Is it weird to have a drink at 6 am, and not be in Vegas?

After a full evening of sourdough breads; cinnamon raisin, honey wheat, white, rye, whole grain, asiago cheese, and sesame breads; foccacia; cibatta; various bagels, pastries, and breakfast sweets; cookies; brownies; and baguettes; I could really use a drink. It's just a little weird that it's 6 am. Do I have a screwdriver or bloody mary, to make it more socially acceptable? Am I really craving a glass of cab sav right now? Or do I just cut to the chase, take two Tylonol PM and call it a night?

The sun's coming up, so that's a nice view from our porch, but our new little beach house is on a lovely road that's perfect for riding your bike, running before work, or walking the dog. Is that really the impression I want to make to the new neighbors? "Good morning! Yes, I am drinking at 6 am in my bathrobe. Enjoy your run before work!"

Maybe I can placate them with a cinnamon roll? Ten bucks says they'll take it.

Umm...I bake?

I'm never sure how to answer the following exchange with people I meet:

Them: "So what do you do?"
Me: "I'm a baker for [insert company name here]."
Them: Oh wow, that's cool! What do you do there?"
Me: "...Umm...I bake?"

I don't want to be a smart alack and answer with the above response, but I'm not sure what information they're after. Do they want a detailed list of each product we make? Or maybe a play-by-play of the proofing process and shaping of our sourdoughs? Or do we ask this question automatically because so many people have obscure job titles like "Consumer Marketing Specialist?"

I certainly can understand why people get confused with titles like the one mentioned above. But my job title is the noun of the action verb that encompasses my job. I bake. I am baking. I am a baker. I put things in ovens and they come out yummy.

Never trust a baker!

We're sleep-deprived, foot-sore perfectionists on some sort of combination of caffeine and complex carbohydrates.

It's been nine months, and no, there is no significance to the number of months it's been since I began blogging. I simply underestimated the amount of time school, work, and commuting between the two would take, leaving no time for something as trivial as blogging (that, and the sad realization I only had nine followers).

Here's the gist of what happened: School stayed the same and was fun, slightly challenging, and inspiring. Work continued to spiral out of control, culminating with me doing the job of at least two people, nothing like what I had been hired on to do in the first place, for a manager who couldn't seem to manage her personal life and brought all the emotions and attitude into work with her. After more than five years, I quit. My husband and I swallowed our pride and moved in with my parents for what was supposed to be two months, and ended up being five. I graduated at the top of my class with high honors, a crappy internship, and then landed a great job at a high volume chain bakery. We moved out of my parents' house and into our own little corner of paradise: a turn-of-the-century beach house one block from sunny Southern California's beaches.

So why resume blogging now? A few reasons. Firstly, I have thoughts. Ideas. I'm not sure if they will interest anyone except my parents and my best friend who lives across the country, but for the nine of my loyal followers, this is what's going on. Secondly, I used to be a writer. I miss it. I was good; I even stayed away from descriptive words like "good." I figure it can't hurt to get in a little bit of practice. And finally, sometimes my life is just funny. Weird, strange, sporadic, and funny.

Thanks for reading. Going forward I will assume for every follower I have, there are 50 of you reading and not following. Thanks to all 450 of you.

Another post...finally!

I know, it's been forever! Between working full time and school I haven't had much free time, and the wear and tear on my mental state has certainly been noticeable!

But enough whining - there are enough people in this country alone who could never hope to have the amazing opportunity I've been given, so we carry on:

It's December already! And the middle of December at that! I know I'm not the only one who looked up and is surprised to notice this. Since I last posted I have completed another module and am halfway through the current one.

I'll start with the completion of PBK 121 - petit fours, cakes, etc. The continuation of our basics. Here are some pictures from my final:














If you want to see larger photos (or just more) I have them posted on my Facebook page. This was one of my favorite classes - I loved all the details and work involved to create these little dainty items. I didn't really LIKE many of them myself, but they sure were fun to make!

Now that I'm officially on Christmas Break from school for two weeks (ah, I forgot what that was like!) I'll be updating on what's been happening. Next up: the beginning of hell...I mean 131...and working with a new chef.

Update - my injury

My hands have healed very nicely; thanks for everyone who was asking about it! It took about three weeks, but the large burn on my left hand finally healed over into a shiny new scar. Proof that I worked hard in culinary school, I guess! No infections, no tetnus. So we're ready to go!

Panic Sets In

We have finally finished breads, and have moved back to pastries. I have learned a few things already:

1. Europeans like almonds. Almond macaroons, almond Florintines, almond baton Marceaux, almonds, almonds, almonds! They're in everything; even the lemon Madelines have almond meal.
2. My class is wont to bouts of panic. I haven't figured out if it's organizational issues or if that's just the way they handle the stress of multi-tasking, but there have been a lot of deer caught in the headlights of a large moving van lately.

Luckily my recent jobs have required me to work on may different projects at the same time, due to the "brilliant" structure of giving me multiple bosses/managers (who, nine times out of ten, are out to get each other). Class has been pretty straight-forward for me lately, simply because I'm used to multi-tasking. Where I get frustrated is having to wait on others to catch up. Whether this involves them working more slowly and putting everyone behind, or if they're in my way and I can't get my own stuff done. I finally snapped at a girl today who, while washing her dishes in the ONLY SINK, stopped to tell me something about a bowl she washed earlier that needed to have the sink water dumped out because it made a mess, blah blah blah. I'm sorry? Do I care? Not really, just shut up and wash your damn dishes so I can get to mine!

All in all this class is much more fun than the last. I will have pictures at the end - our final is to present a buffet of pastries we have created, so I will be sure to capture that and post.

Thanks for reading!

Always waiting...stupid bread

So this is the first post in a long time, just because there hasn't been much of interest going on. Well, I find it interesting, but you probably wouldn't, simply because it's the same thing, over and over and over and over. To be honest, even I'm a little bored, so I'm glad we're in the final now. I'm actually blogging from school, since I'm waiting for my bread to proof. That's what we're still working on: bread. And since there is essentially only one way to make bread, we've been doing that. Over and over and over and over. Aside from braiding or rolling or the general look of the bread, the procedure is the same.

Glad to be moving onto the next class on Wednesday. Off to check my bread and make sure it's still doing what it's supposed to. Hopefully I'll have a more interesting post soon!