Bread was my go-to for office and other potlucks. Pretty basket, red-checked tea towel, paddle-handled wood breadboard, bread knife with a blue onion china handle, empty cheese crocks packed with sweet butter, and butter spreaders on board. The parquet round board was for boule, white, or mixed white-wholewheat. The long parquet paddleboard was for braids, and the regular walnut paddle board was for everything else. Pumpernickel and whole wheat in long shaped loaves, or braids, and white in braids, shaped loaves, boule, and actual loaf-pan loaves. I did whole wheat and white braids, but the one I tried with whole wheat, white, and pumpernickel was a failure. It was fun, though. And I never had to dither about what to bring. For the holidays I did a long braid and circled it into a wreath, and stuck a bow on it after it was baked. Success!

What a beautiful description, Bev.

I do miss bread.

Now I do too!

In re bread, I used to make a cranberry-orange quick bread ("quick" being a category, not a description), but I'd keep some cranberries out and when the loaves rose and baked enough to start forming a crust on top, I'd halve the cranberries and arrange them to look like flowers on the top. Not a lot of extra work, but they looked nice. Sometimes I'd give them to people ahead of the holidays and say that, if they took them to their office potluck (remember those? sigh ....) I was essentially giving them the gift of time.

That sounds lovely too. Never a bread maker but I had started exploring cakes with Matilda after the GBBO, but that went by the wayside when I started the diet. However, when Janet (mother of Matilda's friend Iris) got shingles I was happy to have an excuse to make her Victorian sponge with raspberry whipped cream and chocolate ganache.

Since it's going to take her a few more months to heal from the Shingles, I think I'll make her a dessert a month until she gets better.

Then I can do the lemon marscapone cake with a candied walnut bottom I've been thinking about. And the banana bread I used to make with olive oil and lots of fresh thyme and lemon zest.

Bev, that sounds so amazing and beautiful. I've been very utilitarian with my bread baking lately - currently baking off rye/spelt/sourdough sandwich loaves for Peanut's lunches, but I'm going to try a sourdough banana cinnamon swirl bread today. M found a commercial version of it that he loves, and I'd love to see if I can make it here.

A number of the quick bread recipes I've tried seem kind of bland and too sweet for my taste. I found a book of sandwich ideas that included bread recipes I liked. One's pumpkin bread that has pepper and cardamom in it, another's maple-walnut that has a little bourbon. Both are good and not too sweet and have a little kick to them.

The one downside of finding that leftover Outback peppercorn sauce goes great on turkey & cheese sandwiches is that it comes with a limited time special that costs more than it's worth, so there won't be more of it. Yummier than usual result of reducing fridge clutter, though.

I wish I could have filmed last night's dream, which was a Farscape episode involving catastrophic time disruptions, an emergency flight to the moon, and a creepy disfigured alternate version of Jon Crichton that was menacing Mike Huckabee.

Springsteen got a DUI.

In a Jeep?

Hahaha.

But boy, not his week reputationally.

Am I posting?

YOU ARE POSTING ALLYSON AND WE LOVE YOU.

I DONT KNOW WHO YOU ARE BUT YOU HAVE A LOW USER NUMBER SO I ASSUME THAT WE ARE VERY OLD FRIENDS.