Laowai

I've been baking almost everyday. Brian gave me a special bread baking dish for my birthday – it's for no-knead type bread. It does the same thing as a dutch oven but because it's smaller and shaped for a loaf the bread comes out better. So I've been making all our bread. I made doughnuts the other day. I can't decide if the frying hassle is worth it. I might just stick to going to our favorite doughnut spot in the future. And since we won't be traveling to Michigan for Christmas Brian has decided to make some of his mom's traditional Christmas cookies. He started with her lemon pie bar recipe – yum!

My girls have been doing home school for the past few weeks. They are going back to in-person school for two days next week. I try not to use the internet during the day because they need all the bandwidth they can get to attend their online classes. I can tell they are frustrated with the way things have to be at the moment. Maybe that's why I feel like baking so much. I can't control anything but I can make sure there are cookies in the cookie jar. I'm finding it harder to be sneaky with everyone around the house. I mean it's harder finding time alone to finish some handmade presents or just to hide presents away. 

My square Pyrex dish broke in the oven so I had an excuse to find a new (old) one on Etsy. If only it said Bake Queen.