The Adventures of a Frustrated Baker

About 6 months ago, I made the very difficult decision to leave my long-time job at Lower Columbia College for the opportunity to work at University of Portland, which had been a dream of mine for quite a while. During my last few days at LCC, one of my co-workers and friends asked me if I would finally be able to resume my blog and share recipes since I was going from a 40 hour work-week to a 35 hour work-week. At the time, I told him I wasn’t sure but that I would certainly try! Well, it has been 6 months...and all that extra time ended up consumed with a new obsession - gardening! (I’m sure there will be more about that new adventure in the future.) Anyway, I still haven’t been all that active with baking lately but I think this is the perfect opportunity to change that, if for no other reason, than it has  been almost impossible to even buy bread in the town of Woodland right now! Lol Which leads me to my post today - we’re making bread! And though I will end up making ...

Back before Thanksgiving many versions of this recipe were making their rounds on Facebook and Pinterest and I just couldn't wait to try it.  I just keep forgetting to buy or save up enough basil to make the pesto.  As luck would have it, my basil plants were getting a little tall and needing a trim right about the time that I stumbled across yet another re-pin of this idea.  I did some recipe shopping and was having a hard time finding good reviews on some of the recipes I could find so I decided to just use the idea and make my own version.  I dug out one of my sandwich bread recipes and looked up the ratios of a basic pesto recipe and got to work!  I have to say, while my bread here is not perfect as I had some company over and I accidentally let it rise to long which made a fairly large hole in the loaf, it is by far the yummiest idea ever.  Seriously, thanks to whoever got that whole pesto bread trend started! Start by placing 1-2 c...

Good morning!  I just love starting Sundays with a freshly made warm breakfast!  There is just something about sitting down with the family and having a yummy meal together that just makes my day.  Maybe it is because it is the last day of the weekend and I always start Sundays hoping that I will just be able to sit back and relax, and if the season is right end it with a football game!  It rarely works out that way, especially during the school year, but one can always hope! This morning we started our day of with French Toast Bread Pudding!  I love this recipe because it is quick to throw together and bake the next morning and because it is a great way to use up old bread, particularly if you made it yourself and cannot bare the thought of throwing it away when it starts to go stale!  For this morning's bread pudding we used up the leftover Choereg bread we made for a Girl Scout event last week and it worked out great.  Since Choereg is sweet, i...

Did anyone else get any fun new appliances for Christmas?  We sure did!  Because I love to bake I usually get something new for the kitchen every year, sometimes it is just a new spatula because I broke my favorite one, other years it's a new food processor and sometimes it's just something fun someone saw and thought of me.  This year it was actually my husband (gasp!) that received the fun new appliance, a hot dog toaster!  I know, strange..him...in the kitchen...you'd be surprised how often he ends up there sometimes. Anywho, it reminded me that last year, he gave me a pretzel maker for Christmas and as with all of my kitchen stuff that doesn't get used on a regular basis, it was shoved into a cabinet and forgotten about until it fell out as I was trying to find  a new home for said hot dog toaster. We love the big soft pretzels and often stop to get them as treats when we are shopping and need a bite to eat.  The joy of this little appliance is ...