Brunch day! Been too long 😍 I ate too much, so time to lounge on the couch 😂

I was craving an evening snack but wanted to eat it before 10pm and thought: scones! 🤓 Whipped up a batch that doubles as breakfast tomorrow 🦾

Tried a new recipe, thought it turned out well. Subbed orange zest and 1/4c cranberries for vanilla. Had to add prob an extra 1/4c of cream. Baked 16min.

Tried a new buttermilk biscuit recipe today, pretty tasty and puffed up nicely. I skipped the pepper and added a smidge more buttermilk. Made 9 biscuits.

Tried a new buttermilk biscuit recipe today. Made 10 biscuits. Baked at 450 for 16-17ish minutes for darker batch, 14-15ish for lighter batch. Nice and crunchy outside. Flavor was good fresh, curious if the baking powder will be too strong tomorrow.

I need to snack more, and just remembered this all-snack cookbook Raw Energy that’s been sitting on my shelf for 11 years 😂 My note on this recipe is from 2012. 2023 verdict: too sweet.

Brunch day! Been too long 😋

Banana bread kind of day! I don’t expect this loaf to last past lunch tomorrow 😂

🍪 Cranberry chocolate chip blondies – I subbed semi-sweet for white chocolate and cut the chocolate in half. Sprinkled flaky salt on top. Tasty but a little samey – more cranberries, more salt, add walnuts too?

Mmm, pumpkin muffins! I think I’ve made these before. Very moist. Made 17 muffins. Baked several minutes extra. It calls for a glaze but I don’t have any cream cheese and it’s also good without 😋

Started off the new year with brunch 😍 Prepped all the veg last night so I’d have no excuse 😂 Made breakfast potatoes and cream eggs – tasty! Didn’t get the pumpkin muffins in the oven before the potatoes were done so we’re having two courses 😉

Huevos rancheros for breakfast - tasty enough but not worth the 45 minutes it took me to make. I’ll save it for the Mexican place next time 😉

First time making a lime pie, turned out well. Zested and juiced 3 limes (oops bought a whole bag 😂). Baked an extra 8-10 minutes (till it didn’t stick to my finger), cooled 1hr on rack and 1hr in fridge. Premade 9” graham crust just held all the filling.

Tried a new buttermilk coffee cake recipe - fine, not too sweet. Tripled the berries, folded in instead of pressing per instructions and they all sank 🤷‍♀️ Used extra pie streusel for topping and added 1/2c pecans, could do more. Added ~1/4t nutmeg to cake, couldn’t taste.

Our power was out for 16 hours yesterday so we had to toss most of our fridge 😢 But it’s better than getting botulism!

So this was very brown 😂 Veggie sausage, mushrooms, cabbage 🤷‍♀️, rutabega 👎, and biscuits. Biscuits better drop baked than touching. Too much baking powder, and needed a good bit more buttermilk.

Coconut lime cake from Snacking Cakes. 🥥 The lime was pretty subtle, I could only taste it in the glaze. Took 20 minutes to assemble. Would eat again 👍

Baked a pie with my u-pick apples 🥧 Typed up my go-to apple crumb pie recipe so I can stop scrounging up the old photocopies whenever I want to make it 😂

Celebrated the equinox with an apple crisp 🍏 Added 1/16tsp cloves with the apples, and zest from half a lemon in the topping. Couldn’t taste the 1/4tsp ginger. Omitted vanilla. Prep time 40 minutes, bake time 50.

One of the reasons I try to do brunch a lot is Ingrid Fetell Lee’s writing on joy.

“Over time we develop the muscle of deferring joy…The only way out of this trap is to reinvest in joy in the present.”

One of the reasons I try to do brunch a lot is Ingrid Fetell Lee’s writing on joy.

Over time we develop the muscle of deferring joy…The only way out of this trap is to reinvest in joy in the present.

Making bad choices, eating brownies at 10:30 😎 Only had 1oz unsweetened chocolate so I used 2oz bittersweet and 3/4c+2T sugar. Subbed half the flour with cacao. Added 1/3c chocolate chips and walnuts. A tad bitter 😂🤷‍♀️

Borrowed Snacking Cakes from the library and ordered a copy as soon as I finished flipping through 😂 I baked the Berry Cream Cheese Cake tonight. Not too sweet, coffee cake like.

Cheesecake bars, but with a Cornflake crust because I forgot to buy graham crackers 😂 A little odd but not bad.

Turned yesterday’s leftovers into Brunch #2, with the addition of a piece of french toast and the last of the strawberries.

Brunch! Tried out Impossible Sausage. Very meaty, a little uncanny valley for both me, a pescetarian, and my husband who eats meat. The spices are spot on. Could definitely use for breakfast gravy.

Lemon blueberry bread - vegan recipe but I made it with dairy 🤷‍♀️ Decided to do today’s baking before the heat of the afternoon.

Mmm, strawberry shortcake! 🍓 Baked half and froze half, curious to see how well they’ll bake up. Used 1 whole egg, omitted ¼ tsp baking powder. Made 8.

Got grapes for the first time in a couple years, forgot how refreshing and delicious grapes can be! 🍇

Can’t wait till I can get my hands on some Rainier cherries… 🍒 Just don’t feel up for the crowds of the farmers market yet.

Still life with basil

Also I need to refinish my damn cast iron again 🤦‍♀️

It’s weird being on a medication that suppresses appetite – I’ll be fine, fine, fine – then suddenly STARVING. Granted, my interoception has never been great, but still. I have snack reminders on my phone at 3 and 5 pm nowadays 😂

Tried a new coffeecake recipe which promised - and delivered - more topping than cake 😂 Subbed ginger for allspice. Took 55 minutes to bake. Very easy.

Upside down orange cake from Erin Alderson’s Easy Vegetarian Kitchen cookbook, which I like because it offers four seasonal variants for each recipe. This called for cardamom but I was out 🤷‍♀️ Whole wheat so it tastes “healthy” 😂 Would be good with a dollop of whipped cream 🤔

Lemon poppy seed cake 🍰 Alas, not as delicious as I dreamed. I originally wanted to make an easy recipe I have to doctor cake mix, but my cake mix expired in 2019 😂 Took 40 minutes to bake, and needed a smaller pan. Coating the pan with sugar was a trick I’ll try again though!

I don’t recall my mom ever making a casserole when I was a kid, so I kinda forget they’re an easy dinner option. Unexciting, my husband doctored his with Sriracha 😂 Halved recipe, but kept 2 cans tuna. Could have used more sauce. Tuna casserole

Trying to cook dinner more often now I don’t have an income 😂 Stuffed portobello mushrooms and zucchini fritters stuffed with goat cheese. Turns out we don’t especially like portobellos 🤷‍♀️

Brunch! Strawberries finally went below $7 a package 😳 so I made my fav strawberry biscuits 🥰 Apparently our cold wet spring delayed our local strawberries 🍓

Date night with husband after a week of quarantining apart at home! Made pizza from pre-made ingredients 😉 We were too scared to try tossing the dough so we rolled it out - very springy so was actually pretty tricky 😂 I and my back are excited to not sleep on the couch tonight 🙌

First unemployed weekday! Trying to treat this week as vacation before diving into the job hunt/ planning so I made a big breakfast. Boosted leftover potatoes with some veg, threw in a (store bought) salmon cake, and topped with a fried egg 🍳

A brunch kind of day 😊 Potatoes quick roasted in the toaster oven with eggs, leeks and spinach.

Felt like making cornbread, which meant I needed to make chili to go with. Pulling out ingredients from the fridge, I found a package of fresh pasta that needs to get eaten. So now I’m making chili mac and not cornbread 😂🤷‍♀️ Another day…

Peach cobbler! Added zest to the biscuit dough, went shy on the sugar in the filling.

Apple blackberry crumble with lemon curd greek yogurt 😋 Cut sugar in filling to 1/4c shy. Added 1/8t ginger. Only had ½ pint berries. Baked 40 min at 375, could have done 5 more min for more crisp.

First batch of strawberry biscuits for the year! Also made home fries for the first time in quite a while. I love brunch!

“Chocolate snacking bread” is very chocolatey, as advertised 👍 (perhaps a tad bitter with 70% bars?) I don’t have enough milk in the house for this 😂 Not usually big into chocolate cake stuff but saw this in a cookbook and it called my name.!

My usual breakfast lately, with the addition of asparagus 😍 My husband doesn’t like it so I occasionally get it as a treat for myself 😋

I’m usually a decent baker but having a lot of flubs lately. Made these biscuits. Despite grating the damn frozen butter it must have gotten too warm before baking because a bunch of butter melted out 😑 Will try hotter oven next time too.

Bad idea at 11pm 😋🤷‍♀️ (10 min prep listed = 40 for me?)

Alton Brown’s flourless peanut butter cookies Def needs flaky salt on top. Too sweet imo, I’ll stick with floured 😉 Overbaked at 12 min, 10 is right.

Pancake day! 🥞

Tried a new scone recipe today. Think I made the dough too wet 🤷‍♀️ Chocolate chip hazelnut for half and plain for the rest. Cut sugar to 1/4c - just right for the chocolate chip batch, haven’t tried a plain yet. 🍳

Haven’t done a big brunch in a while! Smitten Kitchen blueberry crumb cake, eggs, veggie sausage, salad and latkes from a local shop 🍳

Omitted 1/4c sugar from the cake and 2T from the topping, still delish but wouldn’t cut more. Used buttermilk and 450g frozen berries.

Made slow cooker pinto beans and Mexican rice for dinner! I have not had much success with the slow cooker so happy these turned out. (I just can’t call them refried 😂)

Lay in bed too late to bake, so I made pain perdu for brunch 🍳 I only like french toast made with sourdough because growing up my mom always made it with sourdough baguette - that added tang makes it for me. Plus fake syrup, mmm 😉

Maple pecan scones and eggs with leeks and chevre. Scones were a bit dry even with the glaze, I may have overbaked because I cut them too small. 🍳

Greek yogurt apple streusel muffins today. Pretty good for a muffin with whole wheat flour. Batter was too dry so I added ~1T oil and ~2T milk. Topping a bit dry, probably from my lazy butter rubbing.

Blackberry coffee cake 🍳 Replaced topping with the one from Smitten Kitchen’s blueberry crumb cake. Subbed buttermilk for milk and replaced 1tsp baking powder with soda. Tasted fine but maybe slightly less soda? Forgot how seedy blackberries are 😂

New Year’s brunch! Roasted potatoes, strawberry biscuits, salad and a fried egg 😋🍳

Finally got my phone browser tabs down to zero from a hundred! Been working through them over the past week. A clean start to the year’s browsing 😂

Brunch! Croissant with scrambled eggs, roasted fingerling potatoes, salad and veggie sausage. 🍳

Had to cancel our trip to the coast because of the snow, so we’re trying to do vacationy stuff at home this week. Watched the new Matrix last night, and I’ve read a bunch of books.

Had fried eggs, roasted potatoes, salad and strawberry biscuits from the freezer for breakfast. Not sure why the biscuits didn’t rise! 🍳

Made biscuits from The Food Lab today and am mad at how well they turned out because I had to laminate them 😂 Mushroom gravy and a salad, should have done a fried egg too. 🍳

Attempted to make soft boiled eggs for the first time with instructions from The Food Lab… I think I didn’t use enough water so my 7 minute eggs came out more like 4 ½ min eggs 🤷‍♀️👩‍🔬

Yesterday’s brunch: sour cream coffee cake with pears. I didn’t have enough pecans so I subbed hazelnuts, wasn’t totally sold. Added 1/4tsp ginger but couldn’t taste it. I’d vote more pears. 🍳

Omelet, salad and (oops overbaked) strawberry biscuits from the freezer for Sunday brunch today. Had quite a week, needed a little something nice this weekend. 🍳

Releasing myself from the burden of these recipes I’ve clipped over the last fifteen years and for the most part haven’t even tried. They’re so old there are recipes from when I still ate meat! Saving just the handful of winners.

Homegrown potatoes(!), fried egg and strawberry biscuit for Saturday brunch 🍳

I did a smell comparison between my old vanilla and a new bottle I just bought and 😳 there is a HUGE difference. The Spicely vanilla smells harsh, like straight alcohol, with barely any vanilla aroma. The Nielson-Massey vanilla has a smooth warm vanilla smell. Same price 🤷‍♀️

Labor Day breakfast: cream scones with strawberries and homemade creme fraiche (didn’t taste like much 🤷‍♀️), and scrambled eggs. Made a half batch of scones. Would make again 👍

Sourdough french toast, potatoes and a salad for brunch today. 🍳

Haha, made banana bread this morning but didn’t follow my usual mise en place and forgot the sugar 😂 (And of course a double batch 🤦‍♀️) Edible but tastes salty! Needs the sugar for balance. I put honey on top, but maybe will try a syrup solution for the rest?

Started vacation with dutch apple pancakes (suggested by @Miraz) 🍏 Baked in a small cast iron and two ramekins. Would have been prettier if I’d followed the instructions to keep the apples on top 😂🤷‍♀️

Mmm, got enough peaches and nectarines to make this fresh raw tart. Hadn’t made it in a few years and forgot how tasty it is! It’s technically vegan but I served with creme fraiche, in the past I’ve had it with yogurt and ice cream. Didn’t have flaxmeal but didn’t miss it.

I cooked dinner for the first time in a few months today: boxed mac and cheese with sauteed veggies. Even a mostly-boxed meal has been beyond the energy I’m willing to spend cooking. But, I actually see this as a positive mental step.

The burden of dinner and learning to say no

Haven’t done brunch in a while! Used my u-pick blueberries in my fav Smitten Kitchen coffee cake. Cut ¼ c sugar from the batter, still plenty sweet. Added ¼ tsp nutmeg but couldn’t taste it. Home fries and a little salad for that fancy cafe feel 😉 🍳

Today’s brunch: blueberry muffins and potatoes.

Subbed buttermilk for yogurt, added nutmeg and vanilla because I had no zest, and went shy on the sugar inside and on top. Could have gone even lighter on sugar.🍳

Came back to this blueberry crumb cake for a third time. Realized I’ve been putting in half the blueberries called for! Extra good with more berries. Also used buttermilk instead of milk and baked in a larger pan. 🍳

Wanted something different for breakfast, made these strawberry cornmeal griddle cakes. Nice and light though probably won’t make again. Remembering some southwest johnny cakes with prickly pear syrup I had in Phoenix on a sunny patio, aiming for that vibe this morning 🍳

Baked a poppyseed bundt cake tonight. New recipe - I would say too sweet. Usually I make it a rum cake but we’re out 🤷‍♀️ Topped with a potent lemon glaze (halved).

Saturday brunch: strawberry biscuits redux, fake home fries from leftover sweet potato fries, and fried eggs 🍳

Took too long of a walk earlier and can’t summon the energy to bake, so I’m satisfying my sweet tooth with a chocodilla 😎

Made black bean burgers for dinner. Flavor on these was good, but kinda goopy texture. The problem I find with so many homemade burgers is the softness. We tried to think of them as tidier sloppy joes.

Sunday brunch: tortilla baked eggs and homemade granola parfait. 🍳

Baked eggs were tasty! Might have to accept a little wobble in the whites for runny yolks. Haven’t made granola in a decade but I’ve been eating more yogurt so finally worthwhile 🤷‍♀️

Saturday brunch: my favorite strawberry biscuits, eggs with smoked salmon, and avocado. Usually add an extra 1/3c cream but it needed probably double that today 🤷‍♀️ Comfort food for post-vax achiness 🍳

Healthy-ish dessert: flourless granola cookies.

Used all peanut butter, subbed half a banana for the chia seeds and added a quarter cup extra oats to compensate. Used hazelnuts and cranberries, chocolate chips might have been better. A little too sweet, probably because I used Jif not natural peanut butter 😉 and maybe from the banana. Would drop the Tbsp of extra sugar. Might add a smidge more salt?

Saturday brunch: mushroom leek quiche and roasted potatoes and golden beets. Keeping frozen crusts around makes it doable for the morning. Even though I cut the beets much smaller they still needed more time, shouldn’t make in the same pan next time 😉

Today’s brunch: challah french toast, breakfast potatoes and golden beets, avo and a fried egg 🍳

Celebration sushi for our first shots! Thought I could be patient but someone linked me a drive-through site an hour away and we went for it. Ironically, that was more appealing than going into Seattle proper 😂

Pumpkin streusel muffins with cream cheese glaze for brunch today ♥️ On the sweeter side with the streusel and glaze, could get away with less sugar in the muffins. Could probably skip the vanilla too. 🍳

Made a moroccan inspired stew last night - fine and healthy but not worth an hour and a half of work (I’m the world’s slowest cook 😭). I feel I can now say I’ve tried preserved lemon in enough dishes that I just don’t like it.

Tasty creamy mushroom pasta. Added red pepper flakes and a dash of balsamic vinegar. Subbed portobellos and fresh parsley.

Baked buttermilk cornbread with a new recipe, nothing special. I did 2T instead of 1/4c honey and it needed the extra sugar. My normal recipe uses only 2T sweetener total, let alone honey and brown sugar.

Baked in my toaster, which over browned it substantially - I covered it in tinfoil halfway through but should have started that way. Wound up overbaking by 2-3 minutes so it may be dry tomorrow - it’s taking some practice to adapt to the convection oven!

Saturday brunch: fried eggs and potatoes, parsnips and carrots plus a (store bought) cinnamon roll ♥️ Loving my new toaster / convection oven, potatoes roasted in 12 min with no preheat time 😳 One day I’ll learn how to make fried eggs properly 🤷‍♀️

Spaced out on St Patrick’s Day but finally got around to making soda bread tonight 😂 Subbed in one cup sprouted whole wheat flour - could have used maybe one or two more tablespoons buttermilk to make up for it.

Fluffy buttermilk pancakes for the first day of Spring!🍳 Blueberries for the first batch too 🥰

I should make crisp more often! So much easier than pie or even crumble. Good recipe, not too sweet, lots of topping with good texture. Plus astonishingly not freezer burned ice cream 😎 www.thekitchn.com/apple-cri…

Wasn’t up for making a pie for pi day but a crisp will do instead 😉 Used some mystery apples that have been in the fridge since our fall CSA🤞 Easy recipe, hopefully it’s tasty: www.thekitchn.com/apple-cri…