The first time I ever attempted to cook something than microwavable food or grilled cheese, I had to call my best friend, Caitrin. She (being the angel she is) stayed on the phone with me and walked me through boiling water and figuring out if the pasta was cooked yet. I was clueless up until that point on how to use a stove or an oven. I had a general idea of how to use pots, pans, and cooking utensils - I just had no desire to do so up until I realized that greasy cafeteria food was not cutting it. After that, I dove headfirst into the wonderful world of the culinary arts. I surfed the web for hours to find foods that were "dorm-safe" as I called them - short preparation and cook time, minimal amount ingredients, at the cheapest cost. No college kid has a lot of fridge space, and they're lucky if they even have a stove or an oven.
Fast forward a few years. I was senior in college, living in a rented house on Park Avenue with two other girls. I had somehow accumulated enough kitchen gadgets to rival Bobby Flay's collection, I had two separate cookbooks (one for meals, one for desserts), and I had subscriptions to every recipe site I could find. I was becoming addicted to cooking & baking. So one sunny Thursday, I got home from work and plopped down on the couch. There was nothing on TV that interested me, so I wandered into the kitchen. Before I knew it, I had baked a batch of cupcakes. But two dozen cupcakes between three girls was way too much. So I packed them into a tinfoil tray and brought them to The Factory - a division of Sacred Heart University's IT department. I worked there as an undergrad troubleshooting different issues on the laptops that were given out to the students and the desktops that the staff used. The Factory was comprised mostly of boys at that time, and since I was coming right around dinnertime, I knew they would be starving. But as I walked in, I started to doubt myself. What if they didn't like them? What if nobody wanted cupcakes? Why was I even doing this? But after I walked in, my only question was, Why did I question this? My cupcakes were DEVOURED. And then more were requested, which of course, I didn't have.
During the next week, people kept asking me what I was going to bring in the following Thursday. Some people had missed it, and the people who had eaten the cupcakes wanted more. So the next Thursday, I went home and baked. I repeated it the next Thursday, and the next, and the next, until it was tradition. The day after Wednesday officially became known as "Baked Good Thursday" and it was up to me to keep up tradition.
At the end of the year, I graduated. I was staying at Sacred Heart for graduate school, and I was hired to be the Graduate Assistant at the Factory. I interviewed for the position, and after I was hired, my boss joked that one of the job conditions was that I had to continue baking. And I took that to heart - I never missed a Thursday that work was in session. The second year as GA, I began documenting what I baked - I took pictures, posted recipes, and I still never missed a Baked Good Thursday (BGT).
Unfortunately, all great things must come to an end. I graduated and I had to relinquish my position as the GA - and with it, BGT's. I am posting the pictures, recipes, tidbits - whatever I have of my BGTs, in addition to the other meals and creations I've come up with, recipes I've tried, etc.
Eat your heart out!
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