Procrastination. It's occasionally delicious.

Mom, plan on making these cookies to mail to me on the trail. Sea salt & demerara sugar encrusted chocolate cookies (I overdosed on the sea salt a little, but that was ok!). Recipe via Orangette (I couldn't find a direct link, but it was a fairly recent post).

I have a million things I should be doing, but instead for the past two months all I have consistently been productive at is baking. There are worse things to waste time with, I suppose.

Comfort.

Sometimes on frigid winter days all you want to do is hibernate and eat. Occasionally I give in to those urges. The other day I made oatmeal molasses bread with leftover oatmeal... A LOT of leftover oatmeal. This resulted in eight loaves of bread and a desire to get rid of a few of these loaves and eat something cozy. So I made maple bread pudding with cranberry apple compote. I adapted the recipe from here (less sugar, no praline topping), and made up a topping from leftover fruit that was on its last legs. I am pleased to report it at least temporarily made me forget about the negative two degree temperature outdoors that I woke up to.


The temperature the past few days has been much more mild... but that hasn't stopped me from eating more of this.

Gingerbread mountains.

Spearmint and grapefruit forests. Pretzel logs and bridges. Waterfalls cascading with mints. Paths paved with sweets and mountains topped with rock candy ice and iridescent sugar snow.

I volunteer with Big Brother Big Sister. This is what we made today. It's a little more free-form than the creation from last year... we didn't think we could top that masterpiece, but I'm really liking this delicious alpine environment. I've already decided that it's the stretch of trail from Galehead over to Garfield. Sometimes I feel guilty that I'm perpetually unavailable as a Big Sister (a long distance hike, plus two months in another country, plus living/working in another state for the past two seasons ='s us not hanging out very much) but I like to think that at least I'm showing Olivia that you don't always have to follow the traditional route of gainful employment. There's options. And adventure. I think the fact that she opted to make gingerbread mountains (her idea!) shows that I'm definitely rubbing off on her, at least a little. And check out that sweet waterfall... these mountains are pretty epic. Yeah, I'm definitely rubbing off on her a little. 

Last year's gingerbread Appalachian Trail Shelter, complete with privy, bonfire, and a not-so-true-to-scale shelter mouse with peppermint top hat.

A Thanksgiving recipe

I'm actually not celebrating Thanksgiving this year... at least, not in the traditional sense with family. Instead, I'll be working. But the nice thing about this job is that when I'm not hiking or doing less interesting things I have lots and lots of time to bake. This is one of my favorites; it's a really flexible recipe with lots of room for creativity in ingredients and not being exact with amounts (which is how I like to bake). And, it looks incredible but is oh so forgiving in terms of making a crust (you don't even have to make one!) and laying out the fruit. Although I'm sure most of you have already finished your baking ahead of time, if you're last-minute like me, this is what you should make! It's rich, buttery, and really lets the flavors of the fruit shine. When I make it with just apples, it's like a pared-down essence of apple pie that, in my eyes, is even better than apple pie. Yes. I said it. Enjoy!

 Cranberry Apple Pear Rustic Tart with Cranberry Glaze 

Adapted from Orangette

Healthy alternate version coming soon... but I could not resist sharing my favorite comfort food!