Nothing Better: Homemade English Muffins
I, like apparently most people, jumped on the sourdough train during quarantine. Our sourdough’s name is Bubbles. She gets her own blog post, so I won’t focus on her too much here.The interesting thing about jumping on the sourdough train, is that the most rewarding element for me, came from the saddest part about sourdough; the discard.You see so many comments when you’re prepping to make your sourdough starter about people not wanting to throw …
The Bake Off: Round 2
After baking our first round of imitation Levain cookies together, it was time for my husband and I to “face off.” To test our theories and our strategies, to try to make them even better.For me, the first batch of cookies had been good. They had turned out too flat compared to Levain’s cookies (we were partially to blame since the recipe mentioned adding more flour to avoid that) and the salt ratios seemed too …
The Bake Off: Round 2, The Husband Attempt
Chocolate chip cookies are amazing. My wife and I have always had an eye out for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipes. Especially on those days where sometimes you just need a cookie. We recently learned about the Levain Chocolate Chip Cookies. Since then we've watched multiple youtube videos of people trying to re-make this magic. Though we still have yet to try the real thing, my wife and I decided to have a bake-off.We …
The Cookie Bake Off
Levain cookies. Ever heard of them?I hadn’t until recently, but according to many, they make the best chocolate chip cookies, maybe even the best cookies in general in the US. The bakery is based in New York and I’ve never been. With quarantine I’m not sure when/if I’ll ever get to go. But the obsession easily rubbed off on me.I’d been watching a lot of cooking and baking videos on YouTube when I stumbled upon …
The Quarantine Shawl
My great aunt, who taught me how to knit when I was 10, passed away in 2016. I was lucky enough to visit her a few times in the months before her passing and during one visit, she gave me my pick of all of her knitting supplies. I took almost all the needles and a good amount of yarn. To this day I haven’t made much with the yarn unfortunately, yet I still find …
Jingalov Hats
My husband is Armenian. Or half at least, but for Armenians, it feels like anything over 5% and you’re Armenian. I’ve learned a lot over the years about Armenians and their culture. Where they come from, the Armenian Genocide and what it did to the people who survived, the diaspora (the dispersion of people from their homeland) it created and the fall out from that.I’ve also learned about the most important part of every culture. …
Wedding Flowers DIYs
When my husband and I got married, I knew that I wanted to get crafty with some of the “physical memories” from the wedding. I asked the seamstress to save the scraps from my dress, I even saved the scraps from his suit hemming, but I was most excited about the flowers. Our flowers were beautiful. The bouquets were packed with color and texture. I saved as much as I could from mine and a …
It’s okay. Because it’s not. Quarantine Knitting
During the first month of quarantine, I spent a lot of time on Reddit, specifically r/knitting. At first it was inspiring and motivating to see people pump out sweater after sweater, blanket after blanket. There was a lot of “ohhhh I want to make that!” and “I’ll bookmark that pattern and make it since I have so much time at home to do nothing.” But it never really materialized. Soon, instead of being inspired by …
Some days, you just need a cookie
We recently got back from vacation and adjusting has been a bit rough. Between the time change, catching up on appointments, and just getting back into the swing of things, the days have been pretty long. Today in particular was a tough one. At one point I texted my husband: I never made it to the store, but I did take quite a long nap followed by waking up and reviewing my “Cookies and brownies …
The Yarn of Hanalei
On a recent vacation my husband and I were lucky enough to go to Hawaii. I’d been to the Big Island before as a kid and it was wonderful walking him through my memories of such an amazing place. We also went to Kauai which I found to be one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. We hiked, kayaked and swam in waterfalls. It was perfect. But to the point. While wandering around …