Monthly Musings: January 2021
Hi friends, happy Wednesday! Wow, I am slow getting myself into gear this year! I’m trying to practice Karlee‘s ‘Gentle January’ idea, and honestly, I’m living my best life. It’s all about taking the pressure off, doing what feels right, and trying not to push yourself. Hence, I am unapologetically appearing here with my Monthly Musings January 2021 post not on the first Wednesday of the month like normal, but instead on the second Wednesday – because I was too busy drinking cups of hot chocolate laden with far-too-big-a-spoonful of whipped cream to care about much else. It’s been so good!
We have so much to talk about! Did you have a nice Christmas? A wonderful New Year? I managed to fit in an outdoor socially distanced meal + drinks with my best gal pals before Christmas and it was so nice! I then had a lovely few days at home with my family over Christmas, and a few days with Boyfriend’s family after that. Everything else fell by the wayside because we wanted to make sure we did our bit in protecting loved ones. You can never be too careful, ya know? It’s just not worth the risk.
Shall we jump into our Monthly Musings January 2021 post? After a lengthy break from my pastry course, I’m back working hard to learn all there is to know. You read on, I’ll be over here laminating inverted puff pastry and praying that it works.
Enjoy!
Monthly Musings: January 2021
The saga of Covid-19 in Ireland has gotten wildly out of control.. again. As of December 31st, we’ve been in a full-scale Level 5 lockdown, with no concrete end date in sight. No restaurants or bars open, no household visits, a strict 5km from home limit, no schools or colleges, non-essential retail closed, non-essential construction has stopped, and you can only meet up with people from one other household at an outdoor area. The cases in the last week reached an all time high of over eight thousand, and the new strain of the virus was confirmed in the country. It feels bizarre to be writing this down – let alone living through it – but this blog is my journal, and I can only imagine what it’ll feel like to read back over these posts in 10 years.
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Despite the above, 2020 was actually a pretty good year for me! Highlights include: 1) gathering up the courage to leave my job after eight cushy years of complacency. It was no easy decision to make – especially knee-deep in a pandemic! – but it has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. 2) working through the PUFF School of Pastry course and loving it. 3) finally moving the blog to WordPress and giving it the facelift it badly needed. 4) rediscovering the joy of creating recipes and publishing content every single week (or there abouts). As well as staying healthy and happy, loved and in love. Pretty great!
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Obviously, the new restrictions ruined the few plans we had for Boyfriend’s birthday on NYE. Instead of going out for dinner & ringing in the new year with his family, we celebrated at home alone for the first time. We had pancakes for breakfast, I made this cake with this frosting, we ordered takeaway, we watched Boyfriend’s favourite movie, and we stayed up till midnight to ring in 2021. Dare I say it, it was probably my favourite new year’s eve 🙂
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Related: I’m not really one for new year’s resolutions, but I’m making myself a little goal for the blog this year. Over the course of the year, I want to create & share at least one new recipe in each category. The two categories I create the most for are Cakes and Pies & Tarts, but I really want to try harder to include those other neglected categories. Watch this space!
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I was gifted some lovely thoughtful gifts at Christmas. Fancy candles that smell like Italy, practical kitchen gifts, and so many other wonderful things – but I wanted to mention my new jigsaws especially! My sister gave me a personalized jigsaw of Boyfriend & I at the English Gardens in Munich, and my best friend gave me one of Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’. How well do my loved ones know me!? I now have three jigsaws to my name, and they represent my three favourite things: art, Italy, and traveling with Boyfriend!
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Have you baked this year yet? My first bake of 2021 was a very good one: Angela Nilsen’s Ultimate Scones. I was pretty baked out after all the cookies boxes in December, but these were the perfect ease-you-back-in recipe. Bonus: they are literally the best scones I’ve ever tasted.
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In case you ever have leftover risotto: I followed The Kitchn’s recipe for arancini recently & it is perfection. We died and went to food heaven, truly.
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Just to update you on the Ina recipe I shared last month: it’s amazing! I’ve already made it four times and it is so satisfyingly simple and crispy and just damn delicious! Next on my Ina to-make list: Tuscan White Bean Soup.
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I found myself laughing out loud and even laugh-crying a bit at this article: The Very Real, Totally Bizarre Bucatini Shortage of 2020.
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An oldie but a goodie I had hoped we wouldn’t need: Snow Day Chocolate Cake. It snowed a few days last week and there was a lotttt of ice – temperatures dropped to -7C. I didn’t leave the house for like a week. After watching passersby have a few near slip incidents outside our house, I regret nothing.
There we have it, Monthly Musings January 2021, our first of the new year! I hope you enjoyed that peek inside my head and that you found something to take away with you – be it an invitation to have yourself a Gentle January, Ina’s chicken recipe, or a funny article to laugh at. See you in three short weeks for February’s musings!
All my love,
Vicki xo