A Little Bread Baking

Well, lookie here. I do have something different to write about this April.  Our girl Kate, an early Playdate helper who grew up to have a career and family of her own, mentioned on FB that she would like to learn more about cooking.  I told her I'd be happy to share, so what rolled out was a bread baking class with four beautiful young women.
Since we started at ten, I thought it would be good to end with lunch and the fruit of our gluten labors. I knew I couldn't teach baking and fix lunch at the same time, so I decided I would have some soup done and simmering on the stove.  The day I made this decision, it was in the eighties, and didn't seem like the best choice.  Well, Saturday dawned cold, gray and drizzling, so soup was a perfect accompaniment. I thought some hot tea, and hot chocolate would be good to sip while stirring lots and lots of flour.

Rae is very into sourdough bread and creates all kinds of amazing yumminess from one little starter. She opened our class with her expertise and a share of her starter, after sampling a warm loaf she baked before coming.

 Next up was kneading a heavy pumpernickel bread.

 We also prepared Buttery Beer Bread, Honey Wheat and learned to create loaf bread, cheesy garlic rolls and cinnamon rolls from one recipe of potato bread.

I so loved sharing bits of kitchen wisdom I've picked up through the years and listening to their joys and struggles.   I'm delighted to know such fine women are bringing up the next generation.

I would be happy to put bread baking on the back burner for a day or two, but alas, duty calls, there is a pitch-in tomorrow. It is ever the expectation for me to show with warm bread.

I plan every year to not allow the calamity that is state testing get me down. Every year I fail. Day one and stressful- faulty technology, miscommunications, a sick kiddo. Oh well, I just have six more days and eight more tests to go.  Yee Haw!