The things I miss...

I miss having a seemingly endless supply of baking supplies.  My mother has amazing bake ware and supplies.  There were times where I would need to buy flour, sugar and butter to supplement my baking addiction, but for the most part these things were always available while I was living at home.  Now that I have ventured out on my own, I have to buy ALL of these things.  I have a whisk, recipes, measuring cups and spoons, and cupcake pans.  And that is about it. Oh and I have salt, but it is sea salt in a grinder.  I need to start stocking up on baking supplies. I miss baking...but, now I workout when I'm at home and bored instead of bake, so I guess it has perks of not having anything to bake.  I am living on a steady diet of ramen noodles, salad and PB&J at the moment until I get my moving expenses paid off.  This has been quite interesting.  I'm on a baking hiatus and starting to feel like I need a fix.  I find recipes and print them.  Then I take them home and save them for a time when I am going to spend a whole day baking. Maybe I'll just buy supplies and go to my mom's and bake because I miss it too much.

Gluten-Free is the way to be!

I am discovering a whole new realm of food. This realm is the gluten-free world that I knew about only because I used to have student's that had Celiac disease and could not eat any of the normal snack food we served the other children. Lo and behold! I am now attempting to be gluten-free which is not the easiest thing, but very worth the way I feel since I stopped stuffing my face with breads, pastas, crackers, cookies, cakes...you get the picture.
I wandered into Whole Foods today and found the gluten-free section. I picked up some pretzels and crackers and did not think to look at the ingredients. They are full of seeds! This is normally perfectly acceptable and healthy for most, but not for me. I am not allowed to eat seeds. They do a number on my digestive system. So hopefully my family will think they taste good and I will go back in search of gluten-free and seed-free alternatives. I did not know gluten-free would be such a crazy adventure. But, my stomach feels better than ever and I have lost a nice amount of poundage...of course I am exercising like crazy as well!

Dessert Time!

My mom and I went halves on the Bon Appetit Dessert book and oh wow is it ever so amazing! It has more than you could ever want or need in a dessert compilation. I am so excited and can't wait to go shopping for new supplies to bake these delicious creations. This is going to put a serious dent in my budget and I do believe I need to start selling my creations. I didn't have enough of the ingredients for the more complicated desserts that I wanted to create so I made some Peanut Butter cookies last night. I also didn't have crunchy peanut butter, but they turned out well nonetheless. I made one batch into thumbprint cookies with strawberry jam. My brother described them as PB & J sandwich cookies. I have so many things that I want to bake now! Not that I didn't want to bake before, but I have half a mind to bake my way through this book. It would only take me 2 years just about if I made something everyday. Unfortunately, I have to put my efforts toward other things and highly doubt I could afford such a hobby. I'll stick with baking on the weekends.

I realized after going to the Farmer's Market that I really could turn passion into business if I wasn't so scared of taking out a business loan and failing. After perusing the wares of other culinary enthusiasts and looking at the prices I decided I could make a decent, albeit hard earned living on baking. I would also have to wake up VERY early in the morning, which I am not too fond of. Although in looking at the pros and cons of my current 8-5 job, I believe I would rather wake up early, be on my feet all day and feel satisfied that I gave my customers delicious cookies and cakes to bring home to their loved ones, or eat on the way home. C'est la vie for now. Maybe one day I will stop talking and actually go into business.