Cake mixes.

Ok, so I love baking. I love baking from scratch, but I also love baking from mixes. Because the cleanup from baking sucks. I'm mildly OCD in that I like to wait putting the batter in the oven until I start washing the dishes. Anyways. I'm shedding off more shame about using mixes, which I do more now that I'm back home with my parents and don't feel like stocking up on baking supplies. 

Its hard for me not to make changes as in substitutions. Some of that is loaded in that I have a history of an eating disorder and my default is to try to reduce calories as much as possible. But in baking, I realize that that compromise is a fundamental and unjust one. Jacques Pepin or Julia Child would not approve. Nor MFK Fisher. But, often I like to substitute yogurt or fruit/vegetable puree for the oil/butter. 

Today, I'm going to make a vanilla cake from Trader Joes' Madagascar Vanilla cake mix. I haven't tried it yet, and it calls for an entire stick of butter, but I feel actually excited about it. Maybe this time I will put in that stick. Or maybe 3/4. Or maybe all of it. Its the new year, after all.

Hello, world.

So, I'd been trying to start a blog for months, years (!) and for some reason or another, those plans tended to fizzle out with a hiss. I don't know why the urge to write a blog is even extant - what does it mean? what does it say about me? But a lot of people sure feel the same way, and well, its probably a very fundamentally human thing and so, heck, I'll try it out.

Here I'll post random bits. I don't want to make a high-pressure, perfectionistic, highly curated thing (yet), but just blab random stuff. Stuff that I like, or that make my innards stir, or things that are going on in my life.