Foodie Friday - The Apprentice

So do you remember a few weeks ago when I posted a kitchen wish list of sorts? Click here to see it.

On that list I included several books because I can get a little geeky when it comes to food. I research, seek different opinions, try different recipes and techniques. I'm always tweaking my recipes and changing things just a little here and there until it's just right.

The truth is that I also kind of set my mind to something and I want to know how to be the best I can be at doing it. That's how it's been in my quest to bake bread. And while I'm "getting there," I haven't yet "arrived."

So one of the books I included on my list was The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart. It was suggested to me by Brian Geiger (aka @thefoodgeek) when I began to ask questions on Twitter about baking sourdough bread a couple of months ago.

(He even answered me in one of his columns. Click here to see Brian's post about my sourdough woes. It includes a video of Peter Reinhart that is very good and worth the time.)

So then last week I began to hear on Twitter about a group of people that were getting together and accepting a challenge to bake all the breads in this book. Naturally, I dropped an oh-so-unsubtle hint to my man that I would really LOVE to be be able to participate in this challenge, but that I would need said book to be able to do it, so if he and the kids were going to get me a present for Mother's Day, it might be a good idea.

He listened.

Did you get that?

He L-I-S-T-E-N-E-D!



So I am here to tell you that I am a Bread Baker's Apprentice. And over the course of what might turn out to be a year or so, I will be baking my way through this book with a group of bakers that was started by Nicole at Pinch My Salt. You can read about how the challenge began by clicking here. And I'll be posting my progress here on the blog every once in a while complete with pictures and frustrations I'm sure.

Why on earth am I doing this, you ask?

To give me a discipline. To make me practice and become better. To allow myself the platform to try new and different things. To practice, practice, practice.

Because that's what an apprentice does.