Monthly Musings: May 2020

Hello sweet friends, welcome to our Monthly Musings post for May!

How are you keeping? I hope this post finds you healthy & safe.

While scrolling down through the blog recently I noticed something wonderful. I have been consecutively posting content now for the last 11 weeks. Apart from a short-lived spike in 2016, that kind of commitment to posting hasn’t occurred much since 2013. This is perhaps one of the best things to come from my Covid-19 lockdown. Well, that, and also homemade Sausage & Egg McMuffins, which I’ve totally mastered.

On a more serious note – it looks like Ireland is on its way to reopening. The government have released a roadmap for the reopening of the country and there’s a definite feeling of hope in the air! I’m a little skeptical about some of the projected dates, but that’s just me. Until things get back to some kind of normalcy, I’m going to continue to lounging around the house in my comfiest clothes, hassling Boyfriend, and pretending that blogging about baking is my job. I must admit, it’s a very nice pretence.

This month’s offering is below. I hope you find something useful to take away with you – be it a recipe, a new favourite YouTube show, or an itch to organize your favourite photos. I’ll be over here, revelling in my current lack of responsibilities. Enjoy!

Monthly Musings: May

Remember when we used to travel? Sigh. Until we can do it again, I’m sharing all my tips on travelling through Tuscany. My first post – An Ode to Florence – went online a couple weeks ago, and my post about San Gimignano is coming next week. Stay tuned!

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Gilmore Girls is my comfort show of choice, and I finally got around to watching the last four episodes that went up on Netflix. While they aren’t nearly as funny as the original seven seasons, I must admit that I rather enjoyed them.

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In case you missed it: passionate baker turned 8 last week! 8 years old! It is so crazy to me that I’ve been occupying this corner of the internet for that long. I baked this Buttermilk Cake with Chocolate Fudge Frosting to celebrate, and it’s some of my finest work.

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I totally regrew some vegetables this past month! After reading this Food52 article, I was determined to give it a go. Over the course of April, we grew some celery leaves & managed to regrow several spring onions. I’d call that a success.

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During our lockdown period, I found myself – along with the rest of the country – itching to bake sourdough again. Yes, homemade sourdough is delicious & 100% worth the effort.. but I just couldn’t justify the amount of flour it eats up. Instead, I turned to Imen’s White Soda Bread and have yet to look back – it’s so delicious!

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I spent an embarrassing amount of time organizing and backing up all of my photos recently. Like, alllllll of them – old ones that were randomly scattered across the internet, ones my friends had, everything on my Google Photos, the whole lot. All in all, I’d say it took me the guts of a week, but now everything is so clean & wonderful!

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My friend Síofra recently got me addicted to watching Claire Saffitz’s YouTube show ‘Gourmet Makes’. It is so cool! We are definitely going to try out her Gourmet Pop Tarts recipe, I can’t wait!

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We’ve been on a real grilled cheese kick the last few weeks and I am loving the sounds of this French Onion Grilled Cheese. Can you think of anything more comforting?

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What are you reading lately? I recently found myself reaching for the old reliable, Harry Potter. The whole series is such a comfort read for me – it was wonderful to be able to lose myself in the wizarding world again.

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The newest addition to our cookbook family: the Dishoom Cookbook. We are huge Dishoom fans and I am already totally obsessed with this book – it is so beautiful! It also doesn’t hurt that the handful of recipes I’ve made so far have been ahh-mazing.

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It took a while, but I finally caved and joined in on the #1 lockdown hobby of the whole world: baking banana bread. I used this staple recipe by Joy & we ate the whole loaf within 2 days. Delicious!

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I genuinely can’t believe that I made it this far into life without ever seeing Jurassic Park, but I’m glad that Boyfriend finally righted this blatant wrong – I loved it! The Dilophosaurus jump scare in the car got me so good!

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An oldie but a goodie from this time two years ago: Salted Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Cookies.

Hopefully things will be slightly better by the time I sit down to write next month’s post. I’m not looking forward to wearing jeans or make-up again any time soon, but I guess I’ll have to cross that bridge when we get there. Stay safe, friends!

My socially distanced love to you,

Vicki xo

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