Hello, beautiful readers!
It’s been a minute, hasn’t it??
Ryan’s Kitchen Journal is now Ryan Bakes It! A year and a half away has given me time to think, and over that time, my interest in baking and blogging has sort of re-emerged.
Over the next few weeks, you’ll continue to see some other changes made on the site — there may even be a huge layout change — I’m not quite sure yet.
But anyway, I hope you’ll be along for the ride!
More to come!
Stay tuned!
Well, it’s been a while since I’ve made an Ina recipe. Actually, it’s been a while since I’ve made any recipe and then wrote a blog post about it. But last weekend for the first time in a while, I actually had a reason to bake! So I took advantage of it and decided that perhaps it might be good to write a blog post, too.
Over the weekend I attended an Oktoberfest party and I was asked to bake something. Sticking with the German theme, I quickly decided on making a German chocolate cake. But then I realized that for a party, cupcakes might be easier to both make and eat. The dessert becomes finger food, perfect for an outdoor gathering during the last few warms days of the year. Luckily for me, Ina Garten had a German chocolate cupcake recipe. It was like the stars aligned.
Continue reading “Barefoot Contessa Recipe 65 – German Chocolate Cupcakes”
About four years ago, as the world was still dealing with the effects of the COVID pandemic, I started a blog. I’ll be honest now. I wanted it to become “big.” I wanted it to be popular, similar to the food blogs I read and visit online often.
It didn’t take me long to realize that running and maintaining a food blog of that caliber is a full time job. And unless I was willing and able to put in the work, that it would be a long shot for me to achieve that goal. I guess I assumed that it would happen overnight. How delusional I was!
Continue reading “Fourth Anniversary Thoughts”
Fall has officially arrived! Pumpkin spice lattes, large crisp apples, cooler days and nights, and soon the leaves will be changing colors. Fair season is in full swing in New England. This year, I was able make the trip to The Big E in Massachusetts. It’s New England’s largest fair and runs over two weeks every year. I was really happy to get back there this year, after missing it last year due to my work schedule.
Continue reading “Fall Flavor Recipes: Scones, Cakes, and More”As the weather changes, and I’ve settled into my new work schedule, I’m going to make an effort to return to baking and blogging.
A couple weeks ago, I decided to reactivate my baking bug. I made something that I’ve made a few times before and blogged about before. It was Ina Garten’s Banana Chocolate Crumb Cake. You can read more about it here.
Of course my most recent iteration of it didn’t look quite as good as the original. The picture is below. Ignore the sunken spot in the middle. I have yet to buy a proper cake tester for the condo, so I had to use a butter knife.
Wow!
I’ll admit, this book was a pretty fast read. Though I did put it down for a full day without touching it because I wasn’t sure I was ready to continue on with the story.
In essence, this book contained two separate stories that were linked together by the two couples’ love for each other. Of course, there was this underlying vibe that the second couple was really the first couple in some reincarnated form. I think this was Steel’s point with this book, though. However, she was almost too good at it.
The first story had me really invested and I really would have liked to see the full story for those two characters, except, of course, they are both killed. Both of these happened quite tragically, by the way.
The first half of the book revolves around a high profile fashion guru and her want-to-be minister husband. Eventually, he takes a job at a church in the Midwest and they are forced to leave New York City behind. Which means that the wife can no longer really work. Though she tries to remotely.
One day on a trip to some backwoods parishioners, there’s an accident and the minister is killed. A few weeks (or maybe it was months…it was a while ago), his wife is killed in a car accident on the way to meet their new baby.
With the turn of the page, the setting and characters change.
We are now dropped in Lancaster County, PA and meet a young Amish woman who has a strong desire to become a writer. And become a writer she does. Using the help of an English (non-Amish) dairy farmer she makes contact with a book editor in NYC. The editor comes to PA and eventually convinces her to sign a book deal.
There’s only one problem. Her father, an Amish Elder in the community, won’t let her go to New York or publish the book. Eventually, she does get to the opportunity to publish the book, but I think she has to leave her family, faith, and community behind.
To be honest, it was a few months ago now, so I cannot remember all the details.
Overall, I do think this book was well-written. The structure of the novel, with two shorter stories was a clever idea and I’m not sure how common it is in women’s fiction today. That said, I did want more from both of these stories. Personally, I was more invested in the first couple than the second couple. I’m not really sure as to why that is.
Overall, I give the book 3.25 out of 5 stars. I liked The Mistress better than this one. But The Cottage is now at the bottom of the list. I still can’t get over how annoying some of those characters were!
Hi everyone!
As you may have noticed over the better part of the last year that this site has become nearly dormant. Ever since I started a new job last summer, I just haven’t had that much time to bake and then write about it.
At first I thought that as I settled more into my new role, things would change. It would become easier to find a rhythm that worked. But eventually, I realized that I think I’d just rather be doing other things. So, the baking went to the back-burner. I even stopped collecting cookbooks in the same capacity as I had earlier.
Continue reading “A New Adventure Awaits”Hi there! I’m still spending most of my time reading. I’m currently working my way through the largest book I’m attempting to read so far this year. It’s Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff. During my drives, I’m chugging along with Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth. I’m really enjoying both so far. Is it spring yet?? It sure doesn’t feel like it. Even though it’s supposed to be.
I cannot believe that we are now only days away from the start of spring. What a ride winter was! This winter was a lot like last winter, when we didn’t see that much snow. And the few storms we did get, ended up being just the right amount of snow and inconvenience that I didn’t hate it all too much. That said, I cannot wait until the Earth makes its turn towards Spring for real and we can have longer days and warmer weather.
I did not intend to take such a long hiatus from the blog. However, after the New Year my life, once again, became quite busy since I entered production on another community theater show. Having next to no time in the evenings for a solid seven weeks was really difficult and I found myself getting burnt out. I couldn’t even use the blog as an escape because I just didn’t have the energy to bake anything, or even write anything. (Honestly, I didn’t really have the time to do it either.) Even though I really wanted to. I thought about blogging a lot over the last couple of months and I realized that I did miss it.
Instead of turning to blogging, which I do enjoy but can be time-consuming, I decided on a much more relaxing activity. I think, in a way, I used it as a coping mechanism for dealing with the stresses of the show and work. The activity: Reading. And boy, did I “read hard.”
So far in 2024, I’ve read seven books! Now that may not sound like a lot for “seasoned” readers, but just for perspective, I read a total of 9 books in 2023 and in 2022 I read 8. I intend to meet the 2023 goal by the end of the month. Actually I should reach 8 books read by the middle of this week.
It is often a misconception that people who work in libraries spend a good chunk of their free time reading. Heck, some people even think that librarians read on-the-job. That is a false assumption. Yes, we might read the occasional news article, but sitting behind the desk, reading a book, while we wait for patrons is not something that is allowed. In any library. Anywhere.
While we may not read at work, we do read outside of work. For most of my library career, I jumped between print book and e-books, reading on occasion and really struggled with the “so many books, so little time” mentality. A few years ago I branched in audiobooks and that help me to knock out a few additional books a year.
It wasn’t until this January that I made the conscious decision to devote more time to reading in 2024. And so far, I think I’ve done that. I was so excited to start my reading journey that I joined a new reading community app called StoryGraph. It is both similar and different to Goodreads. It’s similar in the sense that it tracks your TBR, currently reading, read titles and your reading challenges, as well as offers suggestions for books you may like. It also has a social network aspect. However, I find StoryGraph to have a lot more “nerdy” features such as charts that analyze your reading, a buddy-read function, and more. I really love the fact that StoryGraph seamlessly integrates both audiobooks and ebooks into the platform. This was something I found Goodreads to be lacking in, especially in the digital era. Also StoryGraph is an indie company, so if that is something you like to support, and you’re a reader, give them a look. I’m personally loving it so far!
I do still update my Goodreads account, for now. But I will probably migrate fully to StoryGraph by the end of the year. I decided to add Goodreads to my website and you can view the widget at the bottom of this page, if you’re interested.
So far, 2024 has been a boon for me in the reading department. I will soon finish my 8th book for the year and March isn’t even half over! Here’s a list of the books I’ve read so far.
At the moment, I am reading two books. One is technically an audiobook. As you might have noticed from the list above, I’m a big reader of fantasy. So I decided to start one of the longest and most popular fantasy series of all time: Discworld by Terry Pratchett.
While I do regret starting with The Color of Magic I’m so close to finishing, I think I can stick it out. I am finding the book a little confusing and boring. But I’ve been told that this might not have been the best book to start with and I do plan to give other books in this series a chance. There’s a whole sub-series about Witches. That in and of itself piques my interest more. So here’s to keeping my fingers crossed.
The audiobook I’m listening to is Ken Follett’s masterpiece The Pillars of the Earth. Set during the Middle Ages (a time period I studied extensively in college), it follows the story of a man who dream it is to build a cathedral. Follett does an excellent job of accurately portraying monastic life as well as the life of commoners. While the story is a big slow-moving, it is beautifully written and I wish I was able to devote long stretches of time listening to this story.
If you’ve read this far, thank you for sticking with me. Recipes posts will return soon, I promise. Or maybe this blog will slowly become a books and reading blog. Booktok, anyone??
For the first time in nearly two years, Connecticut is going get a snow storm. And a snow storm it will be. They’re predicting anywhere from 5 to 12 inches for the state. Though my area may see more like 4-8.
You may think that snow storm may be the perfect time for me to settle in and bake something earthy and homey like bread or chocolate rolls. But I decided that I’m not going to bake this weekend. Instead, I plan to enjoy the snowfall, curl up on the couch with a hot beverage and read a nice book. It just so happens that the book I’m currently reading is set in winter, too. My current read is a romance-fantasy entitled Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett. It’s a pretty light read, perfect for a snowy Sunday.
Perhaps if I’m utterly bored after reading for three hours, or more likely 23.6 minutes, I’ll whip something up in the kitchen, though my ingredient options will be limited. Unfortunately, I’m working Saturday before the storm and plan to head straight home after the library closes. Any shopping that is needed for baking or otherwise will be left to the Chemist to sort out. May the Gods be ever in his favor!
