So with the promise of more meaningful posts to come, I'd like to let you in on what has become known as the strawberry bread meltdown.
Last weekend Jared's family came out for his graduation, which also coincided with Mother's Day. Since several mothers were going to be with us, I thought it would be nice to bake them some Fresh Strawberry Bread. Now, there comes a time in every over-achiever's life where the over-achiever...well, over-achieves. Since there would be four mothers in town, it made sense for me to make four loaves, and have two in the oven at a time. So around 8 pm one night I set out all of the ingredients, and got to work. With limited mixing bowls, counter space, and math skills, I decided to make up the batter for one at a time, and then just put them in the oven two at a time. However, I under shot how long it would take to mix up one batch, and ended up taking about 45 minutes per loaf for prep time. Since they bake for about 55 minutes, I realized that I might as well bake one while I'm prepping the next batch. So I get to the point where I take the first loaf out and put the next loaf in, and I realize that the loaves are way bigger than I had guessed they'd be by looking at the loaf pan initially. Also at about this point I realize that it's 11 pm, and I forgot to eat dinner. I happen to have some sort of blood sugar problem, and if I forget to eat or go too long without eating, I start shaking and crying and other annoying stuff like that, as well as completely lose my ability to problem solve. So, when Jared walked in from the show he was helping tech, he found me standing in the middle of a strawberry bread explosion, completely bewildered. I manage to get out "I forgot to eat dinner" before the water works, and my sweet husband quickly went down the street and picked me up a take out pizza. I'm so glad to have a guy that understands that sometimes I just don't make sense. After I had some pizza, I decided to call it quits and just split the two huge loaves into four halves for the mothers. I definitely got an "F" for presentation, but no matter how it looks, it still tastes as good, right?
Now, I did happen to leave out just how over stocked I was on ingredients. Jared had volunteered to get the ingredients for me while I was at work that day, and I came home to enough ingredients to make strawberry bread for an army. So over the past few days, I've been researching recipes to use up the rest of the ingredients before they go bad. I did make another loaf of bread for me and Jared to enjoy, and even so I think I'll be taking some to work to pawn off on my co-workers. (you're welcome, if any of them actually read this) I also found a recipe for buttermilk pancakes, and thought this would be a good way to use up some more of the buttermilk and the overabundance of flour I currently have. This morning Jared and I got to sleep in, as I don't have to be at work until 2 (I work Saturday). I mixed up a double batch of the pancakes, and added chocolate chip cookies to the batter. I sprinkled a little bit of coconut flakes, some walnut pieces, and some fresh cut strawberry on top (and of course syrup) and let me tell you, it was amazing! If anyone wants the recipe for either the strawberry bread or for the buttermilk pancakes, let me know. Neither are hard, but the bread is a little time consuming (obviously. ha)
So that's what I've been up to as of late. Nothing too exciting. But, it's nice to be low key. Keep an eye out for posts from Jared about more exciting things.
