not so toasty tuesday

Today was much chillier than yesterday. It looked nice enough but it was windy and chilly and the sun didn't seem to make much of a difference. That didn't stop me though, I still went on a run. I didn't want to but I did.

I made bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches this morning for me and Soren. After we quickly ate, I had a Zoom call with my new company officer and Soren went to work. She is a Captain in the Marine Corps like my old company officer. However, she was enlisted before so she brings a unique perspective. She did not go to the Naval Academy either. She seems cool and I can't wait to meet her in person. I felt really good when she suggested three books that we should read as far as good leadership examples go and one of them was Extreme Ownership. When she asked if anyone had read it I was the only one. Thanks to my mom for giving me the book and thanks to my mom's boss for suggesting they read these leadership books. Once I finally finish it I'll read the sequel.

I went to the grocery store today for some basics and some stuff so that I can continue my incessant baking. I will have to say that my homemade mask is so uncomfortable that it's an incentive for me to speed shop so that I can get to the car and take it off. I really feel for medical professionals who have that on their ears all day. I can't even imagine.

I began the Poptart making process. The recipe author said that she makes the filling a day ahead of time so that it has time to chill and it makes it easier to work with. I followed her advice and I made the strawberry filling today. I'll make the dough and assemble them tomorrow. The filling was super easy and it smelled so good while I was making it. I've never made a jam before but I imagine it was a lot like this and I think I could be into it. I don't know what kind of hill I've gone down but I currently spend a lot of searching for recipes... I don't really have a criteria besides "looks easy enough." I think these Poptarts are the trickiest thing I've tried. So far, so good. I took a picture of the filling to send to Claire and I'll include it. The picture doesn't do it justice, it's so pretty in person. The strawberries were a beautiful color. Oh, a side note, a new hobby of mine has been making these recipes and then going back and commenting on them. Don't worry, I normally just give them a star rating and positive feedback. I'm a big five-star giver. The recipe would have to be really bad for me to give it less. I also pick recipes based on their stars.

I've also been keeping track of recipes I've made that I'd make again and they're separated into "baked" and "cooked." That's how I distinguish between desserts and other foods. I also have a spot for future recipes, both of the baked and cooked variety.

I ran after my filling was done. I did intervals and they sucked, to put it lightly. Like I said in the beginning, it was cold today. So the weather did not make me want to run. I did them and I'm glad I did. They can only help. There was a man who was doing some work on a house and the first time I ran by he said hello and waved, after I ran by 16 times after that I think he thought I was crazy. That's okay, at least I was running.

When we got back to Soren's grandparents' house, I guess I did not feel like I'd been productive enough so I made strawberry banana chocolate chip baked oatmeal. I'd never heard of baked oatmeal, I stumbled upon it accidentally. It's super simple, you just put it all in a pan and bake it. I was trying to find a way to get rid of some strawberries and bananas because we had a lot. The strawberries were on sale again and I'd used some for the filling but I still had a lot left and I didn't want them to go bad. The only hiccup I had with the oatmeal recipe was that the author said to use a "2 quart pan" and I had no idea what that was, luckily after some Googling and searching, I figured out that Soren's Gram does have one. I think a regular square brownie pan would've worked the same. I haven't tasted them yet but they look really pretty and I'm excited to try for breakfast tomorrow. I added more strawberries and bananas than the recipe says but other than that, I followed it. I also just eyeballed the chocolate chips because you can never have too many. I will also say that I'm not normally a huge cooked fruit girl but I guess I'll let you know how it goes. The bars are supposed to be cut in nine pieces, I'll do it tomorrow morning when I try it. Here's the recipe: https://www.kimscravings.com/easy-strawberry-banana-baked-oatmeal/

EDIT: I tried a bar. Taste-wise, they are yummy, I like the flavor and they're not too sweet. However, I'm not a huge cooked fruit fan so that makes me a little squeamish but I'm managing. Also, I don't know if I didn't bake them long enough or what but the bottom is still a little moist so I would perhaps bake them longer than 35 mins. I put them in the fridge overnight because of the egg and milk situation, I used coconut milk so maybe it's not necessary, I don't know. I'm going to try heating up my slice in the microwave tomorrow, maybe that'll help. It definitely won't hurt it. I don't think I'll make these again. I told my dad he'd be better off to just make a bowl of oatmeal and put all of the fruit, chocolate chips, cinnamon, and sugar on top. I think it'd be more enjoyable.

I'm hoping the Poptarts are enough work tomorrow that I'll satisfy my weird need to bake all of the time but we'll see. I think I need to slow down for everyone's sake so that we don't become morbidly obese. I also tried out my new cold brew coffee pot, it's steeping in the fridge. I hope the coffee turns out, I'm excited to try it in the morning. I also bought more k-cups in case it's a failure, but I don't think it will be.

I think I'm going to start a free online class tomorrow. A friend of mine suggested them to my company at school and said that she really likes them. I figure that it's better than doing nothing, or searching for recipes in my case. If you were wondering, next in the queue is Oreo brownies. With the brownies made from scratch. I don't think I've ever made brownies from scratch because the boxed mix is always better but I think I'll give it a whirl, I have time, I'll make them taste good. It's literally just one layer of homemade brownies with white chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate chips (or any kind), a layer of full Oreo cookies, the rest of the brownie batter and then some crushed Oreos and more chocolate chips on top. I think I can handle it. I also see some more banana bread in my future, depending on how quickly these bananas get eaten. I found a recipe for cranberry orange bread that sounds really good too, it also has apple in it, which might be to keep it moist or something... I don't really know. That's far into the future though because it requires cranberries and oranges which we don't have. Wow you're now getting a good look at my "problem." I haven't baked this much since probably elementary school when I went through a cupcake baking phase where I would make these almost gourmet cupcakes and put them in cute boxes and give them to the neighbors. I cook too I just haven't really had the chance/no one has needed me to cook.

Okay, per usual, hope everyone is healthy and happy! Perhaps this'll end soon!