I don’t know, insert something clever, or keep on going with the song Separate Ways by Journey. I like to write, but I don’t really know how to start this blog. So I guess I’ll just dive right in.
I left social media (well, mostly) in fall of 2021 and I don’t regret it… (well, mostly). I do miss seeing what family and friends are up to, and I miss sharing my photos. But it’s much better for my mental health (well, mostly… see a pattern?). In any case, I think writing a blog will be more my speed. I’ve always been a writer, and I do like to talk about myself. So here we go.
I’m sure most people reading this first entry already know me and who I am. I’m Catherine, my family owns a bakery, I’ve traveled the world (with more places still to go!) and I love to cook and bake. I also have 2 cats and 2 dogs. This blog will cover a bit of all of that, and maybe more. Mostly travel and cooking, I think. Last fall I gained a bunch of weight (long story) and this spring I started working out and being very strict with eating healthy. I’ve discovered a lot of cool recipes to add to my repertoire and I’m always looking for more. I love to eat local foods when I travel to a new country, and I love taking photos of a new place, or an old place.
While going through my recipe book collection, I found these cool Bear Wallow books I bought on a trip to the St. Louis Arch. The Arch is just a hop over the river from my town, so I had probably gone with someone visiting; I don’t quite remember. I remember the Pie book had the best pie crust ever and unfortunately I can’t find it. I may have to see if I can find a new copy. This bread one was super fascinating to me. I’m a baker. I come from a long line of bakers. We love bread.
There’s a couple pages on the history of mills, and lots of old-fashioned recipes. I want to try all 53. Actually 52. One is for a sourdough starter but there’s no sourdough recipe, which I found odd. And I have another starter recipe I like a lot so I may skip it. We’ll see. The sweet potato bread sounds gross to me. Full disclosure: I hate sweet potatoes. I like most foods but I do have some hard aversions. Mushrooms, sweet potatoes, and olives. Avocado I don’t like either but I’ll just pick it out. Same with shrimp. Other than that I’m pretty open to most foods. That being said, I’ll still make the sweet potato and maybe see if a family member wants it.
This is definitely going to be a long term project. I don’t even know if I want to make a loaf of bread every week, and that alone would be a year’s worth! But it’s something I can work through and have some fun doing.
I’m also starting to dabble in fermenting foods, and I want to try to make fermented sodas using a ginger bug. My first two attempts failed, so I’m going to try again and see if I can’t catch the bug for real so I can make ginger beer. Right now I have a jar of carrots and a jar of garlic fermenting. The carrots have about a day left, and the garlic 2 weeks. I’m excited, I love fermented foods. Yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi, you name it. I probably like it as long as the base is something I like. That’ll be fun to experiment with as I go on.
I don’t know how often I’ll update this blog. I do have some cool photos from a cave I went to this morning, so maybe I’ll write a blog post about that in a couple days. I love caves. I love most geologic/geographic features. That’s what I have a degree in, anyway!
Hope you all have lovely day. Til next time.
The Solo Geographer 