A Bread Making Lesson

Crystal has been commenting on Michelle's blog for some time now about wanting to learn how to make Michelle's fabulous Artisan bread, so after our fun lunch at Chili's last week we scheduled a bread-making lesson with Michelle.


She emailed us the recipe, so we all made our dough the night before and then brought it with us. (It has to rise for 12-18 hours.)


Eva serenaded us with her Mr. Ickle Bickle (that's not the right name, but close) song, the main gist of which is "He's so scary, so scary."


Crystal arrived with her darling toddler in tow (which she wasn't happy about) so he added a lot of spice to her day. I had forgotten how on-the-go a 2.5 year old is...where can I get some of that energy?


After the long rising time, the bread needs to be pushed down (not so much punched) on a floured surface, then given 10 more minutes to rise.


Amie worked the whole time she was there. She had her mini computer, her phone in hand, a pen in the other hand and so on. She is a wonder!


Crystal's boy wonder was quite enamored with the children's cutlery at Michelle's house (much to Eva's dismay) and ended up with 4 different utensils in his lunch.


We had a tasty lunch of chicken salad, croissants and fresh peaches (apparently I took this photo before putting the peaches on my plate).

Crystal brought cannoli for dessert.

After the 10 minute rising, we put corn meal (Michelle's finely ground) onto a towel then put our dough down, then put more corn meal on top of it before covering it with the towel so it could rise for another hour and a half.


Mine rose the highest! I was surprised mine worked at all, especially since my yeast had expired.


The bread bakes in a preheated over AND preheated dutch oven for 30 minutes on 450 degrees.

Crystal's very subtle, body-hiding pose.

My loaf!

It turned out beautifully.

Poor baby Jack wasn't happy about being locked in the house, especially when he was desperate to go home for a nap. He was a champ to have lasted as long as he did.

Our self-portrait.

It was a few hours of good conversation, good food and learning a new skill.

**Have you ever made Artisan bread?
Do you wish you had the energy of a 2.5 year old?
Do you like chicken salad?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I met with the head of Human Resources at the school district today and talked to him for a few minutes while he looked at my resume. It couldn't have gone better! He said he'd be calling me for an interview when he gets back from a business trip in over a week. Woohoo!

So Nice-To-Do

I know I keep writing about Sister Beck's Essentials, Necessities and Nice-To-Do's but they are seriously changing the way I think about how I spend my time, so I would be leaving out an important part of my life if I left them out of this post.


Plus, I keep improving this little reminder card (which I keep on my bulletin board above the computer). I have reread Sister Beck's talk a couple times, plus heard her at Regional Conference on Sunday so I keep finding more things she said to add to the list.

The great thing is that I am balancing my time better and making sure that my Essentials and Necessities are being taken care of so that I'm justified in all my nice-to-do's.


Like today when I met up with Crystal, Amie and Michelle for a long lunch at Chili's, there was no guilt and my mind was at peace because we had had family prayer and scripture study in the morning and I had gone visiting teaching as well.


The last time Crystal and I got together for lunch we ordered chips and salsa and then barely ate them even though we were there for 3 hours, so this time I was all over her about eating them.

The table could hardly hold all the food.

Poor Crystal sat across from me, so I got the most pictures of her, but I love the blur on this one because this moment was so funny. We laughed all throughout our lunch and at one point I even laughed hard enough to feel my abs working (that's my favorite kind of laugh), so it was a good time. There were lots of hilarious quotables (we really should have written them down) and we meshed beautifully as a group (i.e., no awkward silences or uncomfortable moments).

Me and my chins took one for the team since I held the camera on this shot, but I'm dedicated to self-portraits and remembering good days like this one.

**Are you on a quest for balance?
When was the last time you laughed really hard?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I really don't mean to be obnoxious about these things, it's more a matter of me constantly trying to be my best self and continually failing. I am always so shocked when I'm doing so well or right that I feel like I should shout it from the rooftops in disbelief and euphoria. I'm always more shocked than anyone else.