baking class = happy claire

this morning i went to the baking class that my friends got me for my birthday, and it was EXCELLENT.  the instructor showed us how to make each item and then we got into groups of 3 and made it ourselves.  we baked:

1. focaccia that tastes just like it does at a fancy restaurant.  i was perhaps the most impressed with this - how easy it was to make and how freaking delicious it was.
2. sweet potato biscuits - heavenly.  now, i need to tell you about my group of 3, but first you need to know that i hate group work.  for most of my educational life, i was one of the smartest kids, and thus in group work i had to either settle for a lesser product or be bossy and do most of the work.  other smart people are hopefully nodding their heads here.  i am not good at group work.  but here i was, in a group, baking.  one of my group members was a 60ish year old woman who thought she knew everything about baking.  (hey, lady?  i don't want to hear your unsolicited tips about making chocolate chip cookies - you aren't the teacher and that's not on the menu today.)  the other group member was 40ish and knew so little about baking that it was tragic.  on each item we baked, one of us would do the mixing/kneading/etc. and the other two would watch and help.  tragic baker-wanna-be took the helm here and i actually had to walk away at several points while know-it-all told tragedy/wanna-be all the things she was doing wrong.  but!  the biscuits turned out really well.
3. parmesan-poppyseed cheese straws.  again: ohmygod are we in a restaurant?  delish.
4. cranberry walnut pumpkin bread - also really good.
5. parker house rolls and involve lots of kneading and rising - we didn't finish them, so we each brought the dough home and are doing the second rise and the baking ourselves.  with the amount of delicious butter in these, they are bound to be good.

after all the baking we had lunch - the instructor made VEGETARIAN CHILI.  oh. my. god.  i love it when people are thoughtful about the possibility of vegetarians.  and we got to taste all our breads, too.  heaven.

if you will be spending thanksgiving with me, GET READY.  i'm really excited to make some of these things again and glad to have an audience to feed!