This week in Baking, we made White Pan Bread and Challah Bread. It was a TON of work and made a TON of bread. The White Pan Bread was a lovely, soft, flavorful bread. It used the starter method, which I have never done before. It takes a lot more time, but it creates a much richer flavor. It's what separates delicious professional bread from amateur bread. I'm excited to have learned this method.

We also made Challah Bread, an enriched dough, which means it contains fat like milk, butter, and/or shortening. Enriched dough is wonderfully smooth and glorious to handle. I was nervous about braiding the bread, but it's much easier than it looks.

In Food Prep Two, we made Clear Vegetable Soup. It was good to practice more knife cuts. I'm getting better at my knife cuts, but not much faster. I'm very, very slow. We also made Beef Stew, which was awesome. It was the perfect cozy winter meal. Too bad we made it in the summer. Haha! No, it was excellent, and we enjoyed it for dinner one night.

In Garde Manger, we made a Roasted Beet Salad. I have never been a fan of beets. I'm not too fond of their dry, earthy flavor. However, they were much sweeter when roasted and used a red wine vinaigrette, and it was a delicious, simple salad. We ate it as a side dish one night for dinner.

That was it for this week. I am so amazed by the change that is already taking place in the country. We will no longer stand for people of color to be treated unfairly and unjustly. I will work every day to listen and learn. There is so much work to be done.

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”

― Maya Angelou