Let the wrong begin

Ugh tired. I dragged myself out of bed at 1 am or something after crashing at 6:30pm because i only snagged two hours of sleep the night before. I woke up like five billion times between those hours anyhow. I started baking once I got up and I just finished. The cake is crumb-coated and chilling in the frig now. I still have a French buttercream to make when I wake up. Not sure what the design itself will be. Probably something relatively simple. Well simple for me anyway. LOL The cake is two flavors, four layers, and like 15 pounds. I used a Swiss meringue buttercream as the crumb-coat for the entire thing. The chocolate side is a devil's food cake with chocolate fudge pudding between the layers. The white side is my standard white cake (minus the almond for Pat) with a cheesecake pudding filling i spiked lightly with a maple sugar liquor. I might use a little more or some maple syrup in the French buttercream. The chocolate side will be frosted with a tangy yogurt based chocolate frosting. I already made it.

The sourdough bread came out very tasty but still had issues with spreading out flat. I need to figure out what I'm doing wrong with that. I think it just needs a form to rise in rather than free form. I must say capturing wild sourdough was a major success though. The wild yeast I caught rises amazingly will with a mild bite. Nice addition to my other sourdough starters. The ones I let go to seed so to speak are slowly coming back to health. I was such a bad yeast farmer for a while.

I'm gonna go crash til noon or so. I have a cake to finish and some errands to run and then it is time to PARTY! Woot this is going to be so much fun! Squee! I am a little sad though. I invited my BostonBrit to visit but wasn't able to get a hold of him to make it work. So no Brit for me. Is very sad. Sleep now.

Today I decided that I would have a good day if it killed me. So at around noon I tracked down Sean and offered to take him with me to Mitsuwa Village (a japanese market place). He said yes and we snagged 4 other people to come with us. Chelsey, Eric, Ryan, and Margret. We piled in my car with Chelsey across everyone's laps and headed for my house to grab the van so we could drive safely. This may have been the best trip I have taken in a while. I spent a bit too much money on kitchen supplies but I go to Japanese markets so seldom I always stock up. Oddly no bubbles for bubble tea. I'll grab a bunch next time I'm in Albany. We spent all day at Mitsuwa hanging out and shopping and eating wonderful food. I crave udon with beef curry now. Afterwards we grabbed food for me to cook for dinner and I got to play head chef cooking and ordering everyone around in my kitchen. It was a blast. Ryan and Sean are my two new cooking apprentices so I made sure to use them throughly. LOL Which sounds so wrong. I have named them Darth Baguette and Darth Croissant respectively.

My sourdough e a hit though it still needs far more time to develop its sourness. I also want to work with it to see what it's strengths are in bread baking. Today's loaves were very mild but with a really excellent flavor. The crumb was very small. My two freshly ordered sourdoughs should be up and ready for bread by this weekend since all I was dong was reviving them. They smell divine.

My apprentices are coming over again Friday for more lessons. I suspect I will put them to work cooking Friday's dinner. I've got to think of something easy and yet with the skills I want them to start with. Maybe Peanut Butter Chicken? It is a family favorite and doesn't require too much work. Plus I'd love to get them some bread baking experience. I want a steamer so I can make Japan #2. Yay Yakitate Japan! I have the urge to try out all of the recipes I see on there. I'm going to need some new bread icons here soon.

Okay sleep for me I think. I have a ton of chores to do tomorrow. Bills, Doctors, Shopping, School, etc etc etc.

Seoritz: You're crazy!
Seostein: Crazy, am I? We'll see whether I'm crazy or not.
Seostein: Look! It's moving. It's alive. It's alive... It's alive, it's moving, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, IT'S ALIVE!
Seoritz: Seo - In the name of God!
Seostein: Oh, in the name of God! Now I know what it feels like to be God!