Quotidian: daily, usual or customary; everyday; ordinary; commonplace Cherry cheesecake brownies. Don’t hold back. Soon ready for bottling: spiced cranberry. Pre-shake. Sunday morning bake. She brought me a treat! Eclipse. Solo siding. Spring in a cup. Friends on a log. Play hard. Then crash. This same time, years previous: creamy herbed yogurt cheese, what we ate, making pie: I have a system, the best fix, what it’s like to write full time: an experiment, creamed honey, out of character, ailments, therapy ..read more

After living in their bus for nearly two years, my older son and daughter-in-law have moved to a rental. It’s an adorable little house with oodles of natural light, high ceilings, tons of open space. Well, it’s not tons tons, but after living in a bus for two years, it’s pretty darn palatial. (“Overwhelming,” was how my daughter-in-law described it.)  The new place is twenty, maybe twenty-five, minutes from our house, all the way on the other side of the county, but after having them live so close — every time we drove into town, we passed by their road — the new place actually feels sup ..read more

Quotidian: daily, usual or customary; everyday; ordinary; commonplace Multigrain sourdough and a pot of cheese. (Always a pot of cheese.) Sourdough English muffins. Speed chill: hot bread (polenta sourdough), hungry woman, windy day. Herby sourdough focaccia with fried eggs, bacon, and sharp Jack. Recipe testing a potato sourdough. Trying a new coffee cake: not convinced. Too many crumbs, oily mouth-feel. Mystery mead. (Grape and rhubarb . . . I think?) Stackables, whoop-whoop! Chilly fridge, oops. Wack weather. Rainbows galore. Dish and cold side: parallel shifts. Working hard or ..read more

Two years ago I started a YouTube Channel. Last month, I registered to be an LLC (official business name: JJ Murch LLC). I opened a business bank account, got a debit card, and attended a local business class. And I finally, finally, FINALLY settled on a brand name.  a surprise gift from my older daughter My daughter-in-law helped me set up a spreadsheet for tracking business expenses. My brother is helping me set up a website. I’ve hired someone to turn my videos into written recipes which I plan to sell as PDFs . . . once I get my online store up and running, pant-pant. I got a su ..read more

It’s Friday! So far today I’ve edited video, gone running, made phone calls, baked sourdough and potatoes, mixed up a batch of multigrain sourdough, showered, and made a cheese. Now I’m settled on the couch, my belly full of salad, chocolate, and coffee, ready to focus on some writing. I love that it’s Friday, but I can’t fully kick back since I have a middle of the night bake shift coming up tonight — well, tomorrow morning, really. Cranking out an insane amount of goodies will be fun once I’m in the night kitchen with the rest of the team, but right now all I’m doing is dreading the early mo ..read more

Quotidian: daily, usual or customary; everyday; ordinary; commonplace Spring has arrived! Sprinkles. Meadtini. Blueberry lemon. That should get him going. Goose eggs. And the endless entertainment to go with. The proper way [says me] to eat Irish Soda bread: triple the butter, flaky salt, orange zest. Slurp. From her sister: a birthday egg apron. Cousin Kenton stayed an extra day: elevated conversation. Sundried. Coffee shop treat: when my three favorite daughters crash my writing spot. This same time, years previous: honey, the cheezer, the coronavirus diaries: week three, the qu ..read more

Friday morning, my husband and I both woke early. Too early, of course, but waking early is what one does when anticipating an untold amount of work in a short period of time with a whole host of helpers. (For more about the Carpenters Guild, go here.) Also! After we’d gone to bed the night before, my husband’s brother had arrived from upstate NY — one of my little birthday secrets — so I had to get up with my husband in order to make sure he didn’t accidentally wander into the guest room.  My husband banged around the kitchen, talking freely and loudly, obviously oblivious to the f ..read more

Once in a great while there are a few days, or even a whole week, that is so extraordinary there is no way it can be called “quotidian.” Last week was one of those weeks — so much goodness, so many big feelings, so much hard work. So today, in place of the quotidian post, here are some photos* of the days** leading up to the barn raising. *Many of the photo credits (I’m not even gonna try to figure out which ones) go to the children. **I already wrote a little about Monday here. *** TUESDAY While I pulled a pastry shift at Magpie, the rest of the family tore down the sides of the old barn, and ..read more

Tomorrow’s the big day and I’ve been baking all afternoon. You wanna know the funny part? I didn’t even realize it was pie day! *** My cheese group met at my house yesterday. I wrote about the event for Splashed!, my YouTube channel’s newsletter. (I’ve been meaning to catch y’all up to speed here, but I keep getting distracted by some sort of construction project that appears to have taken over our lives…) The letter goes out every Friday afternoon, and you can sign up here, if you’re interested. More later! xo ..read more

Remember my husband’s birthday? Remember his cake? Remember his gift? To recap: I handed him some money attached to a shit-ton of work, and ever since, my husband has been tied up in knots. (Aren’t I sweet?) This Friday, March 15th, is The Big Day — a friend dubbed it “The Ides of Murch” — so in recent weeks, my husband has been spending his evenings and weekends crawling around on the second floor of the new barn framing up the new second-story walls with the old roof pressing down on top of him, his stress levels at a fever pitch. I’ve popped my head up there a couple times, and it pretty m ..read more