I heaved my body out of bed, grabbed a glass of water, and plunked my lazy ass on the couch contemplating going back to sleep. I decided against it and plunked my ass in front of the computer for too long thinking about making coffee..... it was 1pm before I actually did. But as I finally got moving in the kitchen, doing dishes and sipping iced coffee, I decided to do something unexpected.
I decided to make bread.
Now allow me to back up for a minute. I am a cook, but I have not given two shits about baking for most of my life. My mother, who coincidentally taught me the basics of cooking (and is still to this day a go-to for any culinary quandary I may encounter in the kitchen), is an avid baker. I remember fondly during my youth of her cranking out muffins, cakes, cookies, biscotti, rolls, pies.....the list goes on. I loved her product, but never really got baking. Even as I got older, and learned to cook better and better, never wanted to bake anything.
Years later, I tried my hand at making some cookies (which were fine), and once a Jell-O cake for an ex-gf (meh, too gooey). Still didn't care.
It wasn't until my first actual quarter at culinary school, taking baking class, that I understood the magic of baking. Before that class, I frequently spouted the cliche "cooking is an art, baking is a science". Ok. To a certain degree, this sentiment is fact. It's true that you have to be much more precise about the volume or weight of ingredients in a baking formula vs. a cooking recipe, but there is much skill and in crafting a tasty baked product aside from measurement. I hereby retract my cliche.
So I made a simple yeast bread, but with asiago cheese and onion. I activated my yeast, then realized i was out of flour.
Fuck. Mom to the rescue.
So I call mum over to bring flour (it gives her an excuse to see her granddog), and she does. So I combine flour, dry mustard, cayenne, and salt in the KitchenAid, and blend in a tbsp. of butter. Throw in the bubbly yeast water and knead for a few minutes. Tossed in hunks of asiago cheese and some grated onion, squeezed of most liquid. The dough got a bit sticky and felt tight, like over worked. I crossed my fingers, greased a bowl, and covered the dough up with plastic wrap. Placed the bowl on top of the refrigerator and went for a swim.
Mind you, it's 2:30, not food yet. Just coffee.
An hour goes by and my dough has doubled! I punched it, folded it, divided it, rounded it, and let it rest. Then I gave it a final shape, covered it again for 30 min. or so to proof up. once my loaves rose to the appropriate size, brushed them in eggwash and popped them a 375°F oven for 25 min. Pull bread out, brush again with eggwash, and top with grated asiago. back in for 5 minutes, and then 1 min. under the broiler to finish the cheese and VOILA!!!!
My bread turned out lovely as you can see.
Ok so back up.
I did actually eat during that period of prep, to bake, to finish. Lisa won a contest for selling the most special entrees (halibut?) during her lunch shift at Mac's today, so she got lunch bought for her. Being the amazingly sweet, giving lady she is, decides to order lunch for me. Since I was down at the pool when she rang, I missed my opportunity to place a specific order, so I got whatever she brought me. It turned out to be a grilled chicken sandwich with avocado and pico de gallo of giant proportion with a giant side of mashed potatoes. The bread was soggy so I ate the meal deconstructed. It was tasty mostly because it was now 3:30 pm and i had skipped breakfast and lunch. Blurg. After that I made a cosmo. Lisa went to Central Market for items for an antipasto plate and a lucious fruit tart as we were headed to her brother's house in Southlake to celebrate her father's 63rd b-day.
Lisa gets back and starts disassembling cheeses. She bought this applewood smoked cheddar, a black pepper gouda, fresh mozzarella, and this amazing lamb's milk cheese that I can't even pronounce. She bought some prosciutto, capicola, and a few different types of olives.
Nice spread. Good cheese, good wine, cured meats, fresh bread. All very nice.
Lisa and I brought over some ears of corn in which to grill then top with garlic-butter, fresh-squeezed lime juice, and queso fresco. BUENO!!
Lester made bison burgers. He cooked onions in bacon fat and kneaded them into the meat before grilling, which is a great idea, but the burgers were under seasoned..and a tad dry. There were also sausages bought from CM that looked great, but were also under seasoned.... and dry.
Oh yeah, Wendell (Lisa and Lester's dad) brought ribs..... straight from a bag....straight from Wal-Mart...bearing the Tony Roma's logo. Yeah I ate them.
They were ok.
We all had a great time afterwards. Swimming, drinking, cutting up. Nikolai even had a ball terrorizing the other dogs and getting squirted with water.
Wendell and his wife Erica bailed before Lisa even presented him with the fruit tart she had bought for him at CM. We took half home, got stoned, and started in on it (What?!!,I barely ate my dinner!).
The weekend is over so that means the next 4-5 post will probably be about my bitter disdain for pizza.
for now my friends, so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, GoodnighHight!!!
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