The One with 2024, Quarter 4: Books and Baking

 Book tally for the quarter: 26

Book tally for the year: 103

My favorite reads from the last quarter of 2024, in no particular order:

Somewhere in the Night: A Country Club Murder Thanksgiving - Julie Mulhern

Long Live the Pumpkin Queen - Shea Ernshaw (favorite of the year)

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches - Sangu Mandanna (favorite of the year)

Somewhere Beyond the Sea - T.J. Klune

Tent for Seven: A Camping Adventure Gone South Out West - Marty Ohlhaut

Baking this quarter consisted mostly of My Best Favorite's birthday cake and some Christmas treats.

This was my first time making candied oranges and the process was LENGTHY. I can't say that I'm likely to make them again.

This was also my first time making cream cheese mints. These were easy and tasty, and I WILL make them again. Maybe these are a new Christmas tradition.

I also helped a friend bake delicious red velvet cookies at our annual Christmas baking day.

A goal I have for 2025 is to actually use all the cookbooks I've collected over the years and never used. I've even recruited some friends to help me on this quest. My hope is to find joy in cooking again, add some new recipes to my rotation, and enjoy food time with friends.

"...food was really about storytelling. It was about creating something good, and then giving it away." 

- Sarah Addison Allen, Other Birds

Here's to good storytelling (in all forms) in 2025.