New beginnings.


Three flowers bakery is a dream that has to sleep a while.  Pastry school was a lesson in rebellion and obedience. I told myself I was stepping out in faith, but I was actually trying to force God's hand and timing.  I know that when we willfully follow our on stubborn desires God can still use us, and the skills I learned in school are very valuable.  I think maybe the lessons I learned about obedience and self-restraint are more valuable.  My battle against selfishness continues.  I pray now that God would help me to learn to have a content heart and rest in Him.  Someday, here or There, I will understand what I am supposed to do with all my ambition. Until then I refocus appropriately, (off myself and onto Him), and invest myself in the great loves of my life.

"I came that they may have life, and have it it abundantly."  John 10:10.

Wanted: KITCHEN

Well, who needs pastry school anyway. Actually, I consider it a learning experience in more than the traditional sense. Though I'm still unsure if I was following God's will or my own in this matter, He chose to use it for the good. I made some great contacts and got to take the bread classes before I had to quit. That's what I really wanted anyway.

I am currently actively seeking a professional kitchen in which to bring 3 Flowers truly to life. I'll need to rent kitchen space one eve/night a week. Once that last obstacle is overcome, I will begin taking orders and scheduling once a week delivery to Hudson and the surrounding area. I will post the options. I will also start an email mailing list for those that don't want to order at the blog.

Also, very exciting! I have the opportunity to have a booth and the new farmer's market opening up on Charmichael in Hudson! It will be on Saturdays starting somewhere around the end of June/first part of July. IF I can find a kitchen. Praying hard for direction . . . anyone who knows of a lonely kitchen in need of a happy baker, let me know. Or an existing bakery/restaurant willing to rent out space on off hours.

Stay tuned . . .

p.s. thank you God for always being faithful. And thanks for sending Kara Jo, Jen, and Vonda when I needed them.

jumped the gun

well, I may have jumped the gun--I think I'm going to push back the bake, I'm so sorry everyone--this week actually is turning kind of hectic. (No strep throat, though, phew!) Also, I may have a lead on a kitchen to bake in--not my own--with more space and less family clutter. That would really simplify things. I will let you know when I have definite date--it will be soon! Thanks everyone for understanding.

whole wheat winner!

After some tinkering and applying my new knowledge, I think I have developed a pleasingly moist, light and spongey wheat bread recipe. It is only partially wheat, but I did add flaxseed meal and oatmeal. I acheived the lovely texture by using the sponge method--you allow a small amt of the flour to raise with the yeast and water until double, then you mix up the rest of the dough. I also allowed it to double ferment. Bread raises twice--I did the first "ferment" or raising twice to add extra lift! I brought it to work as a test and it was a hit! And the kids devoured it, which is always a good sign.

I will be doing a bake this week on Thursday and probably finishing on Friday. If you are interested in ordering, let me know asap! I will send out emails too.

I think this multigrain loaf will be $5, and I am also going to offer focaccia with garlic and parmesan, also for $5.

FYI--Skye is sick today, and if we have any more sickness the bake will be off. The baby had a similar thing and was over it pretty quickly, so hopefully this won't be an issue. I'm going to clean my kitchen with anti-bacterial stuff just in case.

I am still looking for an "official" kitchen to bake in! In process . . .

Name Change

Hi! I realize the web address is kind of cumbersome--I first used that when I was blogging just for fun. Now that this might be turning into something, I will be changing the address to www.3flowersbakery.blogspot.com. That will happen next week. Thanks guys!

Three Flowers Lives!

From top: Challah, herb focaccia, apple sourdough, croissants, onion rye twist

Hello friends and customers,

I am having to cut down at school in order to work a little more until Bud finds a job.

Sad.

However, I decided to make lemons into lemonade. This gives me more time to bake on my own for Community Supported Baking! Or: Three Flowers Bakery. Those of you who have talked to me know the plan: I do some baking for friends, on an order-by-order basis. I did this once this summer and it was very successful! If you want to re-read the explanation, go to the main page of the blog and click on "old posts."

My goal is to have my own bakery in a few years, whenever circumstances make it possible. But until then, I'm itching to get going! So I am baking here and there when I get a chance, giving you all a taste of what's to come.

I have been fortunate in the past 12 weeks to gain a lot of knowledge. And, while I am by no means an expert, I do have more to work with now. So I'll be trying to bake again about twice a month or so. I have had so much interest that I am actually trying to find a larger kitchen in Hudson to use, with more ovens and more space. I'll post some pictures of the products I will offer, and soon I will post the dates of the next BAKE and start taking orders. I am going to try to offer a white and wheat bread each time, and a specialty too, like croissants or apple bread or cookies. And with the holidays coming up I'm going to do apple pies. It all depends on what people want!

To order, you can either: Comment on the blog--it's easy! It seems intimidating, but all you really have to do is click on "comment" at the bottom of the blog entry.

Or, you can email me at mastuempy@hotmail.com. When ordering, if you need it delivered please include your address and phone number.

If you become a "follower" of the blog, I think you should receive email updates when I update it. I will try to do that often!

If anyone knows of a lonely kitchen, for example in a closed business or an unused church building, let me know ASAP!

Thanks everyone for your support. Questions and Comments are welcome!

We're finally baking!

Well,
the first 3 weeks of school are over, and so is the "culinary" portion of my education. Thank goodness. It was fun to learn how to cut up a whole chicken, and how to make the "mother" sauces, and all that good stuff. But that's not why I'm there. We've had our hands in dough the past two days, and boy, does it feel good. I'm remembering the reasons I enrolled. I remember that "zen" feeling I get when the table is covered with flour, and I find myself humming as I gather my mise en place.
And boy oh boy! We start off with a bang! 3-4 recipes a day--we get a demo and then we have to get cooking. We're getting a general overview of baking, and later we'll go back over these same things and learn them more inimately. Yesterday we made Peanut Butter Cookies (using the creamy method) and brysselkex (basically those yummy pepperidge farm merona type cookies). We decided to get fancy--see picture. Today it was Strassler cookies (piped out of a fancy tip! Cool! I made beautiful rosebuds), macaroons--which, sweet saint whoever the patron saint of bakers is, where have these been all my life? I've had those nasty coconut macaroons out of the Good Housekeeping cookbook, and have avoided them since. These are made with crushed almonds, butter, confectioners sugar--they melt in your mouth. You can make sandwich cookies out of them if you spread a little Nutella in between. We also made biscotti, which you have to bake twice! It kept us all late after class because we couldn't get it done.
Which brings me to the more personal part of my reflections: going back to college as an adult is really interesting. I've realized that my time is VERY valuable, and I don't have much patience for laziness or incomptence, especially people at my table who I have to do group projects with. Seriously, kids, welcome to the adult world. I'm getting lots of material for my novel because the stereotypical characters are just thick in the room. You've got the lazy college kids who have everything handed to them and have never had to work a day in their lives. When the chore/work roster was handed out, you should have seen the sneers! "I'm expected to mop? Are you kidding?" All eloquently said with a lifted eyebrow and curled lip. And sleeping during lecture. And not listening to directions! ARGGHH! What do we do? What did he say? Can I borrow this because I forgot mine? Puh-leeze! Everyone deserves some rope, and I do lend stuff. I also need to borrow stuff and ask questions sometimes. But there is a limit. I seriously wonder how many people are actually going to make it through the program. Thank goodness for my table partner who is totally sane, realistic, nice, and knows how to work. We have collaberated a lot, actually, sharing supplies and baking trays and doing projects together. She's another mature (I use that term loosely in my case. Yes, I still laugh at fart jokes) adult with a career behind her, who knows what she wants and how the real world works. Who knows how listen and study and be responsible. We get along.

So, one of my large faults has been exposed--I lack mercy. I'm trying. I've got to vent somewhere. The characters are just so obvious it's unbelievable. I don't have to be creative or embellish at all, I just have to write it down, with the appropriate use of semicolons and no run-on sentences. Gosh, my high school creative writing teacher would kill me. I think my blogging will be more conversational in tone. I ain't go time to edit!

Some things I wasn't expecting: there are no traditional amounts as we're used to seeing them. We weigh everything on a digital scale. The recipe does not say, bake for 30 minutes. It says a temperature and that's it--you know it's done by what it looks like. We have to cream our butter and sugar and whip our eggs by hand! No mixers. We have to do it the hard way. We're going to learn to do it right! No sissy stuff. You eat dirt, and you like it! You walk to school barefoot in the snow uphill both ways! That's how we do it in the army, and no whining! I don't know. I'm tired.
Will update pictures soon--