Patiently Waiting

Suzanne and Heath have approximately two weeks left until they move into their new home.  To help them wile away the time until they move, I signed the three of us up for a bread making class at the Hodgson Mills Education Center in Effingham.  It was a success as a distraction and we ate well too.

The class began at ten in the morning and it took an hour to get there.  It was worth both the driving time and the effort to get up early.  Our bread making instructor had each student mix their own bread dough to take home.  As a result, between us, Suzanne and Heath and I have enough bread dough to make 12 one pound loaves.  And while in class, we actually each baked our own loaf of artisan bread with bread dough already provided for us.  We ate Heath's at the end of class but brought the other two loaves home.   At home, we finished off most of the remaining loaves by serving it with a goat cheese fig preserve spread Suzanne mixed.  All of it was delicious.

Not content to end this bread baking fun, Suzanne decided to use some of our twelve pounds of bread dough to make pizza for dinner.  She made a delicious pizza with balsamic glaze, roasted garlic cream sauce, spinach, mushrooms and feta cheese.

Of course, we could not eat all of that food at once.  So Suzanne and Heath took a break from the kitchen.  It was such a beautiful day, they took the peddle boat out of Morton Building #2 and peddled on the pond.  They also ended up involved in a nature drama.  They saw a bat drowning in the pond and rescued it.  After some Internet research, they set it up in a box deep in the woods for protective shelter and provided it with food and water and Heath's shirt for warmth.  They are hoping that this will be all the help it will need to fully recover and fly away.

I felt I was shirking my hostess responsibilities so I volunteered to make dessert for dinner.  (Like we needed to eat any more food.)  I found a recipe from one of my favorite blog bakers for brownies in a mug and made that in the microwave.  That recipe is definitely a keeper.  Suzanne said it was very chocolaty and very rich.

The day was a perfect fun and relaxing distraction for all of us.  The only problem is that I have no idea how to top it next weekend.