The Art of Baking

The art of baking eludes me.  When I say baking I mean trying baking from scratch, not making brownies from a box.  Now, that I can do.  I don't know what it is really.  I know how to read and while my sweet husband thinks that I see rules as a guideline and not an absolute, I do follow recipes to a T.  So, how is that I follow recipes exactly and when it comes to baking they either turn out to be a brick of bread, they have no flavor or they are so terrible that you just immediately throw it in the trash?

This weekend Mark and I watched TWO movies.  Can you believe it?  Two.  We watched the Social Network and Julie & Julia.  They were both quite enjoyable movies.  So of course after watching Julie & Julia I have the itch to cook and bake things.  I can cook.  I'm so confident in my cooking abilities that I am willing to attempt the Boeuf Bourguignon recipe.  My gosh, I don't even eat beef but it looked and sounded delicious.  Hey, even if it is a time intensive recipe I know that my Czech boy and 1/2 Czech children will devour it.

Ok, so back to my baking.  After watching the movie I had a desire to make things.  I love to cook things.  So today I decided to make banana bread.  Mind you, I did you my bread machine, but all of the ingredients were from scratch.  I waited for 3 1/2 hours.  Oh, I was so excited about that bread.  I was excited for two reasons.  One, I actually used those brown bananas instead of throwing them away and two, well, I love banana bread.  So I patiently waited.  I needed a few things from the store, so the kids and I ran to grab a few items for and as soon as I opened the door I smelled the bread.  You know the smell of fresh bread can fill a room with delicious, mouth watering aromas.  This bread did not do that.  This bread smelled like bananas, but something just wasn't quite right.  I considered crying, but thought better of it.  I opened the machine to see my teeny tiny loaf.  People, I made a loaf that was supposed to be 22 slices.  If I cut this into 22 slices they would be tissue paper thin.  Tissue thin I tell you.

I take it out and let it rest.  I am at least going to try it and see if it tastes any better than it looks.  There is a definite problem the moment I cut my first slice.  You can see all of my cinnamon in one little section. It's like it didn't mix properly or something and the flavor, well to say it didn't have any would be an understatement.

So frustrating, but I'll just try again.

Happy Monday everyone!