Reading and Baking and Writing...Oh, My!

 As I'm figuring out my work-life balance (ha!), I've been carving out time to pursue some creative hobbies.  One thing I've realized about myself is I love thinking of an idea and then seeing it come to life.  I think that's why I like baking - I can see the image, and then mix together the ingredients to make it a reality.  The sugar doesn't hurt, either :)

Last week, I saw one of my favorite recipe writers Molly Bad post a cookie that I had to try.  These turned out DELICIOUS.  You can find the recipe by joining her recipe club: www.mollybaz.com.  They're so good, I'm planning to make them again this week.

Then, I saw one of my other favorite recipe writers (Anna Watson Carl of The Yellow Table) post that she made Molly Baz's Banana Bread, so she inspired me:

And then I thought, hmm, I haven't made one of Anna's recipes in a while, so we had her Carbonara with Garlicky Greens for dinner tonight.  (Confession: we were supposed to have it on Friday when we had a couple of friends over for dinner, but we had a slight Instacart mishap.)

People have asked me: what's the most unexpected thing about having a kid?  Two things come to mind: the first is we see our family (our parents and siblings) even more than before.  Makes total sense, but I just hadn't thought about it!  And the second I've been noticing: we've done a lot more hosting at home, because it's sometimes easier to keep Maisie in her space.  I've actually enjoyed this a ton!  We have had a few at home weekend coffee and brunch hangs, even a couple impromptu!  It gives me an excuse to bring out the creativity of meal planning, cooking, and baking!

And in addition to all the cooking and baking, I've re-started writing a novel!  I'm sharing this publicly to hold myself accountable :)  It's a romcom novel about finding yourself in your 20s, called But In Your Twenties, You're A Tease.  I started writing this novel years and years ago, but it often falls off, so it's been fun to pick it back up and keep making progress.