Mini maple french toast muffins from @kingarthurbaking.bsky.social. Easy, quick recipe and really good. The muffins are coated in a mixture of melted butter and maple syrup and then tossed in a mixture of sugar, maple sugar and cinnamon.

Made brown sugar strawberry frosted cakes from @kingarthurbaking.bsky.social. First time I’ve tried reverse creaming. Probably overmixed the batter, since the centers didn’t rise. Still really good & neighbors enjoyed them. Silver lining is that the buttercream is piled high in the middle. #baking

Haven’t had the time or energy to bake anything for weeks. Took the opportunity of a three-day weekend to make hot milk cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and berries.

Every time I see whatever fresh, new horror each day brings from AI companies, I can't help but think that none of them watched Jurassic Park as kids, or did not take any lessons from it if they did.

Every Monday I wake up and wonder what new fuel the week will bring for my existential dread. I did not have to wait long. Fantastic piece, by the way, @newyorker.com, @ronanfarrow.bsky.social and Andrew Marantz. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted?

New interviews and closely guarded documents shed light on the persistent doubts about the head of OpenAI.

newyorker.com

Chocolate chip cookie brownies, used a recipe from King Arthur Baking. Easy to make and really good. #baking

A superbly written article by @willoyd.bsky.social of @newstatesman1913.bsky.social. As a veteran of an earlier (and simpler?) war, it brought back a lot of old feelings. Shame, too. Fair warning, if the headline doesn't make it obvious: it's a dark topic. www.newstatesman.com/internationa...

The new world war

Why the battle for Iran and Ukraine is coming for us all

newstatesman.com

Every day in the gym it’s not a question of will I hurt myself, it’s a question of what I will hurt this time. Today it was my Achilles tendon. This is what I get for getting old.

Made çiğ börek (or chebureki) this morning for the first time. Its a simple dough filled with a mixture of mince meat—often beef but could also be lamb or pork—grated onion, salt and pepper. I also added garlic powder because just about everything is better with garlic. Then it's fried.

Had a bunch of buttermilk left over from baking last week that I didn’t want to go to waste. So I decided to make a ton of buttermilk pancakes to give to my neighbor. I ate a few myself and I still gave them about two dozen. Luckily, they have a big family.

Just learned I will get a promotion and a ~16% raise next month. Looks like I'll be sticking around (also the job market is trash, so I better). Now my finances will be slightly less uncomfortable, which is wild considering salary, its just me and three dogs, and I am not frivolous with spending.

Nothing like a bit of existential dread to start the day off right.

a cartoon dog is sitting at a table with a cup of coffee surrounded by fire .

Alt: a cartoon dog is sitting at a table with a cup of coffee surrounded by fire .

media.tenor.com

Red velvet cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting. The ermine frosting I made last night was absolutely unusable lol, so I had to whip up some buttercream instead. Meant to pipe flowers too but decided to leave that for after I’ve practiced some. #baking 1/2

A few cups worth of ermine frosting for tomorrow. Tastes good, but then it’s mostly milk, butter and sugar so kinda hard to mess that up. Not so sure about how it will look after piping. Guess I’ll find out. Tomorrow’s #baking will be a lot of new things.

Had to try again. Used a different recipe this time. Still not completely satisfied, so the search continues. Now I just need to find someone(s) to give about 40 cookies to. I think I might give them to the dogs' vet staff when I pick up Arlo tomorrow. #baking

Couldn't decide what to bake yesterday, so I went with chocolate chip cookies. Tried to make them crispy, but they ended up a bit too thin. I need to bake cookies more often. They can be deceptively tricky to get just right. But even an imperfect cookie is almost always still a tasty cookie. #baking

Does anyone know a good online source for food-grade beeswax? I need some for canelés but haven’t been able to find anything that I felt I could trust. #baking

Made crumble cake muffins with vanilla icing for New Years dinner. Not the prettiest muffins I've ever made, but they turned out pretty good. I think I'm finally starting to get a feel for properly creaming butter and sugar together—only took me the better part of two years.

The worst part of leg day has to be the splitting exertion headache about half way through the session. It's inevitable, and the proverbial adding insult to injury.

I got home and someone had left a wrapped gift at my door, had my name on it, but no indication of who it was from. Asked both of my neighbors and it wasn't them. I am confused.

The gingerbread cake and cinnamon rolls. First cake I’ve ever baked, as it turns out. I did overbake it, so it’s a little too dry. But the flavor is good and crumb turned out ok I think. Overall not bad for a first time. My back is a goner though, so that’s all the Christmas baking for me #baking

Christmas baking begins. Today was focaccia with homemade pesto and frosted chocolate buttercream brownies. Tomorrow, cinnamon rolls and I'm going to try a gingerbread cake recipe.

It’s amazing how much weaker I feel after taking just a week off from the gym with a cold. Cut leg day short, lost reps or a set off of everything I did do. Walked dogs when I got home, felt like death after.

Here’s the interior of the tartlets. From bottom to top (not counting shell): pistachio frangipane, chocolate ganache, vanilla diplomat crème, chopped pistachios and wedges of tempered chocolate.

Thanksgiving baking for the family crowd. Kadayıf tartlets, mini pumpkin cheese cakes and cinnamon rolls (for tomorrow morning). Still need to make the cream cheese icing for the cinnamon rolls but I’ll do that later tonight.

I increased my Romanian deadlift weight by 40 lbs at the gym today; it just felt like the right amount. My (chronically bad) lower back doth protest now. Excited to struggle getting out of bed tomorrow morning.

Made neighbors my kadayıf tartlets for Thanksgiving (and other neighbors chocolate pecan pie, but forgot pictures). Tried clarified butter this time, but for some reason it made the shells not set up properly so I couldn't take them out of molds. Lesson learned. 1/2

Brownies with chocolate buttercream frosting and pumpkin chocolate chip muffins for a friend

Dropped truck off for a bunch of work. Going to cost ~$5,700 (yay tariffs/inflation). Pain, lots of pain.

a man standing in front of a refrigerator with the words i am never going to financially recover from this

ALT: a man standing in front of a refrigerator with the words i am never going to financially recover from this

media.tenor.com

New and improved kadayıf tartlets. This time I made the base layer a pistachio frangipane, then above that there is a cap of tempered chocolate (sets hard, think peppermint bark) and finally on top vanilla diplomat crème. Pretty happy with these, although there are some adjustments to make. #baking