How the GBBO Got Me Blogging Again...Sort Of

7/18/2016 04:20:00 PM Lexie Dunne 0 Comments

A few weeks ago, I fell down a hole and began watching non-stop episodes of The Great British Bake Off, which appears to be the United Kingdom’s (on the surface) gentle admonishment of American cooking shows. You know, the ones that typically have whips and strobe lights and force their contestants to relive every traumatizing experience in their lives just in order to get a plate of spaghetti and meatballs on the table. I’m sure you’ve seen these shows.

GBBO is exactly like that, minus the whips and chains. The sobbing still exists, the baking is still intense, but everything is viewed through the Stiff Upper Lip Filter, which means that you get confessionals with people saying, “Well, that was a bit of a disaster, innit?” while the tent is on fire behind them.

Mary Berry, cookery writer, judge, and half the reason every baker gets jittery. Just put alcohol in your bake and you'll be fine.

My favorite bits are watching the judges in their own tent cut each other lovely slices of pie and daintily drink their tea, while laughing lightly at the difficulty of the challenge they’ve created for the bakers. This is usually juxtaposed with a smash cut to the baking tent where at least four people are running around in a panic and somebody is on the cusp of a complete meltdown. All the while, Sue and Mel nick sweets from the benches and do their best to keep the bakers from falling into pits of despair.

It’s such an uplifting show, you should all watch.

Blackberry Crumb Bars, my own attempt at baking

 Anyway, one of the benefits of marathoning this show, apart from always being hungry, is that I’ve started to cook again. This is something that’s difficult to keep up, especially when I’m deep in a project like HOW TO SAVE THE WORLD. The truth of the matter is, there’s a great deal I can’t eat anymore thanks to my migraines (going to dinner with me is a blast, trust me) that I do need to cook pretty much all the time. And getting knocked out of that habit because the kitchen’s a mess or I have five thousand words to get through and I’m too exhausted to do anything else can lead to upswings in depression and anxiety. One of these side-effects of those periods is that I never have any idea of what to say and therefore this blog gets neglected. It’s a vicious cycle and one that’s difficult to break out of.

So, really, we have the GBBO to thank for me being back here, is what I’m saying.

July’s been a pretty busy month. A couple weeks ago, I drove up to Chicago with my mother to go watch the USWNT play against South Africa. I’d splurged a bit on the tickets since I adore the USWNT, so we had field-side seats in the middle of Soldier Field, which is very persnickety about what they’ll let you bring into the game. Luckily we had a clear bag so Mama Dunne could spend the game knitting, and I was able to get my extra charger in my back pocket, what with the way PokemonGO drains the battery so badly. How else would I get blurry shots of Kelley O’Hara if my phone battery died??

Spoiler alert: I completely forgot to look at my phone and therefore did not get any hilarious shots of Carli Lloyd facing off against a Pidgey. I know. I’ll live in this shame eternally. I did educate our waitress on the way home about how to play PokemonGO, to the eternal amusement of my mother. Out of all of her kids, I’m the least likely one to explain anything about Pokemon, but here we are. The world turned upside down.

I figured Captain Marvel was the way to go.

But the game itself was a lot of fun and very exciting. The score was a lot closer than I’d anticipated, but then, I knew very little about the South African team beforehand. They’ll be one to watch in the Olympics, which are my favorite sport of all time and I cannot wait. I plan to spend the entire month of August glued to the TV and I’m unashamed of that.

Before that, though, I’ll be even busier, as I’m flying in to San Diego Thursday night to spend the weekend catching up with friends and other authors. If you’re going to be in San Diego, give me a shout! I’ll be doing some things with the Nice Girls, for whom I occasionally write, and with other friends I’ve made throughout the years. I’m excited to see everybody, even though I don’t have passes to the con itself. I have a couple of research trips planned during that time, so if you’re in the area and want to tag along, let me know.

Other Announcements: HOW TO SAVE THE WORLD has been moved back from September 20th to October 4th. If you’re subscribed to my newsletter, you’ll get to see the cover before everybody else. I’ve already seen it and it’s prettttttttty. Also, I’ve updated the information on the book page about it, so I dunno if you wanna see what HOW TO SAVE THE WORLD is really about, but…you can click here, I guess.

(Reminder: preordering helps me write moar books for u)

Until next time, when hopefully I have other cool anecdotes to share with you: stay sexy!
Lexie