🖤 Back in the Kitchen: A Love Letter to the Comeback

There’s something oddly comforting about the quiet hum of a mixer in the early morning — the way flour dust clings to the air, how cinnamon clings to your fingers, and how the oven warms more than just the kitchen. It warms the spirit.

After stepping back from On the Run: Baked Goods for a while, I wasn’t sure what it would feel like to return. Life has been heavy, loud, beautiful, chaotic — sometimes all in the same week. But one thing never left: the call to bake. Not just to make food, but to create comfort. To offer joy in bite-sized, hand-held, gooey-centered forms.

I bake because it’s how I love. And lately, that love has taken the shape of cinnamon rolls, flaky danishes, and cheddar bagels that taste like a New York morning — even at 7,200 feet above sea level.

Baking at this altitude isn’t for the faint of heart. Recipes that worked back home laugh in your face here. But I’ve learned the quirks of mountain air and made peace with the science of adjusting rise times, reducing sugar, and dancing with moisture levels. Every batch is a little triumph. Every sale, a reminder that people still crave the kind of warmth you can’t get off a grocery shelf.

So this post isn’t just a “hey, I’m back.” It’s a thank you — for waiting, for cheering me on, and for still craving comfort food made by hands, not machines.

Here’s to early mornings, messy aprons, and fresh starts. 🖤

See you soon — cinnamon rolls in hand.

— Tina, On the Run: Baked Goods