Gretch Runs

It's a sad time of year- Great British Bake Off is over for another year! This was my second year in a row doing all of the technical challenges, and it was so much fun again. I liked all of the variety and getting to challenge myself with different techniques and flavors that I've never tried before! I'll be sharing thoughts on all of my bakes like I did last year , but first I have to recap my Finale bake. The final challenge that the bakers (and I!) had to make was a Belgian bun. These look really similar to cinnamon rolls, but the filling was a homemade lemon curd and sultanas (I used raisins instead since I had some on hand).  This was a pretty easy process of just making the dough, letting it rise and making lemon curd. Then I just had to roll out the dough, add the curd and raisins, roll it up and slice into individual buns. I think the challenge here was that none of the steps were written out for the bakers- they were just told to make Belgian buns! Since I had all...

This was a great month of reading for me! This might be the most books that I've ever read, and while not all of them were hits I really enjoyed the variety. I'm looking forward to getting into more cozy books with Christmas right around the corner, so if you have any recommendations I would love to hear! By first- let's see what I read in November- Pachinko by Min Jin Lee In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant — and that her lover is married — she refuses to be bought. Instead, she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son's powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations. Richly told and profoundly moving, Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice...

WOW- November was a month for the books. I knew that it would be busy and fun, and it definitely was! My only goal for the month was to stay healthy and enjoy my trips, and luckily I achieved that (yay for rapid COVID tests and vaccines! Just scheduled my booster!). There are so many highlights that I could share so I'll share my top 4 moments- Hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park My entire trip to Colorado was unbelievable, but visiting RMNP (and hiking there with my two best friends) was the best experience! It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, and we had such a great time visiting different areas of the park. It's definitely somewhere I want to see and hike all around. Zoo Trip I was lucky to get to see my family twice this month, including a random and fun zoo trip with my sister and nephew the day after Thanksgiving. We went to the North Carolina Zoo, which is the largest natural-habitat zoo in the world! It was a beautiful day and we had a lot of ...