I didn’t have time last week to blog or do much of anything. I was busy, busy all week. But one thing I did is bake some bread. I didn’t have class this past Monday but last week we spent the morning making bread from scratch and it was so much fun. I’ll be doing this a lot more in the future.

First we made some Challah. I’ve actually never had Challah before but I’ve seen recipes for it online and I’ve wanted to try making it for a long time, so I was excited about this. We did three-strand braids for both loaves and I topped one with some black sesame seeds and left the other plain. This bread didn’t last long at my house. It was a rich, soft, chewy bread that was good hot with a little butter. It was a lot easier to make than I thought it would be so I’ll be making this again soon.

Then we took the poolish we had started the week before and made baguettes. These are a good dense bread with a nice crispy crust and they would make a really good sandwich. I liked these a lot but not as much as the Challah.

So, bread was fun and now I can’t wait to take my bread class next fall. Next week in baking we’re doing laminated dough and making pinwheels and turnovers and the week after that is pies. Yum.

I had my savory cooking class today and we broke down chicken, made stock, and then we took some of the chicken breast and sautéed it, made a supreme sauce and served it with our choice of starch and a vegetable. I made some boiled new potatoes with a little salt, pepper and fresh parsley and stir-fried some asparagus with lemon juice and a tiny bit of garlic. The potatoes and asparagus were good but I didn’t taste the chicken. The sauce was pretty good, though. It’s really hard being a vegetarian in that class. Not just because I don’t get to taste much of the food but I haven’t cooked meat in a long time and it’s just as gross as I remember. The class is fun, though. Next week in that class we’re doing sandwiches and bound salads (these are salads that have a thick dressing, like a potato or chicken salad or cole slaw). Maybe I can sneak a vegetarian meal in there.

Now, I’m also blocking my shawl today and I’ll try to post something about it Friday.

Today was our first day in the kitchen in my baking class. I had so much fun, it was just what I expected. We made a chocolate cake that we’re going to use to make bread pudding next week and then we made strawberry rhubarb cobblers with pâte brisée crust. Everything was made from scratch and it took a long time. Plus there were tons of dishes to wash (yes, we wash our own dishes) and a huge mess to clean up when we were done. Honestly, the dishes weren’t that bad, but there were a lot of of them. I had a blast cooking, I always do. I’m really starting think I found something that fits. I’ve been trying to find something I really love to do for a long and I never dreamed it would be any kind of cooking but here I am.

I’m out of school tomorrow and then I have my cooking class Wednesday and we’re starting stocks, sauces, and knife skills. I think we’re going to make soup, too. I’m really looking forward to it.