yet (sorry, Canadian friends - your turn will come soon!)? What's the last kitchen gadget you bought? 

9.13 Failure - These Cookies

Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Each day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the thirteenth day of the month is "Failure."

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I have been told by multiple, reputable sources that King Arthur's Gluten Free Flour is the best flour. Like, I will immediately stop making my own flour mixture for gluten free baking and switch to KA ASAP. Unfortunately, I can't source it locally. When the new HyVee opened in the town where we grocery shop, I thought they would have it for sure. They do not. 

So when Dr. BB went back to Iowa a couple of weekends ago, he stopped at the HyVee there and procured me some of this mythical flour. We had a guest coming to visit with us one afternoon, so I thought I would make some cookies to test it. I just did a 1-1 replacement for regular flour in the OG Tollhouse recipe.

What a disappointment. 

I didn't even have any more butter to try another batch. So, huh. Maybe I won't be switching to the mythical flour after all.

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Please share with me your most recent culinary disappointment. 

3.31 Activity - Baking

Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Each day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the thirty-first day of the month is "Activity."

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At my book club meeting last month, we determined that our next meeting would be on the same day as one of our member's birthdays. She requested champagne and lemon bars, and since I'm hosting, I feel obligated to make sure she gets those things. I requested someone else get the champagne because I wouldn't have the foggiest idea where to start with that and I started Googling gluten-free lemon bar recipes right away. My friend doesn't need it to be GF, but I can't have regular wheat flour in our kitchen, so here we go.

Dr. BB had his own book club to go to last night, so once I came back from yoga at the community center, I ate some yogurt and granola and called it dinner and got to baking. I first made some chocolate chip cookie dough because if I'm going to get baking material out, I'm going to BAKE. Then I gathered up all the necessary ingredients and got started.

The recipe I used calls for a slight variation on my regular flour mix, so I made up a small batch just for this recipe and if it works out well enough, maybe I'll make a larger batch and try using it with non-cookie recipes. My flour mix is really only good for cookies. I've used it with some success on zucchini and pumpkin breads, but it hasn't been successful with scones, muffins, cakes, or even crusts for bars like lemon bars, so I need another alternative if I'm going to break out from cookies.

But do I need to break out from cookies? I really like cookies and there's a huge variety of types of cookies you can make. Outside of special circumstances like someone requesting lemon bars for their birthday, it's rare I need to make a baked good outside of a decent cookie. I don't know. Maybe the search for the perfect lemon bar will invigorate my creative spirit and I'll branch out more.  

Meanwhile, I have no idea how this recipe actually turned out because it called for sitting in the fridge overnight. If it's good, I'll let you know. If you don't hear an update, it's because I'm pretending I didn't spent $7 on eggs for a failed recipe. 

UPDATE:

They are mediocre. The custard part is quite good and lemony, but the base is stodgy and it's a bit gritty (maybe I didn't incorporate the granulated sugar well enough?). I took the big container to a meeting this morning and people took extras home, so they're definitely edible. The six in the small container are for me and Dr. BB. I don't think this is a winner, although I wouldn't be embarrassed to serve these to a friend.

Have you tried any new baking recipes recently? How did they turn out?

3.15 Volume - Cookies!

Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Each day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the fifteenth day of the month is "Volume."

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I do not have much time to write this today because we have a busy weekend. Yesterday we did laundry, I made tons of cookies, and we went to hang out with our friends at their new house.  Then today we have to do more laundry (the sheets!) and we our going to hang out with our neighbors and one of Dr. BB's former students and then I have book club tonight. Considering I need to fit in workouts and walk the dog incessantly, this has left me with little downtime this weekend, which is absolutely bizarre in my usual world of never leaving the house.

I am a midwestern woman of a certain age who doesn't think I should go to people's houses without something in hand to feed them, so I made buckeyes (five ingredients only! I promise they're not that hard) and some molasses cookies I also made last weekend to take to a friend's house (this post is making it seem like we're super social and I promise you I am NOT), so I had leftover buttermilk, which is the one ingredient that's required to make these cookies that I don't just normally keep in my pantry. Boom. A dozen buckeyes and half a dozen cookies for each location.

What's your go-to offering when you go to other people's houses?

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To see what Bestest Friend has to say about volume, go visit her at Too Legit to Quit. 

2.26 Moment - Nostalgic Food

Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Each day we will write a blog post on pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the twenty-sixth day of the month is "Moment."

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My husband's relationship with food is not great. If he could just take a pill a few times a day and not have to eat, he absolutely would do so. But, unfortunately for him, that technology is not yet available, so he must eat every day. And I'd say that his relationship with food is basically functional. He doesn't really care what it tastes like, he just doesn't want it to make him sick. That's why we basically eat the same things over and over and over again for every meal.

He also understands that food is important to me, though, and I think the sadness that I sometimes try to hide when we're having our chickpea curry recipe for the fourth time in as many weeks comes across to him. (It's a delicious recipe, but it takes an hour and a half to make and even a delicious curry gets a tiny bit old after a bit.) So he's been working on trying to expand his palate, trying new things. The issue is that because he's nervous about trying new things, it generally doesn't go well.  

The GF cookies we came home with after Christmas. I made regular chocolate chip cookies, spiced chocolate chip cookies, my SIL made Oreo balls (which are a huge fave for my in-laws, but I do not care for), dipped pretzels, and the peanut butter blossoms. Not a bad haul.

His sister, also someone who has celiac (although her symptoms are no where near as severe when she gets gluten poisoning, so she actually bakes with wheat flour for her own children whereas wheat flour isn't allowed anywhere near our kitchen), converted my late MIL's peanut butter blossom recipe (the ones above with the Hershey Kiss on them) into a GF version, and I watched as my husband ate one of these cookies for the first time in decades. The look of bliss on his face was priceless.  Maybe we'll convert him over to the side of food yet.

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I've posted it before, but I'm going to do so again for any new readers. Generally speaking, for all cookies I make, I sub my own flour mix in for whatever the recipe calls for.  My recipe is:

6 cups white rice flour

1 cup tapioca flour

1 cup potato starch

1 cup corn startch

1 tablespoon xanthan gum

I use Bob's Red Mill for all of this. It obviously makes more than I generally need for one batch of cookies, so I store the leftovers in an airtight container.

I also chill all GF cookie dough before baking or the cookies will tend to be flat.  

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To see what Bestest Friend has to say about a moment, go see her at Too Legit to Quit.

TM and GBBO: Why Good Things Must End (I Guess)

Both Taskmaster (TM) and Great British Bake-Off  (GBBO) had their finals on Friday and I'm over here wondering what I'm going to do with my Fridays for the rest of my life.  

I'm going to try to remain spoiler-free, but who even knows what a spoiler is these days, so be aware.

The contestants on Taskmaster were wonderful this season.  

Photo credit.

1) Victoria Coren Mitchell (VCM) is so smart and was so unable to undo the impression that the Taskmaster had that she was incapable of everyday tasks that she was unfairly underscored throughout the entire season. Highlights of her season include basically solving a puzzle by herself while her teammate patiently allowed her to run roughshod over him and her learning how to ride a bike during a task. 

2) Morgana Robinson was just a bundle of hysterical chaos. From the first task when she called the Taskmaster's assistant a filthy name to the last task when she dressed up as a sex-crazed mermaid, it was impossible to take your eyes off of her.  

3) Guz Khan is absolutely hysterical and his ability to sell anything to the Taskmaster was pure genius - VCM should have learned something from Guz, but she never quite pulled it off.  At one point, Greg asked him if he had ever been in sales and he admitted he had and it was just the best.

4) Desiree Burch is an American woman and absolutely the star of the show as far as I was concerned. She was so very good at prize tasks, from her first prize task of a beautiful chaise lounge to the last one of a air dancer, she got full marks for the prize task in 6/10 episodes.  And let's not forget the time she ate sand or pounded a drink without closing her mouth in seven seconds.  Desiree was not someone I was familiar with before this show, but now I'm a huge fan.

5) Alan Davies just looked like he had so much fun during the whole show. Even when he was failing miserably at a task, he was just laughing and smiling. There was a really sweet moment when he was creating a scene with toys in a bathtub and Desiree offhandedly said "he must be a really good dad" and he just looked so chuffed. I enjoyed his whole vibe. He was VCM's partner in the task when she was solving a riddle and he had half the answer, but he was just so patient with her. I bet he IS a good dad.

But the tasks were a bit lackluster, to be honest. There weren't a lot of tasks in which the contestants could just do whatever they wanted.  Most of them were pretty set (watch Alex do a dance twice and then complete the dance, using these tools pop the balloon, get a chair into the tower room, etc.) and the thing that made them funny was that the contestants were funny.  Whatever. A not-great season of TM is better than most television, I think.

Photo credit

The Great British Bake Off had many highs and lows. The contestants were absolutely fabulous and so nice and kind and I loved it when they helped each other, particularly when the German guy would teach the young kids things. I have nothing negative to say about the contestants, particularly given that they were away from their families and friends for such an extended period of time.  It couldn't have bene easy to live in a baking bubble like that.

But basically everything else about this season was terrible. I hate that "earning" a Hollywood handshake is equivalent to earning star baker or winning a technical. It seems that performance in the technical challenge is no longer evaluated in terms of who should go home (episode nine, *ahem*).  I'm not sure why they even bother with them if they're just going to ignore them in judging.

And then there is the problem of the hosts. I was recently watching an earlier season with Mel and Sue and those two were such geniuses at doing little gags that were a) funny b) food-related, and c) uplifted the bakers.  Maybe Sue grabs the spatula with something yummy on it and tells Mel how delicious it is as she's keeping it away from Mel, maybe Mel puts the bakes in her pocket because she wants to eat it later, or maybe they just stand and watch the bakers watch the cakes in the oven and ask the bakers what they are watching for.  

Noel and Matt don't seem to give a rat's ass about food. I've never seen either one of them "sample" a bake.  Maybe this is a COVID restriction, but they don't even ask about food, either. They ask the bakers to talk trash about bakers, predict things, and then do these never-ending bits and skits that seem to distract the bakers from what they're doing. They don't ask about technique or what they're doing or what their ideas are.  I have historically liked Noel Fielding (a Taskmaster alum, *natch*), but I found him quite nasty in the last two episodes of the season. I honestly left the season thinking that if they don't get new hosts, I might not watch the next season.  How can this be?! How can it go from appointment television to I can't watch these two fools be mean/distracting to the bakers so quickly?!  

So that's that. I am currently rewatching GBBO episodes of old with Mel, Sue, and Mary, but what will I watch when I'm done with that? Probably nothing, to be honest. I'll just read all the time.  Be prepared for more book reviews!

An Update

I haven't posted in a while. Mostly because there's nothing terribly interesting or new going on in my life. I did send an email to my bestest friend, however, so here it is. I went to a cookie-making party on Sunday. At this party we made 1) two kinds of gingerbread cookies 2) sugar cookies 3) cranberry coconut tassies 4) peanut butter balls 5) taffy 6) chocolate cookies with peanut butter cups in them, and something else I can't remember. It was a good time and my roommates have enjoyed eating all the cookies, although I stole all the peanut butter balls because they are fucking GOOD.

Ohio dates. I think I am going to be in Ohio from Jan 12-Jan.15. I can come on the 11th if anyone will be available to hang out with me that day, but that's definitely flexible. Likewise, I can either drive back to Minneapolis on the 15th or 16th, depending on when people are sick of me. Does that work for you? I will call others and see if they will be available on those dates.

I'm soooo happy you got out of your grad class a week early. That's fantastic. I like to get out of classes, too. As a matter of fact, I am seriously considering skipping class today. I hate it so much. However, I think the teahcer's going to pass out seminar evaluations today and I really want to say bad things about her in the evaluation, so I think I'm going to go just so that I can do that.

Tonight is date night. I will go on a date.

Next Wednesday, I will be done with classes (not done grading, but I won't have anything to grade until Thursday), so I am going to cook a gluten-free dinner for my boyfriend and my landlords. I think I'm going to make that potato-leek soup because it's accidentally gluten-free and quite tasty and a chicken casserole that has lots of stuff in it. Then I'll make a vegetable. Probably green beans because they are easy and I am lazy. And I'll make my landlords provide wine. So that they can drink it and Biker Boy and I can mock them. Those are my exciting dinner party plans.

I'm wearing a bright orange shirt that says "BOWLING GREEN" on it in big white letters, a long-sleeved white t-shirt underneath it, and a pair of jeans that has orange stitching (it was hard for me to make that last phrase have a correct subject/verb agreement - I'm a freak).

I'm quite hungry right now. I might go downstairs and get a bagel to eat. Bagels have lots of calories, so that should hold me until I get home and finish this damn spaghetti I made. Have I told you about the spaghetti sauce? See, the smallest package of ground sirloin you can get is ONE POUND. As a single person, I don't fucking need an entire pound of meat. However, I purchased the package and then mixed it with a jar of Paul Newman's (gluten-free!) sauce. But I cooked it LAST WEDNESDAY. I have had spaghetti for at least one meal every single day for a week. Tonight will be the last day. If I don't finish the sauce, I'm going to throw it out. I will say it was a smart buy because for the cost of the sauce (it was about $4), the meat (on sale -$4), and the box of spaghetti (79 cents), I have had seven meals, complete with protein, carbs, and vegetables. Not a bad deal. But boy am I sick of spaghetti.

I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow.

Love, NGS