Baked goods, vacation, and other news.

So much to share.

I have been neglecting my duties recently, mainly because I haven't made anything that I'm ready to reveal yet. I have been doing my fair share of baking, for reasons that I will not divulge immediately, and the smells of bread and pastries coming out of my kitchen have been heavenly, but nothing is satisfactory enough to pass along just yet. In the meantime, I will send you over to some recipes on Alexandra's Kitchen that I have tried recently and which turned out incredible with very little work.

Peasant bread
Prosciutto and Gruyere croissants

Don't be intimidated. As I mentioned previously, I hardly think of myself as a baker, but I do love to eat all things bread-related, so I realized that I would probably benefit most from improving my skills. I actually used to be pretty scared of yeast dough because it never seemed to rise appropriately. Then I came to a revelation over the summer when I made those delicious brioche rolls that the problem wasn't me - the problem was my yeast! More specifically, it was dead. I would usually buy a couple of packets for a single purpose and then try to reuse the packets a year or two later which never produced the light, airy, stretchy dough of my dreams. The trick I found after numerous internet searches is to store it in the freezer in an air-tight container - that way it will last for years.

Another yeast-based recipe I use pretty regularly is Smitten Kitchen's take on Jim Lahey's no-knead pizza dough. Nothing could be easier than making this dough - literally dump and stir. The tricky part comes with the baking, and I still haven't found myself completely satisfied with the results. Using a cookie sheet, I feel like the crust doesn't come out crisp and chewy enough. My latest thought is that I am in need of a pizza stone, but first I'm going to try it next on the back of a cookie sheet. The great thing about pizza, though, is that no matter what comes out of the oven, I never seem to get any complaints.

Next, we just got back from a week in Maui! Charlie was a champ on the airplane this time, mostly thanks to my Kindle, these toddler headphones, and many episodes of Curious George. On the way home, we actually had compliments from an older couple behind us on how well behaved he was, which was a complete shock given our plane ride to Hawaii a year ago resulted in Charlie screaming his head off for at least twenty minutes and me having a stare down with an older woman across the aisle when she tried to give us the stink eye. Giving us dirty looks does not make a 20-month-old stop crying!

The beach was incredible with Charlie - he finally is old enough to enjoy all the fun. He ran from waves, built sand castles (and destroyed them), and threw rocks and footballs for hours. My parents and my brother and his girlfriend all joined us in a little condo north of Kaanapali Beach right on a beach with gentle waves and no scary undertow.

Of course, not every day was gorgeous and sunny - we had a couple days of rain throughout the week. My brilliant idea one day was to go get SHAVE ICE (because what could be more amazing) and we were shocked to find we were the only customers at an otherwise popular spot. Doesn't a rainy day say time for an icy dessert at eleven in the morning to anyone else? There was ice cream under all that shave ice and it was delicious.

I miss it already. As usual, we're already dreaming about when we can make it back. Next time, it might be a little more complicated, though, as there will be four of us. I'm excited to announce (to the three of you who are reading this far and don't already know) that we're expecting another baby BOY in July! It's going to be hard to compete with his older brother, though. In so. many. ways.