I "knead" a break!

It has been a crazy couple of days. I've been very busy with different events since Thursday, I think. Dinners with friends and family, a baby shower, and baking bread. They are all fun activities, but a lot to do all the same.

A couple of friends and I put together a quaint shower for our friend Courtney. It was just a few ward friends and we did fondue. This is what I made the previously mentioned cinnamon spice cheesecake and pound cake for. It was really fun complete with a baby memory game, among other classics. I ate way too much. I had had delicious fondue at Cami's the night before and was still full from that adventure. Who gets fondue two nights in a row?! We did the broth and cheese versions at Cami's house. Delicious! We must do it again sometime, when I have recovered.

Mattie invited us over for dinner the next day for a very upscale salad bar with artichoke hearts, streak strips, avocado, and cherry tomatoes, to name a few fixins. It was nice after eating everything covered in cheese or chocolate for the past two nights.

I was asked, and gladly agreed to teach a class on baking bread for an enrichment activity on Tuesday. I decided to make wheat, French, and foccacie breads. I love baking bread, as you probably know, but teaching a class requires a lot of prior preparation and organization. For instance, having the finished product baked before the class begins, having a batch of dough raised and ready to be shaped at the precise time in the class when you want to shape the loaves, teaching how to make the doughs (details on kneading, yeast, and gluten), and getting all the equipment and ingredients you need to the church. This seemed an easy enough task, so on Sunday I thought I'd go straight home from church to test out the recipes for quantity, and to check my timing. The class was Tuesday and this was getting close to procrastinating for me. I used a cheap measuring cup for the water that I realized after a long time of kneading a big glob of what was supposed to me a French bread recipe I've make dozens of times, was 1/2 cup over what it actually says on the cup itself. How deceitful! This solves a lot of mysteries in my occasional baking misfortunes. I thought I was going insane when really, every time I'd used that cup, I was mis-measuring. I was pretty upset, as I usually am when a simple cooking task doesn't turn out how I want it to. KC is very patient with me. He never takes these types of situations personally. So all that work was for very big, and not quite right, loaves of French bread (see photo, pre-baked) that actually made a very nice pizza later on. Anyway, the next day I couldn't let the bad batch haunt me anymore. I needed to make it right. I find that whenever something doesn't turn out right, I have a very strong urge to make it again immediately no matter what time of day or what previous engagements I have. I started making both the wheat and the French bread doughs one after another right when I woke up at 6 something, since I would need them both as examples to present and have something to eat in case the other batches didn't get done. Everything was going wonderfully. Both were rising, the wheat in the pans, and the French, ready to be shaped. Then I got an emergency call from my boss telling me to go into a different hospital since the girl that is normally there is now in the middle of morning sickness. My bread was mid-rise! I said I would since this hospital is very busy and out company gets a lot of words if people get missed. I was upset, once again, and had to put the wheat bread in the oven immediately, and freeze the French dough to stop it from rising altogether. What a pain. I thought I was never going to win with this bread. Anyway, after all that, I went home and had to go straight to my friend Jeanette's new apartment, 40 minutes away. She is a former co-worker from Just Cakes, and she invited me and a couple others that have worked or still work there. I brought all of them a loaf of the semi-raised bread, which was actually still good, just not as fluffy as I would've liked. I had a great time catching up with them. It's weird working with people for 40 hours a week to not seeing them at all. We became great friends.

That night KC and I did a reimbursable shopping trip and I was finally feeling prepared. I had my recipes typed up, and my class itinerary ready to go. After work on Tuesdays, all I had to do was prepare the foccacie toppings, and make one more batch of dough to be ready to be shaped in the middle of the class. We had a trunk full of ingredients and tools. KC was a huge help, going on grocery store runs, hauling equipment, and moral support. The class went perfectly, there was a small but fun group of ladies there and it was a great successful night. The foccacie was the hit. I supplied prosciutto, goat cheese, fresh rosemary, parsley, and basil, caramelized onions, garlic, marinated tomatoes, and Parmesan cheese. I've made enough bread in the last three days to feed an army, and gained a few pounds from eating a good portion of it. I really loved teaching this class. All the worry and freaking out was for nothing which is usually the case. One crazy thing happened though. A girl who seemed to be happily interested the whole time passed out and was completely gray. We didn't even see her until she woke up and told us since we were all eating in the kitchen. We had to call her in-laws to pick her up since he husband was at work. She didn't get much color the rest of the time but we fed her a little bread and she started to feel better. Poor girl. I hope she's okay.

I gave my friend my camera and asked her to take a FEW pictures. She knows how picky I am so she's kept on taking. I only wanted a documentation because of all the hard work that went into it. Notice how I look progressively hotter, and my face gets more red as the class goes on. Kneading 4 batches of dough is hard work. Sar, notice the cute Hawaiian apron.

So, today I was happy to finally do the jobs that have needed to get done around the house that I couldn't get to earlier due to more pressing matters. The fridge is now clean, and I think the flour is cleaned off of most of the surfaces in the apartment. I have a few more baking projects I have to do in the next couple weeks. Funny how last week I baked endlessly for no reason at all, and now I'm swamped with mandatory jobs. Good thing I love to do it.