Taps mic…Testing, Testing…Oh hey, this still works!  After a much needed three month hiatus I finally found the time and willpower to sit down and write a blog post.  I’ve still be cooking plenty the past three months, although my bread baking still hasn’t recovered to pre-Maple levels.  That partially had to do with the […]

I’ve been cooking a lot of Serious Eats recipes lately and this one has been on my ‘to-make’ list for a very long time.  Over three years, in fact.  I was introduced to the site by a friend of mine in 2013 when he sent me a link to this pan pizza.  I love any […]

Life with Maple continues to be both fun and exhausting which means far less time for cooking.  I used to spend most of my Sundays baking bread and cooking for the week but have done neither in far too long.  Fortunately for Maple is the sweetest and greatest puppy ever so I don’t hold it […]

When I was in 7th grade we had to complete an assignment where we found out the names of various local and world leaders.  It’s why I still think that Maryland’s senators are Paul Sarbanes and Barbara Mikulski (Mikulski is still in office) and why I can tell you that in 2001 Gerhard Schröder was Germany’s Chancellor. […]

It snowed almost a foot earlier in the week and the winter weather, something we’ve been lacking this winter, had me in the mood to bake some big hearth-style sourdough loaves this weekend.  But then just as soon as it had inspired me the weather declared it had other plans.  It was 50 degrees on […]

From 1998 to 2000 David Terrell was one of Michigan’s top wide receivers and a nightmare for opposing defenses. As if that weren’t enough, he played a few games on defense too.  Terrell saw game action plenty his freshman year but wasn’t as much a key figure in the offense; he really broke out during his […]

One of my favorite new shows last fall was Aziz Ansari’s Master of None which stars Aziz as an actor, Dev, living in New York.  It chronicles an impressive range of topics including experiences with dating, the movie and TV industry, and his parents (played by Aziz’s actual parents).  The show has some great scenes that revolve […]

When I was younger one surefire sign that we were at a fancy restaurant was the presence of grissini, or long, thin, and crunchy breadsticks (in contrast to the chewy and doughy kind).  They would be brought to the table in a tall thin glass and I would make a pile of crumbs while snapping […]

I love combing through all the end of the year lists and reviews that come out in December and for the third straight year I’m polluting the internet with my own (see here for the 2013 and 2014 editions)!  2015 was a banner year for Bakers & Best with 109 published posts, a redesign of the […]

My wife and I finished watching all seven seasons of Parks and Rec a few weeks ago, the end of a five month journey.  I consume an amount of media befitting of a millennial (read: I watch a lot of TV) and having watched Parks and Rec before knew that my wife would enjoy it (and you would […]