I will be the second to introduce myself.
I am Erin, I enjoy baking, primarily quick breads, cookies, cakes and pies, but I really want to learn more about sourdough and other artisan breads.
I'm not a professional baker either, I work in education.
Thanks! I can take very little credit for it though. I changed the colors and the header a bit, but 99% of this is out of the box. I've not had to write a single line of code to put all this together. Pretty amazing.
I used to make a lot of bread when the kids were little, but mostly with the same recipe, either an egg and milk enriched white bread, or a whole wheat/honey thing with either wheat germ or 'wheatberries' tossed in. 2-4 loaves a week, or sometimes part of it would be in the form of cloverleaf rolls or cinnamon rolls. And I used to make my own pizzas all the time. I'm old and lazy now, but maybe I'll get motivated to return to it.
Please, all contributions are welcome. Forums posts you can obviously post yourself. If you'd care to write anything lengthier (or share something that you already use with your classes) that I could feature on the front page, just let me know. I'd be happy to feature someone else's articles.
Regarding my posts: please let me know if you see anything that is patently incorrect. I love baking and sharing information with other people but I have little formal training; I do not claim for a minute to be an authority on this stuff. My feelings won't be hurt if someone with more knowledge corrects my errors. I'm interested in learning from this community too!
My name is Todd Erickson, and I live in Conway, Arkansas.
It's been an odd road to get here...much as my mother did all of the cooking and baking growing up, I was never terribly interested. I actually have a degree in theatre and communications, and I've spent the last 7 years doing web design, working at coffee shops, picking books off shelves for Amazon, and working as Tech Support for Cingular Wireless.
But since I've gotten married and have been trying to cook for myself, I've discovered that I absolutely love baking, to where I can work at it all day and it's just like bettering a hobby, not like work.
Especially bread. I'd like to learn to make every type of bread possible, sans machine. I need to pick up some wheat and rye flour so I can try some of those loaves that take three days of rising. Heh.
But I've realized at this late date that what I'd like to do more than anything is become an actual baker. This is thwarted by there not being any culinary schools in Arkansas, and by me being too broke to go chasing schools in other states...besides which, I doubt my wife would appreciate that.
So I'm mostly picking up as many books as possible. I've got the Beth Hesperinger "Bread Bible", and the other more famous Bread bible is on the way in the mail. I've also got the Laurel's Kitchen bread book, and once my birthday hits, I'm picking up "The Bread Baker's Apprentice", and eventually, hopefully, "Crust and Crumb". If you can't go to the school, bring the school to you, eh?
There is a local bakery that I would love to get a job at, and they'd probably have me, but it would mean a loss in benefits and a four dollar pay cut, which I can't really afford right now. Ah, investments.
But yeah, I'm an amatuer baker working on becoming, eventually, a professional. And I'm definitely a romatic baker, not at technical one. *Grin*
Welcome Todd!
I know Floyd is just in the process of writing his review of the Bread Bible, so that should be posted within the next couple of days! We look forward to your thoughts on these books as well.
(Oh, and I realize I haven't formally introduced myself - I'm Dorota, Floyd's wife. I tend to do more of the eating than the baking of the breads around here, so my role here for the most-part is editor and graphics help, but this has been very educational for me so far. I look forward to watching this community grow, and seeing folks help each other out.)
Wow Todd! What aspirations you have :) I would love to be a full time baking student myself. I live about an hour's drive from the Sullivan University Culinary school in Louisville, KY. I went there 25 years or so ago and got a business degree. They have certainly come a long way and I don't use that education a whole lot these days. I wish I could afford to go there, but my husband has put his foot down -- no going into debt for school. If I can find a way to pay for it and the gas to get back and forth, I can go for it. As it stands, I'm pretty much doing lots of baking in my own home and will be sharing with friends and neighbors -- I think they all prefer it that way LOL
Dorota, would you tell me what LJ stands for? I've seen it on several posts and am intrigued.
Cookie <---------- better get back to the kitchen to fix hubby's lunch and get the raisin water starter going.
Hello!
I will be the second to introduce myself.
I am Erin, I enjoy baking, primarily quick breads, cookies, cakes and pies, but I really want to learn more about sourdough and other artisan breads.
I'm not a professional baker either, I work in education.
The site's looking great Floyd!
Thanks! I can take very little credit for it though. I changed the colors and the header a bit, but 99% of this is out of the box. I've not had to write a single line of code to put all this together. Pretty amazing.
hiya. crumbbum is waning_estrogen from LJ.
I used to make a lot of bread when the kids were little, but mostly with the same recipe, either an egg and milk enriched white bread, or a whole wheat/honey thing with either wheat germ or 'wheatberries' tossed in. 2-4 loaves a week, or sometimes part of it would be in the form of cloverleaf rolls or cinnamon rolls. And I used to make my own pizzas all the time. I'm old and lazy now, but maybe I'll get motivated to return to it.
Welcome!
Please, all contributions are welcome. Forums posts you can obviously post yourself. If you'd care to write anything lengthier (or share something that you already use with your classes) that I could feature on the front page, just let me know. I'd be happy to feature someone else's articles.
Regarding my posts: please let me know if you see anything that is patently incorrect. I love baking and sharing information with other people but I have little formal training; I do not claim for a minute to be an authority on this stuff. My feelings won't be hurt if someone with more knowledge corrects my errors. I'm interested in learning from this community too!
Hi there.
My name is Todd Erickson, and I live in Conway, Arkansas.
It's been an odd road to get here...much as my mother did all of the cooking and baking growing up, I was never terribly interested. I actually have a degree in theatre and communications, and I've spent the last 7 years doing web design, working at coffee shops, picking books off shelves for Amazon, and working as Tech Support for Cingular Wireless.
But since I've gotten married and have been trying to cook for myself, I've discovered that I absolutely love baking, to where I can work at it all day and it's just like bettering a hobby, not like work.
Especially bread. I'd like to learn to make every type of bread possible, sans machine. I need to pick up some wheat and rye flour so I can try some of those loaves that take three days of rising. Heh.
But I've realized at this late date that what I'd like to do more than anything is become an actual baker. This is thwarted by there not being any culinary schools in Arkansas, and by me being too broke to go chasing schools in other states...besides which, I doubt my wife would appreciate that.
So I'm mostly picking up as many books as possible. I've got the Beth Hesperinger "Bread Bible", and the other more famous Bread bible is on the way in the mail. I've also got the Laurel's Kitchen bread book, and once my birthday hits, I'm picking up "The Bread Baker's Apprentice", and eventually, hopefully, "Crust and Crumb". If you can't go to the school, bring the school to you, eh?
There is a local bakery that I would love to get a job at, and they'd probably have me, but it would mean a loss in benefits and a four dollar pay cut, which I can't really afford right now. Ah, investments.
But yeah, I'm an amatuer baker working on becoming, eventually, a professional. And I'm definitely a romatic baker, not at technical one. *Grin*
Hi all.
Welcome Todd!
I know Floyd is just in the process of writing his review of the Bread Bible, so that should be posted within the next couple of days! We look forward to your thoughts on these books as well.
(Oh, and I realize I haven't formally introduced myself - I'm Dorota, Floyd's wife. I tend to do more of the eating than the baking of the breads around here, so my role here for the most-part is editor and graphics help, but this has been very educational for me so far. I look forward to watching this community grow, and seeing folks help each other out.)
Wow Todd! What aspirations you have :) I would love to be a full time baking student myself. I live about an hour's drive from the Sullivan University Culinary school in Louisville, KY. I went there 25 years or so ago and got a business degree. They have certainly come a long way and I don't use that education a whole lot these days. I wish I could afford to go there, but my husband has put his foot down -- no going into debt for school. If I can find a way to pay for it and the gas to get back and forth, I can go for it. As it stands, I'm pretty much doing lots of baking in my own home and will be sharing with friends and neighbors -- I think they all prefer it that way LOL
Dorota, would you tell me what LJ stands for? I've seen it on several posts and am intrigued.
Cookie <---------- better get back to the kitchen to fix hubby's lunch and get the raisin water starter going.
LJ = Livejournal
an online journaling community
a bunch of folks found this site through online interactions there. :)