Dough!

Oh, yeah. Check that mofo out. I finally ordered the old Kitchenaid Artisan mixer for myself (in tangy 'Tangerine,' no less.) That thing kicks dough ass. Yeah, baking has become kind of a zen retreat for me, of late, and this mixer is a must-have in order to reach true baking enlightenment. With it, I made this:















Check that shit out. A bronzed loaf of challah. And yes, those are poppy seeds my friend, courtesy of Elfco (the East Lansing Food Cooperative). The bread was most awesome. Inhaled by the family in about an hour and a half. I also made some killer bagels. Real bagels, not that Lenders crap. The kind with the hard, crunchy exterior and the soft chewy inside. They rocked. I don't know why the first two things I decided to bake were Jewish. Probably because I live in the middle of Michigan and anything even remotely semitic is next to impossible to come by out here. Next, though, I'll be branching out to Italy. I'll be baking a nice Italian loaf (which is, coincidentally, what I pinched this morning after that shrimp risotto I had last night).

And while you're ogling my new mixer, check out the hideous bricky/bronzey tiles on our nasty old countertops. I think our house was built in 1982 and those counters reek of early 80s. If you put your nose right up to the tiles and take a big whiff, you can almost smell "Who Can it Be Now," by Men at Work.

Who can it? Who can it?