Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Le Bonheur Ca Se Trouve Pas En Ligot, Mais En P'tite Monnaie!





Ahhh, oui. Le Brioche. Mon amie, Julie shared this recipe with me. It turned out le delicious. In fact, he first loaf was eaten within 2 hours after in came out of the oven. By me. Okay, The Captain, Fish and two of their friends helped. My girl, Mrs. Brown was there, but she says she didn't eat any of it. I think she's lying. I saw some jam on the corner of her mouth when she left. It was so tres bien, I have another 2 loaves rising right now. Merci, Julie! I would make some for you, but I am le tired.


For those who don't parlez-vous, the title means, "Happiness doesn't come from bars of gold, but from small change." Roughly. It describes how I feel about baking bread...and eating it. The title came from a little french song about Sunday afternoon lunches, spent with family and the pleasure we get from such simple things. Watching our kids grow, seeing our parents smile at them, telling stories and laughing, good food, good friends, good times.




This weekend, as per Team Tradition, (Traditiooooon! TRADITION!) we watched the UT-OU game and then picked pumpkins at a pumpkin patch. Our usual pumpkin place was the fantastic South 47 Farm, in Redmond, WA. Since that is about 2,400 miles away, we went to the Elgin Christmas Tree Farm...which also is a pumpkin patch in the fall. It was certainly a respectable pumpkin patch, but it is Texas in October. Which means it was 90 degrees out. Not very fallish. The Captain had a great time, though, what with the hayride and all. The rest of us, not so much. Fish was displeased with the heat, and Mr. Purl frowns upon holiday festivities and the like. (He says it's because he's dead inside.) It was just hot. And we had to pay for admission. Then we told The Captain to pick any pumpkin he liked, so he chose a really big one out of the $9 pile. So we stood in line to pay, with Fish shaking his tiny, angry fists at us, got to the front of the line to hear the cashier say, "That will be $18, please.". Mr. Purl looks at me with that look, and I say to the cashier, "But it was in the $9 pile!!"
She says, very sweetly, "I am so sorry, we charge by weight. That one should not have been in the pile."

The Captain starts wailing, "NOOO! This is the best pumpkin in the world! We can't put it back!", Fish has gone from just shaking his tiny, angry fists, to growling and shaking them, and there are about seven thousand people behind us in line. Mr. Purl, pulls out a twenty, gives me that look, and pays the nice lady. I heart him.
So, we drive home and I announce it's family nap time. Sigh. I miss you, Pacific Northwest. But I am learning to love you again, Texas, for what you are.

3 comments:

Julie Jams said...

Yeah!! I'm so glad your brioche turned out well. It looks much better than mine did! And your pumpkin story was just so easily felt by me. South 47 is super great, but we've always gone up to good ol' Bob's in Snohomish. You get the whole misty countryside feel up there. I'll be sure to look out for the "golden" pumpkins. I miss you at Halloween--you were always such an inspiration.

Unknown said...

Your bread looks wonderful. Did the breadmachine work at all for you?

Gretchen said...

I haven't tried the bread machine yet. I"m a little afraid of it. It look slike R2D2 and I don't think I know how to use it. I may need a lesson from you.