Baking Dream

Y'all, I have so much to do today and all I want to do is bake.

I checked out Martha Stewarts, Baking Handbook, again, from the library. I am sure that the librarians think I am the biggest goon, checking and re-checking this book out. I need to just go buy this thing.

Today I have a ton of errands to run and things to do to prepare for the next few weeks. But all I can think about is how this morning, when I woke up, it was 69 degrees outside.

Friends, fall is coming to the desert. It's a beautiful thing. When fall happens I want to be making ginger bread and pumpkin loaf cake and and trying some new recipes. Oh yeah, and my coffee consumption goes up exponentially. It's all good!

I was thinking about the pumpkin patch and sweatshirts and Cookie, the blue heating blanket. I was thinking about spiced apples in puff pastry....and I don't even enjoy cooked fruit.

One of my goals for the fall break is to learn to make pastry dough. I have never tried this because I have felt a bit intimidated by it. But I think I can handle it, and now that it isn't 110 degrees outside ( although it will still get to 91 today) I think it is cool enough to try.

I have been reading up on pastry dough, not just in Martha's book, but in a few other cookbooks I have checked out lately. Speaking of, I just love this cook book, it reads like a novel, with stories about where and when she first used a recipe and other great stories of her being a chef. It's as fun to read as it is a great resource for recipes! I plan to check it out again soon. But I digress...

So instead of enjoying this fall time dream I am going to go to the gym, then to Costco; get the oil changed in the car; run to the book store to find a book The Boy put on his Birthday Wish List; run to the department store to buy new undershirts for The Mister; try to find out where I can get a Piñata for The Boy's birthday party on Sunday, and then try to get home to shower before I get the kids from school. At some point, I need to finish the breakfast dishes, make my bed, start a load of towels in the washer, make dinner, and get the kids to soccer practice.

But in my daydreams I will be in my kitchen whipping up a batch of Cranberry Pecan Rye Bread (pg 298), or Maple Walnut cupcakes (pg 164), or Spice Sandwich Cookies (pg 105) or..... or..... or.....

Is fall coming to you yet? And what are you dreaming about?