***
My friend David made fruitcake with so much candied fruit and booze that it is still mostly wet after three hours of baking. It is delicious. I'm trying to offset it by consuming actual pounds of kale, but I know it doesn't exactly work that way.***
January: lemon bars -- Hut 10 kitchen, McMurdo, Antarctica. Aside from the first lettuce anyone had eaten in over a month, the lemon bars were the crowning glory of the Shuttles holiday party.
February: chocolate chip cookies -- also Hut 10. I disappeared for a while on a slow day of work to mix dough with a friend, and got to deliver a few samples to my new boyfriend.
March: croissants -- The Swedish Bakery, Nelson, NZ. I didn't bake these, but I sure are the shit out of them.
April: scones -- 273 Bealey Ave., Christchurch, NZ. a.k.a. my international shelter-in-place pad, temporary quarantine "flat" while abroad. The buttermilk over there is incredibly thick. And my clandestine meeting with a friend all the sweeter for a shared snack.
May: blondies -- Kelly's cousin's house, Montrose, CO. I loved the gooey caramelization from the Betty Crocker recipe, and they went down pretty well with Kelly's friends.
June: biscuits -- tiny trailer oven, somewhere in western CO. I baked off my frozen rectangles in a few locations, and they came out light and crisp and fueled high-altitude hikes.
July: potatoes in foil -- the campfire, Ironton(?), CO. I guess technically they steamed, and perhaps were cooked by all three forms of heat (convection, conduction, and radiation). Whatever the science, so delicious with ketchup.
August: fish -- mom and dad's house, Traverse City, MI. Mom doesn't like the house to smell fishy, so I coated it with mustard and walnuts and shut it in the oven.
September: decadent pizza -- Pixley Pioneer homestead, Kalamazoo, MI. There were multiple cheeses, olives, pepperoni, and we all chowed down.
October: whole chicken -- Katie and Ken's house, also Traverse City. Beautiful juicy bird, beautiful jewel-like root veggies, beautiful picturesque dock on the lake, beautiful goofball friendship.
November: potato rolls -- Trucker's Cafe kitchen, Coldfoot, AK. We make our own hamburger buns, and they are just really damn good, especially right out of the oven, with three pats of butter.
December: adolescent redemption -- also Coldfoot. BUCHE! I made a pretty great Yule log cake for staff dessert. The secret? Chocolate on chocolate on chocolate, with a scattering of crushed Oreo.
So it's been a good year of baking, despite the obstacles and shifting sands. And hey, we had homemade lobster ravioli for Christmas, and the sun is coming back, and there's a new season of "Big Mouth," and so many more things to pop in the oven and transform into delicious goodness.
dusky cafe
Regarded-vous les champignons mignons!
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