Quarterly baking report [Q1 2023]

My cooking is best described as edible, so I wouldn’t entirely trust anything I have to say about dinner recipes, but people at least tell me they like my baking. Here’s a review of what we baked in the first three months of 2023 with some notes.

Linzer cookies – King Arthur Baking – This was a post-Christmas bake (hence the Christmas tree shapes). I’m pretty sure I would have reduced the sugar from 1/2 to 1/3 cup, we may have used one whole egg instead of an egg yolk, and we substituted almond extract for the lemon zest/cinnamon and vanilla. The almond extract we had was quite strong, so maybe be aware of that if you do a similar switch. The cookies come out like a crisp sugar cookie with a finer crumb, and I used jam for the filling. Our cookies turned out well, though very almondy. The dough works nicely, so the rolling/cutting out isn’t too tedious. Would bake again.

Clockwise from top left: Linzer cookies, filled wool roll, Nutella/chocolate babka, cranberry apple galette

Filled wool roll – King Arthur Baking – We may have baked this partly (mostly) because it looked interesting. It’s a sweetened bread, so I think we followed the recipe exactly this time. The base is a Japanese milk bread that’s then filled, rolled, cut, and shaped to give it its form and the filling is a mixture of cream cheese and freeze-dried fruit. This was a fun and tasty bake, but as usual I’m reminded of why I don’t bake bread that often because why does proving take so long?

Coconut shortbread cookies – Not sure on the recipe for this bake, which was done mainly to make a dent in some expired coconut flour. I liked the cookies, though the coconut flour definitely does something to the texture.

Prinsesstarta – The Great British Baking Show: The Big Book of Amazing Cakes – I picked up the book at the library, wanted to make something from it, and had a birthday cake to make: enter, Prinsesstarta. For those unfamiliar, it’s a cake layered with jam and pastry cream, then covered in whipped cream and marzipan. Going in to the bake, I knew it would be a long process, and after having done it, the cake is good, but I’m not sure it’s worth the effort for me. I can confirm I’m in the pro-marzipan camp though.

Prinsesstarta

Cranberry apple galette – The Pioneer Woman – For pie day we went slightly off script with a galette. My pie crust is still a work in progress so I can’t say too much about the recipe. Overall, it was more or less edible, and the fruit was great.

Nutella/chocolate babka – Again, I’m not positive which recipe we ended up using. I do know we made a Nutella variation on a babka, and as long as your bread turns out, it’s bread and chocolate so assuming you like bread and chocolate there’s not much to complain about. Same comment as above about proving but otherwise I have no grievances against the recipe.

911 Trail [May 2023]

The 911 Loop Trail is located behind the 911 Memorial field in Southborough, MA. The 911 field is an artificial turf field used for youth soccer, football, and lacrosse that’s been in use for at least a couple of decades. I believe the 911 trail is a newer development, possibly a result of a Covid-induced renewal of interest in the outdoors, but don’t quote me on that.

The trail is a 1.2-mile loop on a peninsula in the Sudbury Reservoir. One side of the loop goes along a Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) access road while the other follows the shoreline more closely. The access road portion of the trail is wide and flat, probably accessible to strollers and mobility devices, but near the reservoir and on the other side of the loop the trail is narrower and rockier. The whole trail travels through forest and provides view of the Sudbury Reservoir.

We hiked the trail in mid-May when the leaves and ferns had reappeared after another New England winter. Lily of the valley, wild geranium, and starflowers were in bloom, and we also found a number of oak apples (oak galls). Turns out oak galls are formed by chemicals from some gall wasp larvae to protect them as they grow, so that was a fun discovery. No wildlife sightings except a possible double-crested cormorant to report, but there were a lost umbrella and multitool.

Clockwise from top left: Oak gall (cross section), lily of the valley, wild geranium, starflowers

As far as hiking trails go, the 911 Loop Trail’s on the shorter side, with minimal elevation changes, so it could be fairly easily covered in 30-60 minutes depending on how many botanical/environmental tangents you get sidetracked by (all of them, if you’re hiking with me). It’s a pleasantly wooded trail with some nice views of the reservoir, so a good easy trail with decent payoff. Quick post for a quick trail today; I’ll be back later with a report from the kitchen.

Fern land

Go Out Doors and MacCallum Wildlife Management Area [May 2023]

Ellsworth McAfee Park in Northborough, MA was hosting an outdoor art event called Go Out Doors where local artists painted, as you might have guessed, doors, that were then displayed in the park. There were nine doors in total, placed along one of the sidewalks through the park. I liked the landscapes and the goats, and the second door from the left below (A Walk by a Pond) had a bunch of local wildlife sprinkled throughout the painting, including a frog, Canada goose, wild turkey, skunk, deer, groundhog, and raccoon.

 

Doors (from left to right) (click to enlarge) - Kids at Play (Brittni Laquidara), A Walk by a Pond (Rose Herrmann), Local Getaway (Lisa Hayden), No Place Like Home (Suzanne Cox), Purple Guitar (Jill Strait), What's your Dream (Anne Plaisance)

The park also has courts for pickleball, volleyball, and basketball, as well as soccer fields, a playground, and a walking track. When we were there, it was fairly busy with youth soccer, kids on the playground, people playing pickleball, and parents and families walking. After admiring the doors, we headed down the street to the Wayne F. MacCallum Wildlife Management Area (MacCallum WMA).

Massachusetts Wildlife Management Areas are managed by the commonwealth through MassWildlife and are intended to provide land for wildlife. They may be used for hunting and fishing as well as hiking and bird watching, and are typically less developed than parks, with parking lots and trails that may be unpaved. MacCallum WMA covers 906 acres in Northborough and Westborough and contains Lake Chauncy and Little Chauncy Pond. Until 1971, the Lyman School for Boys, a reform school established by the state, ran the school and a farm on the now WMA land.

Hole in the trees

We hiked a ~3.5 mile loop to Lake Chauncy, up the lake, and back to the west parking lot. Trails were not paved but main trails to and around Lake Chauncy were wide and easily passable, varying from dirt and gravel to grass. Side trails through the woods were narrower though still easy to follow. There are maps available but there is no signage in the WMA itself and trails don’t always appear on the maps. You probably won’t get lost, but you may not end up exactly where you’re intending to go the first time.

Pond by the west entrance

The landscape varies from ponds and lakes to forest and fields leased for corn growing. Wildlife sightings were plentiful and included a red-tailed hawk, a goose, red-winged blackbirds, frogs, turtles, and a coyote(?!). The weather was nice, the trails were pleasant, the surroundings were interesting, and we didn’t get eaten by a coyote, so all in all, it was another successful hiking trip.

Eastern coyote (according to Google Lens)

Cedar Hill and Crane Swamp [April 2023]

The Crane Swamp Conservation Area is a 2,225-acre parcel of land located mostly in Northborough, MA that includes Cedar Hill, managed by the Sudbury Valley Trustees (SVT), and Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) land with a water treatment plant. Cedar Hill as well as the other hills in the conservation area are drumlins, formed by glacial activity, and the other main attraction is the 400-acre red maple swamp. Trails at Crane Swamp are part of a trail network linking it to neighboring towns, and I’d estimate there are around 4-5 miles of trails with loops of 1-4 miles possible to hike.

Eastern bluebird

We visited on a spring day in April 2023, and it was one of the last hikes we took before I got my stalker Garmin watch, so I don’t have watch data, but I’m pretty sure we did a 2.5 mile loop on the Cedar Hill and Crane Swamp Trails that takes you up to the top of Crane Hill and into the swamp down to the aqueduct where the MWRA treatment plant is. I’m guessing we were there for a little under an hour and a half, which is either a fairly moderate pace or a moderately fast pace stopping to examine every wildflower, bird, and skunk cabbage you encounter. I’ll let you guess how I hike.

Crabapple tree in bloom

The main trails were well signed and pretty well maintained and easy to follow. On this visit the skunk cabbage was abundant, wild violets and bluets were out, crabapple (I think) trees were in bloom, fiddleheads were unfurling, leaves had not quite emerged, and we had sightings of an American kestrel and an eastern bluebird. Looking back at photos, I think it might have drizzled on us a bit, but otherwise the hike was nice. The view from the top of Cedar Hill was what you might expect of a hill in the suburban northeast – lots of trees and some occasional buildings. Good for a quick outing, at least in the spring. That’s foreshadowing for a future post, if I ever get around to writing it. I am officially just about 2 years behind now, but I’m hoping I can start catching up with some quicker shorter posts. Here’s a start, at least.

View from the top of Cedar Hill

What was watched in 2024

I didn’t watch many movies last year, and fell asleep a lot while watching Netflix, but I did still make it through quite a bit.

Barbie – I got around to seeing the Barbie movie last year and enjoyed it. The plot was fairly average, but fun, and I liked seeing all the different Barbies as characters.

Mean Girls (2024) – I was curious about it, so I picked up the Mean Girls movie musical based on the musical based on the movie based on a book. It wasn’t bad, but for me, the 2004 movie is just so good at capturing high school in the mid-2000s that the musical didn’t really add anything. There are also some parts that only make sense pre-cell phones and internet everywhere that they tried to adapt but again, the (first) movie already did it so well.

The Big Year – Owen Wilson, Jack Black, and Steve Martin spend a year competing to see the most birds within twelve months. This might have edged Barbie out as my favorite movie of the year. Though it’s not a mockumentary, it has the same feel. And who wouldn’t love a movie about birdwatching? (A lot of people; the reviews were at best mediocre.)

La Casa de Papel (Money Heist) (season 1-2) – This was the original heist arc that got broken up into two seasons for Netflix. I watched it in the original Spanish with English subtitles. It was more action and thrills than my usual fare, but I enjoyed it.

This is Us – Overall, I really liked the show and the variety of topics it dealt with. The last season felt a little rushed trying to wrap everything up, but I think the last couple seasons were thrown off a bit thanks to Covid.

Star Trek: Lower Decks (season 3) – Definitely a show that I’ve liked more as it’s gone on. It doesn’t take itself too seriously but still feels like Star Trek at its core.

The Good Place – I have to admit I didn’t like this show as much as most people did. There’s nothing wrong with it – the plot is good, it has its funny moments, and the characters are likeable – it just didn’t come together for me.

Star Trek: Discovery (season 1-2) – First off, it visually looks great. Unfortunately, it does feel like it misses the mark a bit, especially in the first season. It does best when it’s less of the Michael Burnham show and more about Discovery and its crew, so it does get better for me in the second season.

The Mandalorian (season 1) – Amidst a barrage of sequels, prequels, tie-ins, and remakes from Disney, this was something new, and it was really good. Plus, it brought us baby alien/baby Yoda/Grogu.

The Great British Bake Off (season 1-2, 15) – I finally got to see the first two seasons that have never been aired in the US. Hello again, Mel and Sue, and hello moving tent, baker elimination during the final, and random passersby peering in the tent windows. Season 15 had the most wholly likeable group of bakers in a while and no poorly executed national weeks/open flame final challenges/-gate dramas.

Heartland (season 16) – Similarly to Grey’s Anatomy, there was a period where the number of heart attacks, car crashes, exotic illnesses, and general tragedy happening to one group of people made you wonder what curse they’re under, but they’ve pulled it back a bit and I thought this season was better than the couple previous seasons.

Brooklyn 99 (season 1-3) – Funny and another solid offering from Mike Schur (also involved in The Office and Parks and Rec). My one criticism is that Jake Peralta is the exact same character as Shawn Spencer from Psych and J.D. from Scrubs – slightly inconsiderate guy who thinks he’s funnier than he really is and inconveniences people just a little bit wherever he goes.

Over the Garden Wall – A little weird, a little haunting, so I liked it a lot. I did suspect the ending maybe halfway through the series, and also the soundtrack’s really good.

Heartstopper (season 3) – A continuation of the adaptation of the graphic novels. I think they’ve continued to do a good job staying true to the source material.

Grey’s Anatomy (season 20) – Now that they’ve given Meredith a break and returned to more of an ensemble cast with a new class of interns, the show’s actually gotten better than some of the mid-teens seasons that were really scraping the bottom of the barrel for new disasters (Seattle Sharknado, anyone?).

Blown Away (season 4) – The glassblowers are back in North America’s biggest hot shop. The creations were a highlight as always, but this was also the most likeable group as a whole for me.

Overall, I didn’t really dislike anything I watched in 2024. If I had to pick a few favorites, I’d have to go with Lower Decks, The Mandalorian, and Over the Garden Wall for trying to do something a little different.