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Tools of the Trade- What Your Kitchen ACTUALLY Needs For Baking!

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Good afternoon, friends and neighbors!

Since quarantine and stay-home orders have started, more folks have started getting interested in their kitchens. This is great news, especially as I can see how regularly my educational posts get visited.

For example, a friend of mine has been messaging me recently and asking for advice. Not so much on technique, but on equipment. A messy breakup has left him re-stocking his kitchen:

“Matt, what kind of rolling pin do you use? What material?”
”What do you suggest for bakeware? Any specific brands?”
”If I want to make cheesecake, do I REALLY need a springform pan?”

At first, I answered the questions and referenced my blog here. “I’m pretty sure I had a series called ‘Tools of the Trade’ or something.”

”Well, yeah, but you only got as far as knives, and that was five years ago.”

Oops. Time to solve that I think.

“Crash Course” time.

The whole Kit and Kaboodle…
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Comfort Food, Part 2- The Family Table

/ The Black Hat Baker / Leave a comment

Good afternoon, friends and neighbors!

Between my day job at the bakery, trying to keep up with this blog, and the release of the book (IN 3 DAYS!!,) I’ve actually managed to run a little low on energy for other parts of my life.

Which is why, last night, I decided I was going to give myself a weird form of self-care and fix myself a slightly advanced version of Matt’s Nights In In College.

Don’t make that face. This doesn’t come from nowhere. Nothing we eat does.

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A Trip Home(s)

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Good evening, friends and neighbors.

The flight in was abysmal. Normally, I don’t truly care one way or another for air travel- I usually have enough of SOMETHING to make being stuck in the same seat for hours on end manageable- reading material, writing work, podcasts, exhaustion, something to make the hours a little shorter.

For some reason, though, the red-eye out of Portland International drove me mad. I’d been tired enough to sleep, but not exhausted enough to sleep for very long. Nothing distracted me long enough that I could ignore my legs getting twitchy and anxious.

Granted, that had been my entire body and mind for the last week or so, and this plane trip was meant partially to help me relax and get ready for a new job to start the next week. What better way to relax than ten days of family and food- and what better place to do it?

Philadelphia.
Hello, you f***ed up little city. Good to see you again.

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Membership Not Required

/ The Black Hat Baker / Leave a comment
Good evening, friends and neighbors.
I don’t go to the gym.I was never really a “gym rat” or part of gym culture. For the couple early years I DID have a membership, I didn’t really go there to socialize. The hours I went tended to forbid that. The gym was open 24 hours, and my preferred times were either in the early morning hours (before work) or in the middle of the night (after my shifts at the hospital.​

Here’s the story of how I learned to keep $50 a month in my pocket and still stay fit.

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