Whoa, first blog post!
I’ve been going back and forth with this idea of should I reboot my blogging or not. From the looks of this, it looks like my blogging is back on. It’s been a while since I’ve shared anything in this format. And since we’re currently in a pandemic, hey, why not. Feels good to be back.
I’m not really sure what I will share here. A good guess will probably be lots of baking recipes with some savory ones sprinkled in here and there… and maybe some fitness/wellness pieces, but I don’t really know for certain. Part of me thinks this will serve as my collection of favorite food recipes and stories. And I kind of like that idea. I like having a place to go to, to look up recipes I’ve made before and enjoy but don’t make it often enough to have it memorized. I hope I can improve on my food photography so that the posts I share are accompanied by beautiful images. I also love food adventures and stories. And especially in this current time, I miss all the good eats out in the world (see below — crepes in Paris, brunch in Portland or soft-shell crab ramen in the Bay Area). I can’t wait for life to get back to where we can eat out again, hang out with people other than our immediate housemates or limited people we allow in our social bubbles.
I guess I will figure what I share here as I go along. We shall see! Oh, so yes… maybe I should do a mini intro. Okay, here it goes…
Hi, I’m Mai. 👋 I love to bake. I had no idea baking was a thing for me until many years ago when I was on maternity leave with baby #1. Who knew?! I’ve been baking ever since.
Of all the times I’ve been baking, I will admit most times I just wing it. I mean, I don’t always measure everything precisely, especially if I’ve made the recipes a bunch of times. But these days, I am slowly getting away from winging it. I’m not there completely yet, but a tiny bit better than I was before. Whenever I bake these days, especially for recipes I really care about (C’s fave chocolate chip cookies), I will measure everything with a scale. It’s so that I bake the perfect chocolate chip cookies as per request every time, crispy on the outside but still soft and chewy on the inside. And I feel so proud because I never do this — measure! Hahaha, crazy to think it’s this simple, right?
I hope to be more intentional in my baking, try out new recipes, see what I like and don’t like, and also really see if I can perfect any one recipe. Currently, I’m back to square 0, okay, maybe 1, when it comes to making macarons. I have a new oven and I’ve yet to make the perfect batches of macarons. They look beautiful, but they’re hollow — and you know that’s not good. I have lots of baking books (some still in their plastic wrapper, yikes!) that I also hope to try. I want to get better at my food photography (you can see a few I posted above) so we shall see if I can progress there. I guess it’ll be an adventure I look forward to sharing (successes and/or failures) and I hope that you’ll follow along with me.
Okay, that’s enough for now. Not really a whole lot about me. I will need to get better at this. If you got this far, you’re awesome, and thank you. I’m so glad you’re here. Oh, if you don’t mind, feel free to drop a line to say hello and let me know what your favorite dessert is. Mine is cheesecake, the one from Junior’s in Brooklyn. They make the best kind. SOOOO. GOOD.