Huge . . . tracts of land

Sam's mom asked  me awhile ago what I would do, besides being a mother, if I could have any job I wanted.  I said maybe someone could pay me to travel around the world eating delicious things and then writing about them.  Or I could write poetry.  Or I would also like to own a little flower shop.  Or a little bakery.  Not the business part of it---the accounting and the marketing and so forth---but just the baking.  I'd like it to be small enough scale that I didn't have to use an industrial mixer and walk-in ovens like they had at the MTC when I worked there---small enough so I could make just a few dozen each of all kinds of things every morning.  Changing them every day, maybe: cheesecakes, pies, muffins, cream puffs, eclairs, cookies, brownies, cakes.  And breads, of course, all kinds of breads.  I'm sure in real life it would be harder than I realize, but in my imagination I would love it: trying new recipes, perfecting old ones, letting people taste things and then seeing how much they liked them.

Last week was our Young Women's Camp, and I couldn't go, so I sent love to my girls in the best way I could.  I made vanilla syrup and two kinds of brownies and three kinds of muffins (for various meals).  It made me feel like I was working in a bakery, and I liked it.

(If I worked in a bakery I would keep it cleaner than this.)

Here (above) is what the kitchen looked like during this process.  I have taken the liberty of highlighting some of the more notable objects, for your edification.

Anyway, the best part was that it resulted in big platters of food, all piled up invitingly.  I love big platters of food! Even if I'm not going to eat them (which I wasn't, in this case), I just love knowing that they will be eaten, that someone will enjoy them.  There's just something about a big platter of something that makes me happy.  I used to go to the BYU Employees' Christmas Party with my dad, and they always had huge platters piled high with donuts.  It was my favorite part.  Sometimes I only ate one donut, but getting that donut from a huge pile of donuts was infinitely better than just being handed a single donut on a napkin.  I don't know if that resonates with anyone else, but there's another reason I would like to work in a bakery and construct huge piles of delectable things to eat and then display them in a pretty glass display case.  Abundance, I guess that's what it is.  And I'm so thankful for the abundance in my life that I want to give platters and platters of it to other people too. :)

I will post these muffin recipes sometime soon.

(Cream cheese brownies on one side, peanut butter brownies on the other.  Recipe here.)