Baking Through Writer’s Block
Are you someone who prefers savory to sweet? I definitely lean toward the savory. Give me fish & chips over cookies and apple pie any day. However, one of the things I do when writer’s block attacks, is bake. Tarts, pavlovas and apple cider donuts. Gooey chocolate chip brownies and French macarons. Sweet, sweet, sweet.
Writer’s block is always a part of the process, but WHEW! During a pandemic it’s so much more intense. I feel myself dragging through the writing process, through each individual word as though I have to offer up a limb for each letter I type. When during a non-pandemic, not-pandemic, un-pandemic (Is there a correct way to say this?) my kids are at school for six hours out of the day. That’s six hours of quiet for my mind to think, to fight through writer’s block when it arrives.
Eventually I will have to write through the block. But taking breaks and doing completely different things helps too. Non-writing tasks give my brain other creative ways to behave. And that can be a necessary part of the process as well.
Baking is great for this, especially when I know the writing will be more difficult, like when my son has his Zoom band class. (He plays the trumpet. He’s a beginner. Sooooo not quiet.)
Baking doesn’t necessarily relax me, in fact, I do a lot of gluten-free baking, which has helped me create a few new swear word combinations, and I can often be found yelling or chucking the ruined tart into the garbage. But for a few hours I can set my writing woes aside and concentrate on some new baked good even if it does fall apart in the end. I can take out my stress on kneading dough or mixing batter. Gluten-free baking, baking in general is not for the faint of heart. But really, neither are writing & publishing. One has to try over and over again, sometimes tweaking a recipe or a story a gazillion times before it’s delicious, before it holds together, before anyone else will want to taste/read it.
There are many days I don’t feel like a real baker, no matter how often I bake, times when I still consider myself a newbie, an amateur, someone who doesn’t really know what she’s doing. There are times when what I’m baking is a complete fail and I swear, very colorfully, that I’m never baking again.
But I do, I always do. There are days I feel like the writing will never come, as id I don’t know how to put sentences on the paper. But the creativity always returns. I think part of it is giving myself permission to write through the crap. To know it won’t all be great, especially during the first draft or second, or third, but regardless, to try over and over again, and to accept the flops. Just like in baking. To get back up and bake and write again and again. And to remind myself, despite the days when the tart fails or the writing block hits, I still genuinely enjoy both, baking and writing.
What do you enjoying doing when the pandemic woes or writer’s block hits?
Above photo: Fig, Taleggio, & Pine Nut Tart from the cookbook Canelle et Vanille: Nourishing, Gluten-Free Recipes for Every Meal and Mood by Aran Goyoaga. This cookbook is amazing! It hits all the savory and sweet notes, and Goyoaga’s gluten free recipes are the best I’ve ever tried. I made the above tart with homemade gluten-free puff pastry from her book. DIVINE!!!! Maybe I am a real baker!
ARCs Available for Igniting Love!!
Igniting Love, Book 2 in the Rescue Me Series is almost here!
We are two months out from Katie Walsh, single mom of three girls, finding love with broody metal artist Leo Treversini. So much heart and heat with these two MCs in their late thirties. Katie might be ready for love and sex and romance again, but with three young daughters she and Leo might have to do lots of sneaking. Sneaking kisses under the stars, sneaking make out session in a storage closet, perhaps a little motivation from some sex toys…
I have electronic ARCs available in Mobi, epub and PDF formats. Email me at saram222@hotmail.com if you’re interested in receiving a free ARC in exchange for a review.
Cocktails with the Cocktail Bandits
Holy Spirits! Charleston Culture Through Cocktails
As someone who can never have too many books, let it also be true that I can never have too many cookbooks and cocktail books. Or cocktails. Ha! Or maybe not, I mean nothing says enjoy your at-home cocktails like world-wide pandemic and fear of the world going up in flames. And in the words of the Cocktail Bandits, “The more you sip the better they might taste.” Seriously, if I’m going to follow any bandits in this upside down world, it’s going to be Cocktail Bandits.
Some of you, many of you may already know and follow Taneka Reaves & Johnny Caldwell at their blog, Cocktail Bandits, but if you don’t, behold, they take their cocktail gospel seriously.
Their book Holy Spirits! Charleston Culture Through Cocktails was published in 2018. I bought a copy for my husband for father’s day because he’s the cocktail guru in our house and also, what better than a gift for him that I also get to enjoy. Right?
What I love about this book is that it celebrates cocktails through Charleston’s culture, both the past and the present. Ms. Reaves & Ms. Caldwell, experts in their field, give good cocktail, but they also share their love of Charleston, its people, the bar and restaurant gurus, and local craft makers.
The book is a good mix of fun, easy cocktails like the Carolina Shandy (Honey Basil Soda & Pabst Blue Ribbon) and more sophisticated cocktails with unique ingredients like the Upstate Revival, or the Afro Alchemy which uses edible gold flakes as a garnish! They provide a super helpful section in the back full of different syrup recipes too. So, if you’re mostly at home these days and relying on basics from your local grocery store, or searching for new, refreshing cocktail recipes, this book is full of both!
Here is the recipe for their Fresh Blush cocktail. It tastes like relaxing on the beach with your best friends, like vacation and family lake house visits, like joy and fun. We could all use a bit of joy and vacation, right now, even if it’s only in our backyard with the dog for companionship.
Fresh Blush
Ingredients
60 ml (2 ounces) Cathead Vodka (I used Absolute, because it’s what I had.)
25 ml (almost 1 ounce) Fresh Lime Juice + Lime Wheel for Garnish
50 ml (1.7 ounces) Fresh Pineapple Juice
25 ml (almost 1 ounce) Grenadine
Tonic Water
Instructions
Add vodka, lime, pineapple juice and grenadine to mixing tin; fill with ice. Shake passionately. Add ice to clean pint glass. Strain cocktail mixture over ice. Gently top cocktail with tonic water. Lovingly place pineapple leaf (if you have one!) and lime wheel garnish. Sip slowly with straw.
For me, sharing food and drink is about so much more than what’s on the plate or what’s in the glass. It’s about connection, learning, sometimes comfort, sometimes revolution. It’s about celebration. And Holy Spirits! Celebrates a gorgeous town and it’s cocktail culture in such a delicious way.
Let’s Talk Books & Cocktails!
But first, how are you all doing? This year has been ridiculous. Ridiculously difficult and painful for many of us. Personally I can’t remember a year when I was more worried, exhausted, impatient, full of anxiety, confused. Even when my sweet mom died of cancer in 2011. At least then I could hug people and really feel connected.
I’m also grateful to be with my husband and kids and weird but cuddly dog during all of this. I’m grateful for technology, as much as it drives me crazy. I’m SUPER grateful for my kids’ teachers and teachers everywhere who went from teaching in person to online educating in a matter of days. Doctors and nurses, holy cow, they are warriors. And every single person out there protesting and fighting for your lives and the lives of Black people, I am humbled and empowered.
I am trying to be a better listener. I am constantly learning, and one of my favorite ways to learn is through story. Through books, through essay, through podcasts, through cookbooks, through conversations. I am one tiny person in this massive world but I want to be an ally. If this conversation isn’t for you, feel free to unsubscribe.
If you want to be a part of the conversation and you like what I offer here, I’d love to hear your thoughts. And pass it along for anyone you think might be interested.
Now let’s get to the fun stuff!
Books I’ve Been Reading
I just finished Slay by Brittney Morris.
Slay is AN AMAZING young adult novel about one brilliant senior in high school, Kiera, who has created a secret multiplayer, online virtual reality game for Black people. When a tragedy happens in connection with her game Kiera must figure out how to save herself & her game.
The writing in this book is stunning! The story grabs a hold and doesn’t let go until the last page. And Morris squeezes every single emotion from the readers. It’s a story to get lost in, but it’s so much more than that. It gave me a peek inside the life of a Black girl in a very white world and how she is learning to define herself.
Find purchase links at Brittney Morris’s website. https://www.authorbrittneymorris.com/slay.
Romance is my favorite genre and Farrah Rochon’s The Boyfriend Project will delight you in so many ways.
I loved the two main characters, Samiah and Daniel. They’re intelligent, confident, vulnerable, and amazing. Yes, they both have faults, but Rochon made them sophisticated even with their faults. The bonkers first chapter is epic and sets the stage for a great story. There’s lots of wooing, some intrigue and SECRETS!!! Gah! Oh, and cocktails!!!
I love it when romance novels have good friendships with fabulous side characters in them too, and the friendship Samiah forms with two other Black women in the story is lovely.
Plus there’s a guaranteed happy ending and who doesn’t need that right now?!
Find links to The Boyfriend Project at Farrah’s website, https://www.farrahrochon.com/
Cocktail of the Week
The Daiquiri
This cocktail is the perfect blend of sweet + tart + whatever rum you choose. It’s chilly, delicious and fresh! And the nice thing about it during a pandemic is that it doesn’t require too many odd ingredients. I never thought I’d be considering which cocktails to drink during a pandemic. Nope, never. But here we are.
2 ounces Rum. I usually use a light rum.
1 ounce fresh lime juice
1/2-3/4 ounce simple syrup
Sugar and lime for garnish
Instructions
Dust a bit of sugar onto a small plate. Rub a slice of lime around the rim of your glass. Dip rim in sugar. This step is completely optional but adds a bit of fancy to your stay-at-home cocktail.
Fill cocktail shaker with ice. Add rum, lime juice and syrup. Shake. Strain over ice into glass, or just pour shaking ice and liquid into glass. We’re not strict here. It’s a pandemic, drink it in whatever glass you want with as much ice as you want. Add a slice of lime and enjoy.
Peace & Love! And wear a mask!
Dessert Before & After Dinner
This past Tuesday was St. Patty’s Day, 2020. I don’t think any of the four of us were wearing a lick of green. We certainly weren’t celebrating much. It was week-day two of school closures in Washington State for six weeks due to COVID-19. I suspect that originally mandated six weeks will be longer. Greg is working from home, at least while his company is still operating. Words that come to mind are: strange, worry, unknown, unprecedented. Feel free to fill in the blank.
Greg and I stocked up a few weeks ago, because the news we were following was not good from the rest of the world, and we live on an island so I was worried about things not being able to get to us. Also, unfortunately Washington State was one of the first to begin to experience this crisis in the US. We did not hoard toilet paper. In fact, even three weeks ago, the Costco we go to in Everett was already out of toilet paper on the day Greg went.
I knew we’d be doing lots of cooking and baking so I added sugar to Greg’s list.
This big bag of sugar has been sitting in the same spot on our kitchen floor, since he came home with what will most likely be our last grocery trip for a few weeks. None of us have put the sugar away. I don’t even know if the kids have noticed it. How could you not notice it? My brain wonders. And yet, even Greg and I have let it remain there. We’ve stepped over it, ignored it. It’s kind of become this odd symbol of what the heck I don’t know…the ridiculousness of some things during a global pandemic? A reminder that we will be home for a while? The thing I’ll cling to in a dark time? I mean, at least we will have brownies or pavlova or lemon bars, for a while.
In the Ohlin household we’re kind of easing into the whole homeschooling thing. Well, except Lily, our 6th grader who finished all the assigned homework from all of her teachers already. Even though none of it will probably be graded. She’s pretty stressed out about everything that’s happening, and I’m way more worried about her mental health than any academic assignments. I know we’ll need more of a structure as we go on, but for the first week, I think we’re all in a weird zone we’ll call shock.
I am so grateful my kids love to do creative things. We are going to read, play games, make art & music, go on long walks, bake and cuddle. There will be lots of cuddling. And probably lots of screen time. I mean, let’s be real. And luckily there are so many great online resources for our kids these days. Podcasts and Audio books, Khan Academy, Mystery Science, Outschool, illustrators and artists doing live YouTube tutorials. Lily had her first FaceTime piano lesson last night which was both cool and odd. Her teacher doesn’t want Lily to miss lessons and so while we can afford to we will keep up with those lessons. Jasper plays chess with his friends online. Technology is going to help us stay connected in many ways.
I tried doing yoga with the kids. Part success, part fail. Okay, honestly? Mostly fail, but it gave Lily and I some good practice with rolling our eyes and a few laughs.
But even with all the stress and all the unknown, we have had some lovely moments. Last night the sun was bright through our dining room windows. We sat at the table together and did art.
Jasper is thrilled that he gets to draw all the weapons he loves, something he doesn’t get to do at school. My favorite is his “Just a regular old hammer”.
Greg put music on and we created with the sunshine nearly blinding us while listening to some old U2. Best part of our day. Might have to work Evening Art Exploration into our new daily routine.
We also ate warm Chocolate Pudding Cake before and after dinner. It was ready before dinner and it’s so swoony delicious when it’s right out of the oven. I believe treats and ways to pamper ourselves during this time could help ease the fear and worry. Maybe a tiny bit. Even if only for a few minutes.
I found the recipe from Joy the Baker who makes all things amazing on her blog and in her cookbooks. I love this gooey pudding-ish cake. It is super easy and it is pure chocolaty goodness. It’s also naturally gluten-free which is perfect for Greg. The only thing bad about this dessert is how quickly it disappears!
This week’s cocktail is a quick take on a Rosé Spritzer. I don’t always have sparkling Rosé. But you can make it using Rosé wine and club soda.
Ingredients
- Rosé wine
- Fresh lemon juice
- St. Germain (elderflower liqueur)
- Club Soda
- Add ice to your glass, fill halfway with Rosé.
- Add a splash or two of lemon juice and St. Germain.
- Top with club soda. Stir. Taste, add more Rosé, lemon or St. Germain as desired.
- Enjoy!
Here are some other fun links I’m loving right now.
David Lebovitz Stay At Home Recipes
The Modern Proper 30 Best Soup Recipes
How are you all doing? What are you cooking or baking? What’s bringing you comfort and joy. What music, what book, what ridiculous TV show?
Peace & Love!
Sara
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