{a day in the life} Baked by Rachel

Today’s “a day in the life” feature is the oh-so-talented Rachel of Baked by Rachel. Rachel consistently churns out fabulous food and gorgeous photos. She’s a great blogger and a great Twitter friend. I always go to her with my “mom problems.”  Whether it be temper tantrums, potty training, feeding–she always has great advice.

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Tell me about yourself and how you started food blogging: 

Hi! I’m Rachel of Baked by Rachel. I’m a born and raised New Englander, a transplant to New Hampshire, where I live with my husband and our three young children. I’ve always loved cooking and playing with food, or stealing a spoonful of cookie dough when no one was looking. I never considered a career or hobby in food of any kind until one day I found myself wanting a place to share my recipes with family and friends. It’s grown into something so much more than I could have ever imagined.

The lighter side of me: I’m a bacon, cheese, potato and sweets loving girl…but please don’t mix my sweet and salty treats. You’ll never get me to eat tomatoes. I’m always on the hunt for a great new book. If you have a suggestion, I’d love to hear it!

Take me through your day.

Since it’s still summer vacation for us, we don’t really have a set schedule. Once school starts up in September, well… that’ll be a whole new story, with big changes to our schedule and new adventures. So for now our days look something like this:

7-8am Wake up. It totally depends on the day. I’m trying to enjoy or lazy days as long as they last. Once we’re all up our normal morning routine starts before we head downstairs. This is also the time I finally put away clean clothes if they’re still (very likely) sitting in the basket.

8:30 Breakfast, catching up on e-mails, twitter, morning blogging routine if it was a post day.

9am We’re either out running errands, playing or snuggling. Until this week, catching up on the Olympics was big on our list.

12-1 Lunch! This is assuming that my lil man hasn’t taken a late morning nap and pushed lunch back. It happens.

1-3pm cleaning, playing and prepping recipes all while listening to music and watching my girls dance around the house… Or fight because, let’s be real, kids only get along maybe 50% of the time and not always when you want them to.

3pm Quiet time! My youngest two are napping at this time so I’m able to get in some writing, editing photos or catching up on my favorite blogs.

6pm dinner

7pm family time

9-930pm bedtime. It keeps getting earlier and earlier. I swear by next year I’ll be going to bed at 7. Once everyone is tucked in and quiet, I like to get some reading in. It’s the only truly quiet time of the entire day.

What is your one must-have kitchen tool or gadget?

That’s a hard one but I’d probably have to say my knives. I only have a few really good ones but I use them more than any other tool in my kitchen.

What is the most important part of your day? Why?

Naptime! The 2-3 hour stretch in the afternoon where I can count on quiet. I need that time for my sanity ;) Plus it means happy kids in the evening.

What is your favorite part of your day? Why?

This really depends on the day and what we’re doing but I love when I’m able to play in the kitchen. It’s my creative time so I usually have music playing and a big mess scattered throughout the kitchen.

What is your LEAST favorite part of the day? Why?

Whatever day or time laundry and toilet cleaning is. I’d like to avoid both of those when humanly possible.

If you could choose one room in your house to remodel (on an unlimited budget!) which room would it be and why?

We have so many ideas always brewing. As much as it’d be fun to redo our kitchen or even our too tiny of a master bath, I can’t wait until we finish the attic. It’s just a giant open space right now and has SO many possibilities. We’ve talked about ideas from a huge master suit to an office and a game room or a theater. I’m not sure how we’ll narrow it down when the time comes way down the road.

If you had to choose one place to travel to every year over and over, where would it be? Why? Have you been there before?

I’d love to island hop in the Caribbean. I’ve only been to Aruba but it was amazing.

If you could travel anywhere in the world for free, where would you go and how long would you stay?

I’d definitely tour Europe for at least a month. I’ve never been so there are a ton of places I’d love to see. More time would mean less rushing and more ability to just enjoy everything.

 What recipe on your blog are you most proud of?

To date it’s my peppermint bark cheesecake which was inspired by The Cheesecake Factory’s version. It took a lot of planning so I was and still am thrilled with the results.

What recipe on your blog do your readers seem to love most?

Two reader favorites have been my apple crumb pie (below) and my snowflake peppermint bark (above).

What have you learned since you began blogging?

The food blogging community is like family. I’ve made so many amazing new friends since starting.

What have you found to be the most challenging part of blogging?

It’s extremely time consuming the more you get into it. Plus, I never anticipated having to deal with theft issues. It’s such a sad and frustrating experience.

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Thanks Rachel!  That cheesecake is definitely going to make an appearance around our house during the holidays.

Oh wait, that’s when I’m having a baby. Who wants to make it for me?

You can also find Rachel on Facebook and Twitter.

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