Hang In There

My goodness, you guys have been troupers. Real stand-up folk. For weeks now, you have been patiently listening to me gripe about these last few weeks of school and been nothing but kind. Not once has anyone rolled an eye or pointed out that I am lucky to be in a job that affords me the summers off. At least no one has done it to my face.

And I've probably deserved it once or twice. Even I can't bear the topic anymore.

But now we are in the home stretch and soon we can move on to other things. All I have to do tomorrow is remember to get out of bed, put on something other than sweat pants, locate my school, participate in a half-day with the few students left to me, eat Chinese food with my colleagues, do some paperwork and then make my way home again once the clock says I have worked a full school day.

Or the administrators look the other way for a second. You'd be surprised how quickly a middle aged woman in flip flops can sprint when she is very, very motivated...

I'm a little worried about the getting out of bed part, though. Friday night's promotion ceremony sort of felt like the end and it is kind of an insult to have to go back again after that. But I'll set the alarm for Screeching Seagulls and that should do the trick. There is nothing like the sound of angry virtual gulls in your ear to convince you that getting up is the best choice.

Besides, I am motivated to start the day. The sooner it starts, the sooner it is done and then I can go back to focusing on important things. For example, I can pay attention to things that are not sweaters and which are in dire need of either finishing or burning, depending on my mood. I'm sure that my complaining about the weird situation with that thing that is not a sleeve will make for a nice change of pace.

Meanwhile, I still feel like I should do something nice for you all. You've really been so understanding in this, my time of trial. How about I share a recipe with you? You'll like this one.

For years, I've wanted to make brioche. I happen to love it and am not unskilled in the ways of bread making. Yet every recipe I ever found left me bored to tears by the fifth line. They all seemed so complicated.

Not that bread doesn't hold you hostage. It does. It's not hard to make, but it is time consuming. You spend a great deal of time waiting for things to happen so that you can do something else. But I'm pretty good at sitting around the house so I don't usually mind that. Still...the brioche seemed like a lot of the "doing" and less of the "sitting."

Then I found this recipe while I was surfing around and killing time until the 8th graders got back from their field trip on Friday. It is made in one bowl and requires only a decent stand mixer. Yes. It is time consuming. But not labor intensive. Not at all. And the final result?

Amazing. As good as any I've ever had.

I stayed true to the directions right up to the part where they tell you to refrigerate the dough over-night. I wanted to bring this with me to today's Father's Day gathering and we all know that brioche is ever so much better the next day. Hence, I was not going to wait until this morning to bake. I suppose I managed about 4 hours of chill time once the prep was done. I also baked it in what I have experienced as the more traditional style. Rather than arrange the dough in log shapes as the recipe suggested, I made little dough balls instead and baked them in a regular loaf pan. This allowed the loaf to be either sliced or used as rolls.

It doesn't rise up very high, but neither would you if you were carrying a three stick butter-load. You gotta be understanding about these things...

There. I hope that this small gesture will help to ease the pain of these last few weeks. Bake some brioche, make a nice cup of coffee and relax, secure in the knowledge that your journey is almost over. Just one more day and we can all go about our lives like normal people, free from middle school drama and Sheepie complaining about having to live through The World's Longest School Year.

Until September. But we won't think about that just now.

SA