A Letter to A Friend [Recipe: Cinnamon Rolls]

Dearest friend,

I hope you are doing well right now. I’m sure you’re privy to everyone’s excitement today, and I understand how you must feel a tad slighted and somewhat lost, not unlike a flower having lost her bloom. But I hope you do know that deep in our hearts, you will always be remembered for all the joy and laughter you have brought us, for all the fears you have walked us through, and for all of those times you have stood by us, good and bad.

You sat there watching me grow to be the mother that I am today; a far cry from this exact day ten months ago, carefully cradling my newborn, very much in disbelief of my overnight change in status, tears of joy interlaced with relief and anxiety. Ever so often, in my trying times, you remind me how long and endless the days may seem, but how inevitably short the months and years will fly by. And with that, I hold close and cherish every moment with my loved ones, learning to find my footing again within my repository.

hello, you [recipe: apple raisin bread pudding]

Have you ever experienced one of those moments when you can almost literally feel your repository filled to the brim with ecstatic emotions clearly indescribable through mere adjectives, yet you constantly attempt to compose yourself, with reminders never to allow those emotions to overflow, lest peering eyes and latent ears shatter you with nondescript nonchalance? Well, that was what I had been going through for almost a year now, treading ever so meticulously on eggshells, only dropping subtle hints here and there in the last few months.

I guess what I’m trying to say in a very verbose and redundantly lengthy manner is that I had been keeping a secret from you, my dearest readers. Even though my twitter and instagram followers had been privy to this piece of news, I have come to realise that I owe my readers;- who had been patiently dropping in every day even though my last entry was 4 months ago;- an explanation for my absence. For I have only found the time now to share with you, that 3 months ago, I had received the most perfect gift, or as a reader had aptly put it, “the best thing to come out from Ovenhaven’s oven”;– yes people, I am now a mommy.

testing out the tried and tested [recipe: chocolate chip bread pudding with vanilla sauce]

Call me boring and unadventurous (though I’d much prefer somewhere along the lines of safe), but I am the sort who finds a great recipe, and sticks by it. In itself it might sound contradictory given that I’m a food blogger, and the very essence of a food blog pivots on the testing and sharing of a plethora of recipes. Well in case you’ve lost me, what I am more specifically referring to is the fact that I have my chosen repertoire of turn-to recipes I’ve been using as bases, or point of reference, for certain bakes. The way I see it, if a said recipe is tried and tested over countless of times, and have proven its worth amongst differing palates, it must surely has earned itself a spot for tweaking and variations.

A favourite base recipe I’ve used countless of times in experimenting new flavours and combinations has to be the much-loved and understated fudgy cocoa brownies, which has lent itself to some yummy peanut butter blondies, and snickerdoodle blondies, just to name a few. Then there is my most oft-used base muffin recipe, which I can never seem to get tired of, and have made variations with other ingredients such as different chips (butterscotch yum!), fruits (strawberries, blueberries) and spreads (Nutella, jam, peanut butter). Hence it would only seem natural that when I was craving for bread pudding the other morning, I turned to my favourite Nutella chocolate bread pudding recipe for a little tweaking.