I should have stayed in bed...

Ugh, today was pretty rough, so please excuse this post as it might all be me complaining. Yesterday I had to go right from school to work and then I got out about 20 minutes late, so I didn't end up getting home until 11:45. I had to be up for school this morning at 7am and needless to say I was quite tired. It wouldn't be so bad except I had a lot of early mornings this week so I haven't been able to catch up on sleep. I left the house and locked the first door behind me only to discover that my keys were not in my coat pocket where they normally are. I would have just rung the doorbell to run back in and get them, but I was in a rush for school. So I get to the sidewalk only to realize that I've also forgotten my glasses... Needless to say I was pretty cranky this morning.

Wait, I should back track - I forgot that I didn't blog about school yesterday! OK, so yesterday started our module on Breads and doughs! I've been pretty excited for this part of school because I LOVE to bake bread! So yesterday we made a few basic breads and I only have one picture but here it is:

The above breads are just a very basic recipe. Simply flour water salt and yeast. Here's the secret to the lovely crusty bread that is pictured above: steam. At school we have these crazily expensive "deck" ovens that  have a button that releases steam. The steam gives the bread a nice crust to it and a deep rich color. Now, if you don't have thousands of dollars lying around and a huge space in your kitchen for new ovens, don't despair! My class had a quick visit from another chef at our school yesterday and though I was distracted by his British accent (seriously) I did manage to learn that you can get pretty much the same result by using a spray bottle filled with water. Sidenote: the British chef that came into our class is seriously good at making bread. He was on Martha Stewart and wrote the entire curriculum for this section of school. Also, he was the instructor of the class that I sat in on when I visited in the spring. Anyway, back to baking bread,  yesterday like I said we made just very basic one step breads and then one with a "pre-ferment" or "starter." We made a clover shaped loaf and rolls with golden raisins and pecans (seriously delicious), and then also a loaf with kalamata olives. I didn't get a chance to try the loaf with olives because I left it at work for my coworkers, but I can say that the olives were delicious by themselves ;-) 

Alright, on to today. After the rough start to my day, I was ready to bake bread. First we started proofing dough for some baguettes and then we moved on to dead dough. If you're not sure what dead dough is you're not really missing out on much. Dead dough is a dough that is used for decorative purposes. Some groups made yellow/green (colored with turmeric) and the others (read: mine) made red (colored with beet powder and chili powder). Here's where my bad day continued. For dead dough you first have to make a syrup that will then be added to the dry ingredients. So we were supposed to put in 400 grams and I for some reason just assumed that one syrup batch was 400 grams. Guess what? It wasn't. So our dough was super wet when it should have been the consistency of playdoh. Oops. Luckily we added a bunch more flour and it turned out fine, but it just made me a bit crankier that I messed up. After dead dough we made hot cross buns and a braided bread. Unfortunately I forgot my recorder - so I couldn't serenade my classmates with that lovely song. 

I may or may not have "sampled" the missing one...

Braided bread!

All of this bread baking has made me think about possibly going a different route in my career and pursuing baking instead of becoming a pastry chef. We'll see though, I still have quite awhile to decide. Anyhow, here are some random thoughts:

- This week I got into an "argument" with a homeless person at Starbucks. (Don't worry it was not a dangerous situation) I was at work and saw an umbrella handle sticking out of the garbage can, so I decided to go and change the garbage. As I'm lifting the bag out of the trash this old man says, "that's mine!" to which I replied, "well it's in the garbage and is covered in trash..." "it's mine!" "... it's seriously covered in garbage..." "I was keeping it in there!" at that point he snatched it out of the trash can and took it - garbage and all. I was a little astonished, it was obviously broken since someone had thrown it out and also, his excuse was that the garbage can at Starbucks is his own personal storage space? As I was arguing I was just thinking that it would make a good story, so I wasn't too mad. haha

- Uncle Earl! I was just wondering if you had heard that Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! is coming to the Detroit area. I was pretty excited when I heard and then bummed that I'm not going to be there.

- One of my best friends might be coming to see me at the end of December! I'm so excited I can't even tell you. I seriously miss all of you so much and it will be awesome to see a familiar face. (Although, please know that I am happy here and having a good time.)

-I read a new book this week called "We Need to Talk About Kevin" - it's being turned into a movie (a slightly indie and pretentious one at that) so I decided that I had to read it. I couldn't put it down and finished it in a day and a half (give me a break - I had to work ;-) ) I would recommend it, but it's pretty disturbing and creepy, so you may not like it.

I think that's it for this week. My aunt Kathy mentioned something about getting some of the recipes for the things I've made. I have Tuesday off so I'll try to post a blog with those. If there is anything specific that you guys would like a recipe for, just leave a request in the comments!

Lots of love,

Kayla