Back From SoCal

Hello friends, I have missed you!! I am back from ridiculously hot southern California and am ready to start baking again. I couldn’t have asked for a nicer trip. It was a whirlwind of friends and family and so much driving!!! It was well worth it though. I got to visit old stomping grounds and eat at my most favorite restaurants, including Full of Life Flatbread in Los Alamos. The restaurant in magical and the food is amazing. Call me biased if you must since I used to work there. I have many fond memories–my husband and I even had our wedding reception there last summer. If you are ever in the Santa Barbara wine country and want somewhere good to eat this is the place to go! You won’t be disappointed. Los Alamos is the smallest of cute quirky towns, there is even a saloon you can go to post dinner for another glass of locally made wine, a shuffle board game, some live music, and even dancing if you so desire. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect evening!

My brother requested I bake him bread while visiting and so my sourdough baby came with me on the plane. That involved needing to find a teeny tiny container to pack it into since I didn’t want to check in my luggage. Thursday morning I wandered around Fred Meyer looking for a 3 oz container for my yeast baby and struggled to find anything shallow with a wide lid. After much humming and haaaing I settled on a baby food jar. Genius! I have two little kitty cats at home who enjoyed the sweet potato contents and my yeast enjoyed it’s new temporary home and arrived smelling a touch sweeter than normal.

While waiting to board the plane I checked on said yeast baby hiding amongst my toiletries in the required quart size ziplock and got a good laugh from a lady sitting next to me. Oh the things people travel with! I baked off four loaves and took two to some family friends houses. I hope they enjoyed it. I left a little bit of sourdough for my mom to experiment with.  The rest of the yeast returned home with me and so your bread this week will have just a touch of California still in it. Does that sound weird?

We’ve got a few new subscribers starting this week, welcome! So I’d like to do a repeat of my basic country bread which I will occasionally go back to time and again since it’s just so simple and delicious and sometimes you really don’t need anything extra in your bread. My basic loaf is a white bread with just a touch of wheat and gosh it makes amazing toast, sandwiches, whatever you like!

In other news, Edible Portland posted about me on their facebook page which resulted in a Bakester Wait List?!?!? Oh dear….I’m currently on the hunt for somewhere new to bake my bread. I have started to wait list new subscribers because I just can’t keep up with all your bread needs! I apologize for that. If anyone knows a commissary space in Portland that is not too expensive please email me the information. I’d like to take on any subscribers who wants my bread and I need a new space!

See you all soon, I hope you all have a wonderful bread-filled weekend. I’ve missed you!