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!

I think when I get to heaven...

The first thing I ask God will not be what happened to the dinosaurs. No, instead, it will be, "What was your purpose in creating the sloth."

Enjoy a little slothy entertainment, will ya? (And try not to compare the subjects of the video too much to your significant other, what with all the scratching and stuff.)


Meet the sloths from Amphibian Avenger on Vimeo.

Ode to my crazy mom

Well since a few of my other blog buddies are talking about their moms, I guess I'll do it too, just a few days late. I touched on before how crazy my mom is and I'm afraid this post, too, only reveals the tiniest tip of the crazy iceberg that my mom is, but it's a good place to start.

Things said at the lunch table while sharing KFC original recipe with my family on Mothers Day:

Me: "Mom, can you hem some pants for me? I swear I wore them last year but now they're too long. Maybe I only wore them with heels last year."
Molly: "Yeah, or maybe you're shrinking."
Mom: "Oh no she's not. She's getting taller."

Ah, the age old, "You need to pray and ask God to make you taller" debate. My mom will not drop this. About a year ago she said this to me and I have repeatedly told her that I'm not going to pray for that because a) God has better things to do than to field questions from me about the body HE created, b) if I, in fact, do pray for this, and if, in fact, God does answer that prayer and makes me taller, then my pants, which my mother and just about every other seamstress in this town has hemmed and tailored to fit my stumpy legs, won't fit, and c) my mom is crazy. But I've mentioned that before.

Next came this:

Mom: "I looked and looked in the card section for a card from a mom to her son or daughter but just couldn't find any!" (And no, she's not talking about the ones you give if your daughter has had a child - because me nor my 3 other siblings have had children.)
Me: "Well, I'm not surprised by that at all. Moms don't give their children cards on Mothers Day. Children give their moms cards on Mothers Day."

Hello, crazy.

I'm serious folks, this only touches the tip of the crazy iceberg. I think I'll start carrying around a tape recorder when I'm with her. As crazy as she is, I must say that I try my hardest to look past the crazy and love her inspite of it. It's difficult sometimes, but I do try. And I do love her very much.

I'll leave you with this:

It's Christmas time and we're all digging into our stockings. I had dropped some Dove dark chocolate in everyone's stockings and my mom pulled one out: "Oh, I just love dark chocolate. It's so much better for you than milk chocolate. Peyton (the one who put the dark chocolate in the stocking) if you don't like dark chocolate, you should pray and ask God to make you like it."
Me: Speechless.

PeyPey, how does your garden grow?

Let's begin with the remnants of last years container garden, shall we?

Yes, yes, I was apparently growing twigs, grass, pinecones, pinestraw and weeds. And these sad little fellas just had no hope whatsoever.

I did manage to save the tulip bulbs from last year, yet, I have no idea what to do with them...

I have hope for this year though. I went with the mini pallet/greenhouse thingy to help me just start my seeds. I've never started with seeds before so we'll see how it goes. You pour water on the little pods until they're all expanded:

For herbs, I planted dill, basil, lavender, cilantro, and rosemary. For veggies I planted cherry tomatos, jalepeno, and spinach. For flowers I planted zinnia, achillea, and english daisies. I even made cute little markers for them:

Got the seeds planted, now it's a waiting game.

Well that didn't take long! About a week before the first little sprout sprouted. Now they're ready to be planted.

So I got to planting...

I used several different kinds of potting soil. (That's the reason for the different colored dirt.)

Say a little prayer for my garden and my green thumb, will ya?

Welcome back, PeyPey

People, it's been 2 weeks since my last post and for that I'm sorry. Can we just agree to blame it on tax season? And since that's the industry I work in, it makes sense. So agreed, yes? In no way have things slowed down enough for me to justify blogging right now, and honestly, I don't have a hot topic or Thoughtful Thursday to share with you, so I'm just going to ramble, mmmkay? So here's a couple of useless tidbits of information for you:

1. I have another published article coming out in May's issue of the local magazine, Columbus & The Valley. I'm pretty super excited about this article, so go out and grab a copy. Do it. Or else. If you missed my last article, check it out here. Columbus & The Valley's owner and editor, Mike Venable, has also asked me to be a featured blogger on their website so stay tuned for that. I'm pretty amazed at how this opportunity has fallen into my lap. A friend of mine, Michelle Burton, emailed me one day after reading my blog and told me I should get in contact with a friend of a friend or hers (it pays to know people, people. Literally, it pays. So all you people out there burning bridges? You should probably stop right now.)  So I did. I emailed someone I didn't know, offered to take her to lunch, and was assigned an article for the upcoming issue of Valley Parent magazine in a matter of minutes. I did end up taking Jill out for lunch and when I naively asked her, "so what do you do for the magazine", she set me straight telling me she's part owner and co-editor of Columbus & The Valley and Valley Parent. I was a bit floored. I was amazed at how down-to-earth she was - willing to meet little ole' me for lunch and offering me a writing assignment just like that! I'm so blessed to have these opportunities and hope my relationship with Columbus & The Valley is a long and fruitful one. Do I hope my picture one day graces the jacket of a book penned by me? Yes. Am I a long way from that? Yes. Would my freshman English 101 prof "yell" at me with red ink if I turned in a paper with a paragraph this long? Yes. Moving on.

2. But more about writing. My idol and very famous author, Jenn Lancaster, returned an email with great feedback about blogging to me a few weeks ago. The jubilance I felt when I opened this email was probably akin to how screaming girls felt when New Kids on the Block walked on stage at one of their concerts and in all their acid wash glory. (I wouldn't know. I wasn't allowed to listen to them, much less go to a freaking concert. My mom, I guess, thought NKOTB were straight from Satan's sperm, because no matter how much begging and pleading I did, I didn't even get to have a NKOTB slap bracelet, for crying out loud. [She also wouldn't let me watch Captain Planet. To this I say, WTF, mom, W. T. F?] So what did I do? I watched NKOTB - every concert on Pay Per View and every interview on Disney - in secret at my friend Crystal's house. So booyah, mom. And I did get my slap bracelet, you just didn't know about it. And did I turn out okay? Um, yes. I think I may have my next blog topic somewhere in all that.) So, needless to say, I was pretty freaking excited to see her email in my inbox. She is also following me on Twitter now, which is just peachy.

3. Ok, now for some pictures. It's Spring, and that means festival season. While I didn't get to go to Coachella and the prospect of going to Bonnaroo is but a dream, I did get to go to the Frogtown Hollow Bluegrass festival! (Please read that in an uber-country accent and perhaps say "hollow" like "holler" to get the full affect.) It was a fun night with Rachel and Lance - blue skies, beer, and bluegrass.

Last weekend was one of the Seven's (I'll explain this in a later post) weddings. Lori Holman became Lori Levine and we all had a blast. This picture exemplifies my relationship with the Seven's. We were making "that's what she said" jokes at the bachelorette dinner. I love this picture of Barbara and me. Tons of laughter and lots of support and love.

And finally, I've spoken briefly about it before, and promise to devote a full, future post to it, but the BBB - Bread Baking Bunch, AKA Bread Baking Bitches AKA Drink and Bake - is still in full swing. This was a pic from March's meeting. April was pizza dough, next month is a Mother/Daughter where we'll be teaching our moms how to make a loaf of wheat bread (and watching Captain Planet while listening to NKOTB), and then in June, we're taking an overnighter to Chateau Elan to attend a winery tour and take a break from all our slaving over hot ovens. Don't you wish your girlfriends could bake like us? We've also been in touch with other bread baking groups - AROUND THE WORLD! Yeah, no joke! Pretty exciting! I'm smelling a yeasty joint venture.

Ok, so that's all I got for today. I promise future blogs on BBB, my crazy mother, kid stuff I loved but was not allowed to do but did anyway, and the Seven's. Stay tuned.

Market Days

Spring is here, is it not?! Overnight, the leaves on the trees turned neon. My car, which used to be blue, is now yellow. I can wear flip-flops and my toes don't turn into icicles. And even as I sit here this morning, I'm hearing all the sounds of Spring. Like, literally, there's a damn bird perched outside my window and is relentlessly trying to get its point across to its fellow feathered friends. The yard man's here and I'm pretty sure he's trying to mow the bricks up the side of my house, it's that freaking loud. But that's okay. I don't mind, because I can look out the window, see nothing but green grass and blue sky and that just lifts my spirits.

Another thing I'm getting super excited about is Market Days on Broadway! It starts up May 15! I started selling PeyPey's Picante last year at Market Days and received quite a following. There is such a camaraderie with the other vendors, trading my goods for theirs, never exchanging a dime. I'll give you a jar of PeyPey's for that apple pie right there. Or, I'll give you two jars of PeyPey's for two baskets of blueberries. The cool of a Saturday morning, the friendliness of patrons, the deliciousness of freshly grown produce and freshly baked goods. These are the things that I love most about Market Days.

Kyle's Red Root Farm has some of the best tomatos around. And Kyle's t-shirts are really cool too! If you mosey up to Kyle's stand, expect to see him wearing a cowboy hat and playing some Allman Bros on his guitar. Buy some tomatos from him and he just may throw in a free onion.

Come sample the street fare and then rent a bike from Ride On Bikes for $10 and ride all day. Don't be surprised to find the owner's lazy dog sleeping out in the sun or coming to visit your booth for a treat.

 

Check out Ms. Lisa's fresh basil. Put that with the tomatos and onion you got from Kyle and go home and cook up some homemade spaghetti sauce!

You haven't tasted good until you've had some of Lindy's bread. Fresh loaves, pizzas, scones, biscuits, muffins, and hot and fresh (like, she cooks them THAT morning) chocolate croissants. Grab a scone or croissant and step over to Fountain City Coffee for a cup o' joe and enjoy your breakfast.

Got a date Saturday night? Wow her with some homegrown flowers. All varieties, all colors. They're so pretty.

This picture makes me so stinking happy. This stand is run by Our House home for kids. The leaders teach them how to grow a garden every year and then they come and pretty give away their produce to patrons. They only accept donations. And look at how gorgeous their produce is!

 The strawberries taste like strawberries! The snozberries taste like snozberries! The blueberries taste like blueberries! Mmmmm. So delicious.

And finally, pick up your jar of PeyPey's Picante, only the best salsa you'll ever put in your mouth, trust me. I routinely sold out most Saturdays and hope to do the same this year. So come get a taste!

Sitting here in the quiet, being thankful

I don't have much else to say today other than this -

Think of every movement you can make with your body. Start with your head. Move it any way you can move it. Side to side. Up and down. Blink. Swallow. Speak. Touch your tongue to the roof of your mouth. Now go down the length of your body, making every single movement you can with every single limb and body part you have until you've reached your feet and wiggled your pinky toes.

Are you done?

Now thank God you are able to do those things.

Sure, if we're the right kind of good, we'll thank God when big things are provided to us - jobs, cars, housing, mates; but are we thankful for the things we just do or have, without even thinking about them? I'll be honest, I'm not.

But that just may be changing soon.