Baking with The Bosch

Remember I said that Elliott got me a Bosch Mixer for my birthday? I love it, and was determined to not let it be another item of mine that I neglected simply because it was "there" and would be "there" whenever I want to use it (so why rush)? Such is the case with my guitars, and my keyboard (one day a piano will replace it!), and--well I can't think of much else right now so I don't feel as bad as I thought I would! Success. I also knew that with baby 2 coming (let's get some names brainstorming here, ok?) that my time would be severely limited and I would be in constant "damage control" mode for a few weeks/months until I developed a steady routine. I have 3 months off of school and decided that instead of traditional "nesting," which I failed at with the last pregnancy, I would just focus more on the few crucial things I knew would be hardest to develop a habit of doing once the baby comes. SO, I have been working out several times a week. I have been allowing myself a little more down time. And perhaps most astonishingly, (for me at least) I have been making food. Preparing menus, searching recipes, and planning weekly grocery shopping trips to Target and Trader Joe's have made life a little more refreshing and quite honestly, fulfilling. I think the words I used with Brianne were, "I'm practically a real grown up now." Though I do make quite a few dinner meals from scratch, I'm much more enthralled by sweets and breads. I have yet to view baking as "addicting" or "therapeutic," but more so as rewarding and a labor of love. And I'd hardly consider myself a baker per se. I need to bake a little more consistently to say, "Oh, what do I do? I bake among other things (then list those other things)."  Over the past week or so I have made: 

 Famously quick, quick french bread. 

 Cocoa Crinkle Cookies

The holy grail of breads (and four hours + two shopping trips later I GET it) the softest, butteriest crescent rolls ever

Not to mention an oatmeal, coconut, chocolate bar recipe that tasted so good as dough but baked into a bland granola bar. Sad. 


Nonetheless, it is the holiday season, so what better time to get that bake on, right? I mean, the crescent rolls are for Thanksgiving tomorrow and I made the french bread just because, but also just because if the infamously temperamental crescent rolls didn't turn out, I'd have a backup. Looking at my hodge-podge of food pictures, I thought, "Why am I rambling on and on about food besides the fact that I'm pregnant?" Then I remembered (since I'm also very forgetful whilst pregnant) that, the first bread picture is literally just that--the first bread that I have made. Ever. I really don't count the dinner rolls I randomly made one careless Sunday afternoon several years ago WITHOUT a mixer. This is all because they had too much flour and became hard as rocks as soon as they cooled. Most ended up in the garbage. But last week, I baked bread, like a real grownup. And it felt great. Probably not unlike a sewer who makes their first whatever or a knitter who knits their first whatever. Baking bread not only made me truly reach the next level of love for my Bosch, but it spurred me on to develop another productive and "healthy" (subjective) activity in my life. On Black Friday (well, beginning tomorrow night since it's a two-day process), I will attempt another famous Brennan recipe--Sweet Sweet Cinnamon Rolls (do you like that the names I'm giving these baked goods are entirely made up or heinously embellished)? Bake on pregnant ones. Not to mention bake for pregnant ones.