July 2022
Hello!
I wish I had a happy update for you guys, but the political happenings of the last month pretty much crushed me. SCOTUS officially overturning Roe v. Wade overshadowed even the good parts of the month (which included celebrating my 35th birthday).
If I’m being honest with you guys, it’s been increasingly hard for me to find inspiration and joy in the last few years. Between the pandemic, various climate related disasters (Remember how the wild fires in the summer of 2020 motivated me and Erlend to sell my old house to buy a new one with better windows and a modern HVAC system? Or when our car caught on fire during a “freak” ice storm? Or last summer’s “heat dome”?), and the dire politics of this country, baking and this space doesn’t really provide the escape that it used to. And the fact of the matter is that I agree with this TikTok video wholeheartedly:
@e.mo.tions #stitch with @debtcollective ♬ Love You So – The King Khan & BBQ Show
So, yeah, I don’t really have too much to say. I’m sorry for being so negative. I really, truly hope that next month will be better.
In Case You Missed It: New Recipes and Posts
Here’s a list of everything new on my different Hummingbird High channels:
New and Updated Recipes on hummingbirdhigh.com
- How To Make Pie Crust In A Stand Mixer (Watch the video for this recipe on Instagram and TikTok)
- Rhubarb Custard Pie (I updated this recipe to include a video; watch it on both Instagram and TikTok, too!)
- Milk Bar Birthday Cake (I first made and published this cake recipe on my 25th birthday, and updated the post for my 35th birthday! Wild, right?! Watch the video for this recipe on Instagram and TikTok.)
- Small Batch Strawberry Biscuit Sheet Cake
- How To Pre Bake Pie Crust
New Videos on Instagram and TikTok
- An Incredibly Extra Way To Soften Butter (watch exclusively on TikTok)
- Strawberry Anti-Hustling Pie and The Baked Version (watch both exclusively on TikTok)
- Taste Testing All The Ghirardelli Box Mix Brownies (watch on Instagram and TikTok)
@hummingbirdhigh tasting all @Ghirardelli Chocolate Company #boxmixbrownies 2 forget about the loss of my reproductive freedom #baking #bakingtiktok #brownies ♬ Aesthetic – Tollan Kim
Below are pictures of the two most popular recipes from the month—How To Make Pie Crust In A Stand Mixer and Milk Bar Birthday Cake—to inspire you:
Food For Thought
This past month, I also spent a LOT of time thinking and reading about food beyond the baking recipes you see on this blog. Here are the ideas and issues that resonated with me:
- “The Struggle Cookbook Authors Face In 2022” in Tasting Table. Before I wrote my cookbook and discovered the truth, I always thought that cookbook authors lived a sweet, cushy life. Spoiler alert—I was wrong and writing a cookbook is really, really hard. And it seems like it’s just gotten harder since I published mine!
- “How I Learned to Eat Alone and Not Be Lonely” in The Atlantic. Trigger warning for this article—please don’t read it if you struggle with disordered eating! I’m lucky enough to never have struggled with an eating disorder, so I appreciated this perspective on how mukbangs and other food content on social media help people with EDs and their mental health.
Recipes and Resources To Save
Here are the recipes and resources I saved for myself in the last month:
- “We Tried 7 Methods for Storing Berries and the Winner Outlasted Them All” in The Kitchn. Because it’s strawberry season, y’all. Though sadly, we had a pretty paltry season in Oregon because of climate change. Sigh.
- “How to Cut a Baking Recipe in Half And Still Make It Taste Right” in Bon Appetit. I’m a month late to this article, but I appreciated it anyway! A lot of these tips are the foundation for the small batch baking recipes on Hummingbird High.
- “Do I Really Need to Bake With Cake Flour?” in Food52. TL/DR is yes, but you can likely make your own cake flour with ingredients you already have at home.
Finally, On A Lighthearted Note
Sometimes, especially now, it can be really easy to be ungrateful and dismissive of what the United States has to offer (especially when compared to other developed countries). So I very much appreciated this Reddit thread asking non-Americans about their favorite American foods. Seconding all the gushing for barbecue, diner breakfasts, and biscuits!
That’s all for now, folks. I hope you all are staying safe and healthy! Please let me know how you’re doing in the comments below, and feel free to share the ideas and issues that are floating around in your heads, too.
Nice to know I’m not the only one feeling this way – thank you for sharing!
Also want to encourage you with this – I found your blog at the beginning of the pandemic when things felt darkest for me (new mom on the front lines), and it’s continued to be a “bright spot” for me. I love voting for new recipes on Patreon, and I love reading your updates – thank you for being such a gift! What you do matters <3
I feel you 100%. The last several years have been so exhausting and the joy I find in cooking and baking has been almost completely sapped from me because I can’t get out of my head. It used to be my form of meditation. I go back and forth between sadness and anger and frustration and helplessness. Activism has always made me feel better, because then I am making some some change by marching for a cause, registering voters or canvassing for a candidate I believe in. But it’s hard to see the changes I want taking so long to materialize. You are not alone and there are so many who appreciate you. Take time for yourself and then please continue to contribute in any way that makes sense to you. Together, we can get through this and make this country a better place for all. <3
Rough month for us all. Take it easy when you’re able!! I want to finally give the Milk Bar birthday cake a try—it’s seeming like a good time for big projects again.