Bread - It makes me happy

Anyone who knows me, knows that I enjoy baking.  But by "baking", I mean pies, cookies, cakes, etc.  And every Christmas, I've coveted my friends' Kitchen Aid mixers. Honestly, it wasn't even JUST Christmas that I got a little green with envy.  Anytime I took out that hand mixer and tried to cream not-yet-room-temperature butter. But guess what I got for my birthday?  (Did you read that in the sing-song rhythm that I typed it? No? Go back and read it again.)

Yup, I am finally a full blown baker!  Well...not quite, see...in my eyes, one must be able to make bread before they can claim the title of "Baker".  I think it's the yeast that scares me. So, naturally, I attacked that challenge first!

It wasn't a complete disaster, but clearly, I needed to call in a professional.  My friend Emily is in the midst of adopting a little girl.  To help raise money for the extreme cost, she is doing auctions and making dinners.  She makes delicious bread.  De. Lish. Us. Bread.  Naturally, she was my first call.  We pulled out our calendars and picked a baking day.  What a great time we had!

 

We've tried to have another baking day, but it just hasn't worked out with our calendars.  So sad.  Still, I highly recommend calling up a girlfriend who can do something you want to do...and getting together to learn either FROM her or WITH her.  It was basically a grown-up girl play date.  And now, something that will always remind me of her.  Every time I bake her bread, I pray for her little girl.  I can't wait until the prayers can change from "bring her safely to her new family" to the day-to-day requests!

In the meantime, I've tackled so many more yummy treats: pretzels, pull-apart bread, and cinnamon bread just to name a few.

The problem I have now?  All this baking...means I need to do more running!

Anyone got any good recipes?