BBB aka Bread Baking Bunch aka Bread Baking Bitches aka Drink and Bake

Nine months ago I was walking the cluttered aisles of TJMaxx and found a book that would change my life. Ok, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. I'll just say it added a lot more fun and friendship to my life. The book was a $2.99 bread baking book and as soon as I picked it up, still standing in that cluttered aisle of cheap treasures, I formulated the idea to begin a bread baking group.

Quite similar to how most of my ideas begin to take shape, I called the bff and asked her if she'd be interested. Her response, as usual, "you plan it, and I'll come." (She will be receiving an extra jewel on her crown in heaven for how many things she participates in that I drag her to.) So I went to work.

The first thing I needed to do was practice the basic bread recipe. I couldn't be teaching a group how to do this if I couldn't do it myself, right? So here's my first ever loaf of wheat bread...

So after I proved to myself that I could indeed bake a loaf of bread that actually tasted good, I called up a few friends and asked them if they'd be interested in getting together to learn. They were. So back in September 2009, we had the inaugural meeting of BBB - Bread Baking Bunch. I taught everyone how to make a loaf of bread, we drank a lot of wine (too much wine) and enjoyed each others company.

We began the night at 6:30 and ended it around midnight. It was so much fun and we all decided we wanted to do it again. So in October, we went to Jeannie's house for a tutorial on cranberry orange scones and buttermilk biscuits and to, again, drink too much wine.

 

Those were so delicious. November's group was held at Chandler's house where she taught us how to make a cream cheese braid, which better be served in heaven. Rachel, a new member at this meeting, suggested we rename our group "Bread Baking Bitches" and coined the phrase, "Drink & Bake", because that's essentially what we do.

Jeannie spreading the cream cheese

Chandler and me

Sara and Bea

In December, we decided we'd let the men in our life in on our new found talent. We had a cookout and cookie bake with the guys and named our party the "Drink & Bake." We made gingerbread men, peppermint bark, and cranberry white chocolate shortbread.

Our invitation:

 

Jeannie, Michelle, Leah, Erin, and Rachel

Haley, Jeannie, me

Our gingerbread men!

Busy decorating

Erin and Leah

Mark, Joel, Lance, and Wes...and their dixie cups

So much wine

Leah, Erin, me, Sara, Rachel

Whew! The Drink and Bake was awesome. In January, we deviated a bit from bread onto another carb - PASTA! Sara spent a summer in Europe taking cooking classes and learned how to make homemade pasta. It's soo simple and fun to make! We made ravioli with a homemade filling, homemade sauce, and homemade tomato chips! And, of course, we drank a lot of wine. This meeting really solidified our group, I think. The regular members are myself, Jeannie, Rachel, Chandler, Michelle, Sara, Erin Pringle, Leah, Lindsay, and Erin Prielozny.

You start with a little Semolina flour and an egg

And then you get really messy

And you drink a little wine

And then you streeeetttcccchhh out the pasta to paper thin

I love this picture

Stuffing the ravioli

Yummy sauce

Perfect ravioli

Live, reporting from the scene of Hurricane Pasta

Jeannie, Erin, Leah, and Sara

Jeannie and Sara

And by the time it's all over, you've consumed an insane amount of alcohol. Yep, that's pretty much how each meeting goes!

In February, Erin and Leah taught us how to make homemade pretzels and homemade dipping sauces!

Michelle & Rachel

Mound of dough

 

Leah, Erin, Jeannie, me, Rachel, Michelle

In March, Rachel hosted and taught us how to make a Southern classic - cheese straws.

Michelle cranking out the straws

Erin and Michelle

Clockwise from top left: Lindsay, Erin Prielozny, me, Sara, Michelle, Rachel, Chandler, and Erin Pringle 

And of course, the aftermath

In April, we met at my house to learn how to make pizza dough. Turns out, the dough didn't rise. Thank goodness we had a back-up plan - Publix sells raw, already risen pizza dough for $2.50 in the bakery. Thank you Publix! We decided this would be our "Semi-homemade" night as we channeled our inner Sandra Lee's. We decided that even though we had this failure, we are still domestic goddesses.

My awesome toppings spread

Rachel and Chandler

You still have to roll out the Publix pizza dough so it still kinda felt authentic

Just your typical BBB table-scape

Mmmm so good!

So that's nine months of bread groups, nine months of lots and lots of wine, nine months of new friendships forming, and nine months of tons o' fun. This month, we're hosting a Mother/Daughter bread group in honor of Mother's Day. We'll be teaching our moms how to make a loaf of wheat bread. And then in June, we're taking a trip to Chateau Elan for a winery tour, cooking class, and spa time! It's going to be a blast!