Imagining the best, and thinking of Spain

As I rolled along at the Home Slice Bakery in Dubois, Wyoming, a Frida Kahlo costume on my head and a glass of wine nearby, I never imagined the road ahead, what waited for me beyond the barn with the two black angus steers and the goat pen, beyond the bees in clover.

I thought I was in the mountains just to volunteer for a friend who's a devoted baker for her community, population less than a thousand. I could playfully channel Kahlo while rolling dough, or Julia with my nip of wine, but I never played "let's make believe you're a Le Cordon Bleu student." Never saw it coming, never sensed it. It was not up my sleeve or in my heart to do.

Then we came to the end, which is a title for a book about getting "freed up" in the ad agency world, which is just what happened to me when I came down off the mountain. Suddenly I had too much time and empty hands, but no more kitchen in the Grand Tetons. Before I could think it through, I enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu in Dallas as a baking and pastry student - because there was no one to stop me, not even myself. I knew if I thought too much about it, I'd talk myself out of it. Even the great Southern hospitality queen Paula Deen told me that it was "just courageous" to start on this journey (she meant at MY AGE), and she's right. She would know.

A year later, I have done the unthinkable, the unimaginable, the unbelievable leap into the unknown. This is bigger than Wyoming, bigger than baking school. I have applied for the BasqueStage Sammic Scholarship. Know what that is? A chance to work in the restaurant Martín Berasategui, which has three Michelin Stars, in the Basque region of Spain. A 6-month commitment, the chance of a lifetime you look for all your life.

Have I gone mad? (You might have thought so after seeing those Kahlo flowers on my head.) Surely it takes a special kind of imagination to see yourself living in Espana, taking direction in another language, soaking in the exquisite culture, cuisine and new life (at your age). What's more important even than applying for it, what I embrace, is discovering that when you toss your sombrero in a ring like this, you declare yourself to the world that you are a candidate - for whatever comes, whatever waits, wherever you go, and why.

I wish myself luck in this endeavor, I wish all the candidates the best - and there are some very good candidates. Everyone deserves the chance to stretch the imagination wider than the strudel dough, beyond where they thought they could go in one terrific leap of faith. We all deserve the right to believe in the outrageous behind every good fortune.

Saludos!

A Thing of Beauty Is a Joy Forever

When I want to dazzle someone, I make croissants. There is something timeless and classic about the carefully baked, soft layers imbued with buttery richness, and you can take them in many directions - savory by adding herbs, sweet by adding chocolate. You can nibble them as they are, with an exquisite side of java, or turn them into sandwiches for eggs, cheeses or smoked meats - even into tiny appetizers.

Homemade croissants taste and feel like nothing you get at the grocery store, which tend to be airy, crackly, and lacking in depth of flavor. The real thing is the real thing, a difference the tastebuds gleefully acknowledge and pass on straight to the soul.

Once you've introduced them to a friend, they'll throw open their doors and slap your back if they know you're coming with a basketful of croissants and a little champagne. That's how I like to visit Ellen Christine Millinery in New York - with croissants, champagne and thirst for one of Ellen's latest hat designs. Imagine trying on hats while seeing yourself in a mirror, a croissant in one hand and a champagne flute in the other. This is the essence of "Live, Live!" as Rosalind Russell exhorted in "Auntie Mame." Life is a banquet, and so on, and so on.

Before you ask me for croissants, know this: I need 3 days. I prefer more time, because the dough develops even more flavor essence if you give it time in the freezer. The French have always known this, and I suspected as much myself when I confirmed it with Joe Ortiz, who has been perfecting the art of baking bread since the 70s, when he and his wife, Gayle, opened Gayle's Bakery in Capitola, California. (http://www.gaylesbakery.com/index.html)

Joe stands alongside Julia Child in the book "Baking With Julia" with his recipe for Pain de Campagne, and this baker, author and musical show thinker-upper is a perennial favorite at the Maui Writers Conference. His own book "The Village Baker" and Gayle's book "The Village Baker's Wife" are both back in print. If you're serious about making bread with patience, enthusiasm and excellence, these are must-haves in your collection. Joe also told me that he has a new musical called "Smoke: A One-Woman Cabaret" running until Oct. 3 up in San Francisco. A guy who is an artisanal bread master and a musical theater lyricist? My instincts say "Check this out!" See the website for more information(http://www.gaylesbakery.com/smoke/index.html).

Next post, I'll give you the croissant recipe from "The Village Baker's Wife," the one I use especially for my friend Ellen, the Hattie Golightly of Manhattan. I added the picture of the lillies here because they look like something Ellen could use on one of her creations. They're beautiful, she's beautiful, croissants are beautiful.

Making croissants is a lengthy process, so you need a day just to digest what I'm telling you here. And yes, I've got some croissant dough chilling in the fridge that's waiting for me, do you mind?