Emma's Adventure's in Baking and Travels

T minus two weeks till the end of the semester! Not only is it exciting to be done with school for the semester, but summer is just around the corner! Warm weather calls for lake days, long hikes, and of course...traveling! I have quite a big summer planned. Between working and possibly doing an internship at a university press, I will keep myself busy. I will also be marketing my first published book, Dear Teacher Wendy ! For the last week, I have been in the proofing stages of the book, in which I plan on submitting everything in a couple weeks after the stress of finals is over. Besides these things, I have some fun trips on the horizon! First off, I will be going to a wedding every single weekend of June. It will probably get exhausting, but I know it will be a lot of fun as well. The first wedding I have is particular special, as I will be a bridesmaid in my best friends wedding! My cousin is also getting married at the end of the month, so I am very excited to celebrate her speci...

Okay, let me put y'all on the best crème brulée recipe ever created (fyi, this is a Pinterest recipe inspired by Betty Crocker)! This classic dessert has always been one of my favorites and I've always wanted to make it homemade. Here's the recipe: Crème Brulée Yield: 6 Prep Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 40 mins Ingredients: 6 large egg yolks 1/3 cup granulated sugar 2 cups heavy whipping cream 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 2 tablespoons granulated sugar (for the topping) Instructions: 1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Place a large pot of water on the stove to boil (Fig. 1). Figure 1) 2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until well blended and it just starts to lighten in color (Fig. 2). Set aside. Figure 2) 3. Pour the heavy whipping cream in a medium-sized saucepan and heat over medium heat. Stir occasionally until the cream is warm and bubbling around the edges. Remove the cream from the heat and stir in the vanilla (Fig. ...

Hey fellow bakers! Today we're making peach turnovers. This recipe was inspired by a TikTok I saw a few days ago. There was no recipe listed, so I just kind of made one up! Here's this super easy peach turnover recipe: Peach Turnovers Yield: 8 Prep time: 15 minutes Cook Time: 15-20 minutes Ingredients: Canned peaches (13 oz) or fresh peaches Honey Unbaked pastry dough Egg whites Step 1: Preheat oven to 400 degrees Step 2: Spread out pastry dough and cut into 6-8 rectangles (depending on how big you prefer them) with a pizza cutter  Step 3: Strain peaches and set aside Step 4: Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper Step 5: Crack egg into small bowl and set aside Step 6: Assemble the turnovers:               a. Squeeze honey onto parchment paper for each pastry (as seen in Fig. 1) Figure 1)               b. Place peach slices over the honey drizzle (4-5 slices) (Fig. 2) Figure 2)      ...

This last weekend, I got to go to my best friends bachelorette weekend in St. Charles, MO! It's a trip we have all looked forward to for a while. The six of us (five bridesmaids and the bride-to-be), stayed in the cutest Airbnb downtown, which was right above a little ice cream shop.  We arrived Friday night and settled into our Airbnb. Then we went out for pizza and went to a retro ice cream parlor, which was absolutely delicious! After that, we went back to our little apartment and watched a classic romance movie: The Notebook . We played some games related to the wedding and we just talked and had a good time the rest of the night.  Saturday was spent exploring the downtown area after we had a nice brunch. We went to all sorts of cute boutiques and shops, and we also went to a local cookie place that had been on the Today Show! We then went back to our apartment and watched another rom-com: He's Just Not That Into You . Later that night, we took some cute photos to mark the...

Spring break!! As is characteristic with most breaks, it went by wayyyy too fast. I definitely could have used another week. I mostly worked throughout my spring break and got ahead on school work, but I did spend a couple of days at my great aunts lake house in Decatur. My family has come to nickname Decatur "the armpit of Illinois," but the one corner of paradise (or at least the one place we all have fun) in Decatur is my great aunts lake house.  My boyfriend, Evan, and I left on the Saturday spring break began and we met everyone there in the evening. "Everyone" was my mom, dad, and my two little sisters, plus a couple of their friends. Needless to say, I had been looking forward to some rest and fun time hanging out with my family. Evan and I had to leave Sunday evening because we both had work, so it was a quick but restful trip.  On Saturday, my mom made chili. My mom has never really been known for her cooking, but she does make a mean chili. I can't ord...

When you're in a bookstore or shopping online to buy a book, have you ever wondered who gets the money from the sale of that book? There's no definitive answer for the exact amount that goes to those involved with the publishing and distributing of the book. But overall, there is an industry standard.  The first thing you should know is there are three groups that the revenue will go to: The author The publisher Retailers and distributors Most people think authors are given the short end of the straw when it comes to compensation for their work. Although this might be true, publishers aren't the one's getting the majority of the profit, as many people assume. According to Lincoln Michel in his article “Everything You Wanted to Know about Book Sales (but Were Afraid to Ask), "well over 50% of the cover price goes to the retailer that sells books to customers and the distributor who gets the books to retailers" (Michel).  In the world of publishing, there is a t...