Let the words fall out

I'm tired.  I really need to plan better, since late evening is not my best writing time.  But I can't stand the thought of having a month where I only posted once, so here I am. 

Watching:  Doctor Who--we're happy to finally be into the second half of the current season.  Also Dancing with the Stars, which is one of my girls' favorite programs.  They both have their favorite professional dancers, and they root for the celebrities paired with their favorites.  

Reading:  A lot of online stuff, mainly about yoga.  Since I haven't been posting much, I haven't written about how I started doing yoga through an online 30-day class.  I'm really enjoying it, and it's helping me both physically and mentally.

Listening:  This awesome song that was brought to my attention by one of my courage classmates.  

Making:  I've been in the kitchen quite a bit, even though not many of my creations have made it onto the blog.  I really need to make more time for bread baking.  I put it off, thinking it will take more time than I want to spend, but when I finally do it, I'm so glad that I did.  That's true of a lot of things in my life...  I've also made some fun cakes for birthdays at work, including the one at the end of this post.  Vanilla cake, fresh strawberry filling, cream cheese frosting.  It was a huge hit.  Too bad I can't sell that one.

Feeling:  This morning as I was driving to work, I realized that I was feeling happier and less stressed than I have in quite a while.  The first quarter of the year is often a difficult time for me, but it seemed particularly challenging this year, plus it spilled over into most of April.  But things feel like they're improving.  The yoga is helping.  And while I don't have a daily focus on doing brave things, the habit has been created from the courses I've taken, and I worry less about what might happen or what people might think about what I do.

Planning:  This is the exciting and somewhat scary one.  It took a while to work a lot of things out, but I've finally gotten started on my own baking business.  The people I currently work with have been treated to my baked goods for the better part of a year, and I knew they would be excited to find out that I can sell things to them now.  I filled my first order yesterday, and immediately had inquiries about a couple more.  There are things I still need to figure out, but I have to start somewhere, right?

Wordless Wednesday - Berries are blue

(Best Blueberry Muffins from Cook's Illustrated)

Wordless Wednesday - Pretty pastels

(some of the bulk candy options at Central Market this time of year)

Kitchen math

One of the things that Gillian has gotten into is doing Bedtime Math.  We don't get to it every day, but she's definitely getting better at the Little Kids problems over time.  We kind of did our own version in the kitchen today.  G asked me if we could make treats for her teachers (classroom and after-school).  At her request, we settled on David Lebovitz's Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies.  (Okay, I just realized that when I wrote that post, I also talked about Bedtime Math, but totally forgot that I had done so!)

The math didn't come in with the measuring this time.  It was after the cookies were baked & Gillian was trying to figure out if we had enough for all the teachers plus some for us.  So, there are three classroom teachers and four after-school teachers.  There are two pans of cookies, one with fifteen cookies and one with eleven.  How many cookies can we package up for each teacher, and will there be enough left for a family of four to have dessert? =)

How to get to Carnegie Hall

I was reminded last weekend that my skill in the kitchen didn't develop overnight.  Sunday night I made dough for rolls and stuck it in the fridge.  (It's the recipe for Hoagie Rolls from Artisan Breads Every Day--a really lovely dough to work with, which I forget when I haven't made them in a while.)  Monday morning, I got up early and portioned the dough and formed the rolls.  I managed to get them baked before I had to go to work.  Boy, did the house smell good when I left. =)  At one time, I never would have had the confidence that I could pull that off, but in the past 5 years of baking and blogging, my baking skills have improved tremendously.  How?  Through repetition, of course.  And also good teachers--Dorie Greenspan, Peter Reinhart, and lots of others.  

Yet I still get frustrated when things don't turn out quite the way I wanted to--when they aren't perfect.  The demons of perfectionism and I-don't-have-enough-time have been really getting to me lately, which is a lot of the reason why I haven't been posting much.  I get hung up on the idea that if I don't have anything new and exciting to post, I shouldn't even bother.  But there's beauty in sharing the things that have gotten better with practice, and in writing just to express what's on my mind. 

Wordless Wednesday - Festive sprinkles!

(birthday cake for someone at work--doubled recipe for this cake)

Wordless Wednesday - Amy's ice cream & Arboretum cows