I am sorry for my respite

from the blogging world, but i'm busy enjoying spring! i'll try to return to you with love stories and flowers sometime soon :)

An Ode To My Kitchen Aid Mixer

Dear Kitchen-Aid Mixer,

I'm so glad you're in my life. You make everything so much easier and allow me to make things such as homemade bread and soft pretzels from scratch with ease. I'm so glad my parents decided to leave you on the counter always so I don't always have to lug you from the laundry room to the kitchen whenever I want to use you, because truth be told, you're a little heavy. But I don't want you to change I think you're perfect just how you were. It was so silly I pined for you and asked for you for Christmas when you were really hiding on my back shelf covered up still in mint condition from when you were placed there over 13 years ago. I really wish when mom-mom would've bought you we could have used you together, but as a 7 year old I don't think I'd love you the way I do now. (no offense). Regardless you were waiting for me there all those years I proclaimed proudly in the next room how I hated any form of baking and cooking and that anyone I married would have to do all the cooking. Eventually I came and found you and even though I wish mom-mom had been alive and still living with us all these years it almost feels as if she put you out there to wait for me. And I was most certainly the next one to lift you from your peaceful sleep. And maybe it's silly but I most feel her when I'm in the kitchen working with you. I know pop said she would have been proud of us and now looking back I'm glad I'm using you my grandmother's kitchen aid mixer, alongside my great great grandmother's baking pans from when she cooked in a boarding house where her daughter, my great grandmother, met her husband. I feel more connected to the people I was lucky enough to have and love in my life who are gone along with the ones I never got to know through little things like you kitchen aid mixer, the things that help make the ones who leave us just a little more real, if only for that moment. So thank you kitchen aid mixer, I'm sure I'll see you soon.

Love Always,

Mary

To All Those Who Love Me So Much, I'd Like To Return The Favor

I am aware I haven't updated in entirely too long and I have to sincerely apologize but here I am once again. I'm not sure how clear I've made this point before but I really love baking, I'm starting to really expand what I am doing with it and love trying new things. This weekend was an all-time high for deliciousness. I had to pack for Florida and spring break (which I leave for on FRIDAY!) and knew since I wasn't going to be able to bake that weekend I would whip up a few extra special things this weekend to celebrate. On the menu were cheesecake swirl blondies, spinach pesto mozzarella muffins, and caramel corn. I also bought an intense tart pan at Williams & Sonoma which I intend on making insane things with, a candy thermometer, and a little book called "The Field Guide to Candy" which I had been debating over every time I stepped in a Barnes and Noble for months. Nick and the fact I had a gift card finally convinced me! It housed the caramel corn recipe. I really want one of those little blow torches for creme brulee. Next up? Cheesecake milkshakes? I know its technically not baking but as I said the kitchen is where I have felt most at home lately! Me and Nick also ventured to the Flower Show on Sunday where I introduced him to the love that is bonsai. It was a whirlwind but great nonetheless and maybe next time I update it will be about sunny (hopefully) Florida. :)

xoxox

I also threw in some pictures of Nick with my dog Ted taken from the weekend just because I find them so damn cute.