New Job, New Year, Same Baking Fails

Happy 2019 everyone!

I’m fully aware that we are 27 days into the New Year but this is my first post of 2019. I would apologise for not having posted earlier but I started a new job three weeks ago and it has taken me a minute to adjust. I have never worked full-time before — well, I’ve never actually worked period. I have been very fortunate that since I graduated uni that I was able to travel and volunteer without any real financial commitments nagging at me. In other words, I faffed about for two years and lived off my parents money! Okay, in all honesty, I had been looking for work for about a year but finding a job that I enjoyed and could do with my disability was a little bit difficult. I couldn’t be like my friends who went into retail so I had to do an actual “adult” job which requires actual “adult” skills. It was truly by the grace of God that I got this job, and after a week or so of constantly questioning whether I could actually do this job properly, I am truly grateful to God that I’m really starting to enjoy it. I’m not going to go into detail about what my job actually is because it deals with the public and I would rather not have a slightly annoyed customer Google my name and start leaving comments on this blog. This blog is my safe space and I intend to keep it that way!

Anyways, let’s talk about food because that’s way more interesting then talking about work. My free time has somewhat disappeared since I’ve started my job so things that I make and bake during the week have to be pretty quick and simple. Last Friday, I was in dire need of some comfort food and my most comforting dessert has to be an apple crumble. I am telling you there is nothing more soothing than the sound and smell of fresh apples frying in foamy butter with cinnamon and nutmeg. If there was to ever be an apple-cinnamon-butter flavoured candle sold in stores, I can promise you that I would clear out the shop within an hour.

Unfortunately (or considering my track record on this blog, predictably) my apple crumble did not go as planned. I feel as you take this moment to emphasise that I can bake and cook but for some reason whenever I’m making something to talk about on the blog it all goes a little bit pear-shaped. Crumble is such an easy thing to make that I didn’t even bother looking up a recipe. The apples were cooking down in a pan and they were looking juicy and caramelised. I was feeling really good about it so much so that I was dancing in the kitchen while the apples cooked (if you’re curious, my current dancing tune is Bless the Lord by Tye Tribbett). Then I decided to make the crumble and realised only flour I had was gluten-free self raising flour but that did not deter me. I figured that the crumble might take on the texture of a cobbler/pie crust when the raising agents made contact with liquid but that didn’t sound completely bad. In other words, I was not in the mood to go to the shops to buy plain flour so whatever was going to happen was going to happen. And a weird thing happened…

I’m really annoyed that I didn’t get a photo of the crumble when it came out of the oven. I literally went upstairs to call a friend for 15 minutes and by the time I came down the crumble was out of the oven and it had been attacked by everyone. The thing I wanted to show you guys was the colour that my crumble when after baking. It was very white when it went in the oven and by the time it came out it didn’t really brown. It just went a light grey colour. I know — very odd. I see here it was the fact that we used a butter spread rather than actual butter and that we did not use enough of it. It wasn’t very crumbly but it was still very tasty. And let’s not forget the golden rule: anything tastes good once it’s covered in half a pint of custard!

Okay, starting the year with a baking fell definitely wasn’t what I wanted for the blog but if I’ve let anything in the last few weeks is that we cannot plan for every single thing. Some days we get a good; sometimes we get it hard. But as long as you enjoy yourself and are willing to adjust to make it work — it’s all good! I’m not really sure what I’m going to make this week (I’m thinking maybe a stew?) but if you have any suggestions for midweek meals or relaxing weekend bakes, please comment below and let me know.

That’s me done for today – I’m off to binge watch as much and me as I humanly can before I have to go to bed at 9:30 in order to be a functioning human being at work tomorrow (#lifeofaworkinggirl).

See you next week

Mary xx