The Palmiers I did not make

I could not believe my eyes when I glanced at my blog and saw...4 comments!! I have sadly neglected all my readers (which the comments prove I have) so I thought I'd better get back on.

I am still in my baking club, I'm just a bit behind.
Last week we were supposed to be making ciabatta bread. I have made this recipe before (just not last week) and here are my comments:
1-the sponge is not necessary, the one day version works just fine.
2-the dough is SUPER sticky, don't be alarmed, just plop it on your parchment paper and stick it in the oven
3-parchment paper is a MUST for this recipe
4-a stone is a MUST for this recipe
5-though it was good, it was not the best ciabatta you will ever have while the Italian artisan bread (or rustic loaf or something) (recipe also in this cookbook) is my fav rustic bread recipe in the book.
check out jepsenfamily.blogspot.com for the recipe.

I did not make this week's recipe, Palmiers, because a) I did not know how to pronounce them, b) L has been dating up a storm and was not lurking around my kitchen making my baking assignments and c) I have had to work insane hours in order to get ready for my presentation at the San Diego ACS conference next week.

these are the Palmiers I did not make. (I think in the future I will get all of my photos from google, they look better than what I normally take)

Wednesday started off odd. O fell asleep at 7 on the couch (as he had stayed up all night on Monday) and, try as I might to make him go to bed, he could not be moved. Then, in the dead of night, the doorbell rings. I jumped wildly out of bed and started running around to find some appropriate door answering clothing. O, meanwhile, wanders off the couch and to the door to find a middle aged, worn out looking woman, holding a suit case. He thought "well this is bizarre, but she doesn't look like she can over power me and I can't just leave her out there" so he opens the door and says "Hello" really loudly (that is the last time I'm letting O open the door in the middle of the night-he would let just anybody in!) Well the lady says (in a gravelly voice according to O) "Delivery" and O says he was like "who makes deliveries at 4 in the morning?" but the lady was already loping off across the lawn, suitcase left at the door. (turns out, my cousin's bag did not make it on his flight and they delivered it to us that night). Well, it was hard to get back to bed after that, I was on something of an adrenaline high. I did manage to fall dead asleep 10 minutes before I was supposed to wake up and consequently felt groggy the rest of the morning.

Then, instead of making my Palmiers that night, (several people had major probs with these so maybe it was just as well) I came home around 9 and O and I decided to make dinner (we are trying to only eat out on the weekends, due to the fact that we never cook anymore). O got all of the stuff for BLTs (bread, microwavable bacon, bc the real stuff seems extremely difficult to make, lettuce, mayo, and a tomato) and we ate away. I personally don't do tomatoes. I realized that night that tomatoes are the only food I hate that I actually know what the taste is. As I was cleaning up, I dropped a jar of mayo on the floor and the contents jumped up all over me. It was terrible. I sat down to finish a TV show after a break for cleaning and suddenly suffered a neck spasm. I thought-well I have not done anything to have brought this on (normally they come when I turn around too fast, do a double take, or shake my head while spraying hair spray) so I got online to see what could have caused it. It turns out-stress! Well I certainly was stressed, having just watched a boat load of mayo bounce up onto my black leggings (which I wear everyday now) and my Missoni sweater! (Everything has been taken care of now.) So, as any of you who have had a terrible neck spasm know, I was in intense pain and could not move my head any direction except down. I started reading around online to see if other people had this problem and what I could do to treat it (in the past, it has taken as long as a week or more to feel any better!) and I came across this. I tried reading it to O but was laughing so hard I (which caused not an insignificant amount of pain) that I never made it past word 3.

i a rare lamb dinner the other night, i was on the toilet and somehow i threw my neck out. i have to sleep facing up and now i am in day # 4. i cant understand for the life of me how this happened! ice is working well, and im on the tylenol diet. i have a couple main questions: 1. how long can this last? 2. can you take tylenol with advil?. 3. should i combine ice and heat treatments? ice is working and so does heat, but im getting the picture that too much heat and moving around swells the area up a bit. everyday ive still felt the pain in my neck ive wondered “ok, thats day number ____” how much longer?” neck is the worst ailment ever. thanks. (O just read this and did not even laugh so maybe it is only funny if you are currently unable to move your head and can sympathize/wonder at the violence of the illness that caused this person to a) throw his neck out and b) be on a tylenol diet)

The "neck doctor" online said to take advil, apply heat, and then have a light massage. So, I took advil, heated up my bean bag (which now smells like burned popcorn bc last time I needed it O accidentally cooked it waaaayyyyyyy toooooooooo long in the microwave) (and that was a shame bc I burned popcorn at work that afternoon and already smelled like burned popcorn) and got out the electric massage machine that O picked up somewhere (not a surprise, O has an entire drawer in the bathroom dedicated to little massage wooden things, and yes, those get out....never) (now O is offended-I was laughing like a (an?) hysterical hyena, practically breaking my rips, and he asked what was going on and I had to tell him I was laughing about his massage rollers). Anyhow, the trio treatment helped quite alot. (Thursday morning I had to get out my burned bean bag again and wear it around on my way to work (bc I did not think I would be able to change lanes without it) and then I wore it periodically throughout the day as you are supposed to apply heat several times daily. I wrapped up the day with another torture session with the massage machine and by Friday I was miraculously much better-not perfect, but not in intense pain).

Thursday night I saw the Hunger Games and loved it! (I loved the books and the movie was fantastic!)
Other than that I have been on the Marni craze (of course, I get caught up in fads so easily...)
Here is the perfect quote to sum it all up:
(a Marni fanatic who has been going to H&M daily to look for things that have been returned posted this on FB)
"Taking night off to be with hubby it's our 26th wedding anniversary. If anyone sees my unicorn please grab. Color block dress 4 or 6."

Well, until tomorrow.

And for the Palmiers Recipe:
http://bekahomekah.blogspot.com/