Bake Friday

So it's Black Friday, the greatest shopping day of the American year, and I'm home, laid-out-flat sick in bed. Am I crying about that? A little, because I get kind of weepy and vulnerable when I'm sick, especially when I'm alone with no one to make toast, soup, and chamomile tea for me. And because I am really, really sad that I can barely move right now, when I'd rather be in Orange County with my family today, especially those who have come in from out of state. Poor me. :(

Oh. Writing that paragraph sapped all my energy. I need to sleep for a few hours.

* * * * * *

Okay. I can sit up now.

Anyway, so I might be crying about being sick (if I had the energy to muster up some tears, which would probably just turn to steam on my fever-hot cheeks anyway), but I'm NOT crying about missing Black Friday. I am totally anti-Black Friday. I don't even like the name of it, it sounds negative and depressing to me-- even though I understand the symbolism, that being "in the black" is a good thing -- and I know I should be glad that our retail friends get to gain a little in their books in this recession era, but... I can't stand the over-consumerism of it. And I have a lot of bad associations with it, from eight years of working at Williams-Sonoma, where I had to go to into work first at midnight on Thanksgiving to change over the displays from Thanksgiving to Christmas, and then (as Black Friday REALLY gained steam), at 4am the day after Thanksgiving because the mall now opened at 5am. Ugh. Not that WS had any 'doorbusters', come on, but we had to deal with the frantic early-morning shoppers pounding at the door, anyway.

So. Instead of Black Friday, I think there should be a NEW tradition-- BAKE Friday. Make Thanksgiving a two-day holiday, spreading out the eating AND the prepping. Spreading out the joy. You know how it is-- you eat so much dinner on the Day of Thanks, that once dessert comes around, you don't really want it. And if your family is anything like my friend Sari's family, the dessert-- the PIE-- is the best part! ("One Pie Per Person". It's a great tradition they have!). Pie is better the second day anyway. Grabbing a pie, a can of whipped cream, and a couple of forks, and eating it together--straight out of the pan--as you watch sports or a movie or something, and on a slightly empty stomach after a leftover-turkey sandwich... awesome. Plus, there's so much stress on Thanksgiving Day to get all the food made, why not do the desserts the next day? All together, as a family? The family that bakes together... I don't know, I can't think of a rhyme for that. Probably gets fat together or something. BUT, at least one day a year should be okay. :)

So next year, I think I'm going to start this. Can't really start it this year. For starters, even though I went running yesterday morning in preparation for dinner later (and probably stupidly, because I could tell I was getting sick... it was just such a gorgeous, clear, chilly fall day...), I didn't eat much because I don't like feeling full. And, since I wasn't too full for dessert, I ate the pumpkin part of tiny slice of pumpkin pie. (Not pretending to be small, here-- I did pile it with whoop and I also ate two Trader Joe's chocolate-covered Peppermint Joe-Joe's... OH MY). Also, though I LOVE to bake, I don't bake for me, and I don't have anyone to give any creations to, today. Also, I'm sick and shouldn't be baking anything.

So in honor of the future of Bake Friday, here's a small snapshot of some of the particularly awesome baking I've done this past year. And what I will be happy to provide if you invite me to your own Bake Friday, next year.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting, S'mores Cupcakes, and then Red Velvet Cupcakes again (because I love them so much). These were class competition awards. Good thing, because if I didn't bake them for someone else, I'd want to eat them ALL-- the cinnamon-buttercream ones, that is. Whose recipe comes from this AWESOME cookbook:

As does a recipe for a Peanut-Butter Pie with Chocolate Crust. Oh man that was decadent.

I can't remember what the ganache was for. I think it was a layer between the crust and the whipping-cream/peanut-butter layer. Rich rich rich. It's a great cookbook.

Also for my classes, I make chocolate chip cookies. Which don't sound like much, but when you have to make them for 160 students, it requires quite a lot of dough.

Worth it, though. I hand out cookies with semester grades, to either Celebrate the Joy or Ease the Pain. And, every time, I'm surprised by the general reaction, to learn that so many kids DON'T have anyone baking from scratch, for them. Sad!

Also in the cookie realm--homemade Samoas. Totally a pain-and-a-half to construct. Delish, and you can't ever go back to the Girl Scout kind, but I don't know that I'll personally make them again. At least not in circle form; maybe in bars. Thanks Sam for the recipe!

Then last spring, needing something "citrus" for a recipe club night, I found this recipe for Chilled Lime-Coconut Pie with Macadamia-Coconut Crust. It was my favorite for a while (meaning I made it twice). Just so pretty... yummy too.

Also last spring came an adventure in Baked Alaska. It was my faaaaavorite dessert (of MANY) of last spring break's cruise (future blog subject), so I thought I'd try my hand at it. A lot of construction involved, and fortunately I actually owned the requisite 'bombe' pan TO construct it. I think it was on sale for three dollars or something at WS about six years ago. Figured I'd need it someday. Glad I could finally use it :)

It wasn't nearly as good as the Princess Cruises "Ice Cream Bombe 'Diplomat'", my meringue definitely needs work to become more silky, and the happy face sure wasn't necessary even if I did have extra meringue in my piping bag, but... kinda cool to bake ice cream in the oven and learn about the magic insulation properties of egg whites. Cool.

For Thanksgiving yesterday I baked my standard tied-knot rolls (no pictures, sadly... and MORE sadly, I thought I wouldn't want any today, so I gave away all the leftovers... ARGH), and these Gruyere-based Gougeres for an appetizer. Both are time-consuming, but worth it.

And... now that Christmas is coming up, I'll probably be making gingerbread boys (and girls, and stars, and trees). A roommate at college gave me the recipe 13 years ago, and I OD'd on them probably six years ago, and they're also totally a pain to make, but... I love them nonetheless :)

Way less effort are these Caramel-Chocolate-Oatmeal bars. These are my go-to cookies these days, as long as I have a bag of caramels on hand in my cupboard. (Which I usually do, so I'm always ready to make a quick treat when needed.) Also very necessary to give away, though, because these babies are NOT low-fat. I rue the day I learned the nutritional info for them. Ergh.

Finally... my new love. 

BREAD. Bread bread bread.

A friend gave me a loaf of this homemade wheat bread one day and, the next day when I cut into it, it was springy and soft and OH SO DELICIOUS that I immediately asked for the recipe, and also immediately renamed it to Oh My Heavenly Bread. I'm not kidding, it's that good.

Easy to make, too, if you have a Bosch or a Kitchen-Aid, and if you pre-bag all the various dry ingredients (including 10-grain cracked cereal mix, oatmeal, stone-ground wheat flour, bread flour and vital wheat gluten) and make the effort to find dough enhancer/conditioner/improver, which is what makes a potentially-heavy-with-grains bread soooo light and springy... do all that, and you can whip up two loaves in about two hours, start to finish. I think I've made over twenty-four loaves in the past six weeks. Bread therapy. Let it rise, go out for a run, come back and bake it, and then give it away.

(Sometimes I have to keep a loaf for myself, though... not my fault, sometimes I have to cut into one just to make sure it's good :).

I wish every day could be Bake Friday.