For my Instagram followers, you will already know from a post this past week, that I got into a small fight with some bread.  No sooner had I published last week’s manifesto on rising above (pun now intended) recipes that don’t quite work out right, I pulled two squat loaves out of the oven.  And I was annoyed.   Big time.  I decided I was going to make the heck out of the bread recipe and show it who was boss.  So Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I baked bread.  And I found my timing better and my feel for the dough better.   You can see my first blush at the recipe here.  If you are up for an adventure, feel free to give it a whirl.  I am going to continue to refine it and hopefully bake it completely into submission.  A carb quest if you will.

Also, as a side note to this recipe, and to my youngest child’s simultaneous horror and delight, I have created a youtube channel (insert facepalm emoji here) to show you how to do the folding of the dough.  Reading how to fold it is mind-boggling.  Watching me do it for 10 seconds you will be like, gotcha, no problem.  So yes, this week I also launched a living proofed youtube channel with precisely one video, but I expect to expand that a little in the future.  Heaven help us.

And now on to the deliveries!

I have been lucky enough to encounter many different mentors in my lifetime, and their impact on my life cannot be understated.  In my years of working as an adult, I have come across a few that I will always cherish.  One of my bread deliveries this week was to one such mentor who I have written about before.  I worked with her closely for 17 years, and I think it would be impossible to fully state her impact on my life from the philosophical, to the funny, to the absolutely practical.  For instance, I find myself using her life sayings (plan the work, work the plan!) all the time.  I still miss our planning and then subsequent complaint sessions over Lent.  And I also use the bible app she told me about absolutely daily (current 196-day streak with the Lord yo!).  But really, I find myself thinking most about her unvarnished honesty and trying to emulate her quiet strength as I navigate the world.  Whenever I have to deal with a tough situation, I think about how she would handle it and what she would say.  Not talking to her every day anymore is hard.  Like a fledgling pushed out of the nest hard.  I am a little wobbly without her grounding, but I have her voice in my head and that works too.  It was a joy to see her and sit in her presence again while delivering bread.

The other main delivery I made this last week was also to a former colleague.  One I didn’t work with quite as closely as the mentor above.  However, that is not to say he didn’t and doesn’t continue to have an impact on me as well.  While his dry sense of humor is amazing, what stood out the most was his uncompromising honesty.  Whenever I worked with him, I was impressed that he never told people what they wanted to hear.  He told people what they needed to hear.  It was breathtaking honesty that was almost shocking, but never malicious.  Getting to take a little drive to see what and where he was up to this week was a welcome lift in my week.  And his view is pretty fabulous to boot.

And so in my own way, this week, I chose to carb-honor people who have impressed me with their candor.  I must have needed a subconscious reminder of the importance of speaking (and hearing) truth in light of my bread baking odyssey this week.  Thank you both so very much, and I hope you liked the bread…I trust I will get the truth from you both either way!