Did I mention that I have an oven in my little apt? So far I’ve made a few batches of these chocolate chip walnut cookies and two batches of excellent banana bread.  Nothing better than taking a treat out of the oven during cold weather. 
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Did I mention that I have an oven in my little apt?

So far I’ve made a few batches of these chocolate chip walnut cookies and two batches of excellent banana bread.  Nothing better than taking a treat out of the oven during cold weather. 

Jenna and I were making brownies from a BBC Good Food recipe one night in London when she busted out this old-school scale to measure the butter.  Can you say L.O.V.E.?
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Jenna and I were making brownies from a BBC Good Food recipe one night in London when she busted out this old-school scale to measure the butter. 

Can you say L.O.V.E.?

The doughnuts that friend and I made.  On looks, I’d rate them a 6.  On taste, 2.  See, I’m honest with myself. 
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The doughnuts that friend and I made.  On looks, I’d rate them a 6.  On taste, 2.  See, I’m honest with myself. 

So those donuts

that we made with my deep-fryer turned out less than spectacular.  They looked decent — shrimpy, but decent.  The taste, however…

“WHAT IS THIS..its like beef jerky donuts, where is the BREAD…and its SOOOO SWEET” - marian’s dad

“They taste like alcohol!! what did you put in here?? don’t take them to work.” - my mom

“They taste fine. … but they’re really dense.” - the polite corporate secretary at work, who promptly printed out a new yeast doughnut recipe for me from foodandwine.co

marian and i can forget about our donut food truck aspirations. 

I got the hookup from someone who knows someone from Madagascar, and when that second someone went back to visit their homeland recently, they brought back these apparently cheap vanilla beans.  Naturally, I looked up a recipe and made my own batch of vanilla extract, which at $5 for a small, small bottle can sometimes be the most expensive ingredient in my baking.  Thus I see the contents of this old jam jar as a super bargain (so what if I had to buy a $20 bottle of Skyy vodka to make it?  The rest of the bottle will go to good use.).  The color has already turned into a deep brown and I can just SMELL it through the glass.

They were yummy.  I realized that I really only love the part of a thumbprint that’s covered by the jam, in this case, bonne maman raspberry.  Which is why i need to get myself a linzer cookie cutter set.  I should have bought the one I saw at Sur La Table a couple weeks ago, since I’m enforcing a spending moratorium until January 31 - exactly three weeks from today. Also, rookie mistake: making them too big.
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They were yummy.  I realized that I really only love the part of a thumbprint that’s covered by the jam, in this case, bonne maman raspberry.  Which is why i need to get myself a linzer cookie cutter set.  I should have bought the one I saw at Sur La Table a couple weeks ago, since I’m enforcing a spending moratorium until January 31 - exactly three weeks from today.

Also, rookie mistake: making them too big.