Life of a Baker

Last night was my last night of work. I am a little sad, but so ready to start sleeping like a normal person. I have worked at BurBakers for a year and honestly I never thought I would make it that long. The reason I took this job was so that I could be home with the girls during the day and work while they were asleep. I never realized how hard it would be to run on only a few hours of sleep, but some how we made. I have a lot respect for people who work the graveyard shift it is really tough. I posted a few pictures from my last day and all the yummy things I bake during the night. I do a few more things than what I posted, but my camera battery ran out.


This is the front of the bakery because it was dark outside my camera didn't get a very good pictures, but at least you can see the sign.

This is the kitchen where I spend many nights by myself. One thing I really enjoyed about my job was that I was by myself. It was nice to have that time alone cause when I am at home I usually have somebody yelling, crying, or wanting to be held.

Here are the pictures of the different things we bake during the night.

Carrot Bars and Banana Bars. On the carrot bars we put cream cheese frosting and pipe a carrot on top and the banana bars also get cream cheese frosting with chopped walnuts on top.

Cookies, I love COOKIES!!! Most nights I would tell myself I am not going to taste any cookies, but than I smell them and look at them. I don't always give in, but I do most of the time. My favorite is of course choc. chip. We also have oatmeal raisin, oatmeal choc. chip, peanut butter, sugar, and snickerdoddle. During holidays we add more cookies, especially during Christmas. Also during holidays we decorate the sugar cookies to go along with the holiday.

Scones: Ham & Cheese, Lemon-Berry, Lemon Cream, and Strawberry. We were doing more scones, but because of summer we reduced it to 4. My favorite scone is Lemon cream it have lemon cream in the middle and on top and is garnished with lemon zest.

These are our Sticky Buns. Once these come out of the oven we flip the pan over and let the carmel topping run over the buns. The worst thing about these is if you get some of that hot carmel on your fingers it burns bad.

Cinn. Rolls, these are so good. Once we pull them out of the oven we put a scoop of icing on top and let it melt on the roll. I don't eat these very often and I am sure you can tell why, trust me it does take a lot of self control because they smell and look so good.

These are our croissant. We have a plain croissant and two filled croissants. The flavors of the filled croissants are: cream cheese and blueberry(Curbris favorite).

These are all the muffins that we serve. We have blueberry, raspberry, banana nut, lemon poppy(my favorite), cinn. spice, pumpkin, bran, and we also have muffin tops. Our muffins change with the seasons most of them stay the same but there are a few that change.

This what I look like after a long night of work. I am glad that I can sleep for a few months until the baby comes.

I will truly miss working at the bakery, but I have learned so much and grown a lot too. I have always wanted to work at a bakery and I am so glad that I got that opportunity to.

The past week.....

So last week I meant to post a few things, but I have been feeling horrible and really tried. I am so ready get this 1st trimester over with. Last Tuesday we went out to Joe's BBQ for Jack's graduation dinner. The food was great and we had a lot of fun. Than on Thursday was his graduation. Me and Karma went to the graduation, Sadie stayed at my parents house with my brother and Curbris had to work late. It rained the whole graduation and it was cold. It was just weird weather, the week before we were breaking heat records. So of course I wasn't prepared with a jacket, but we did have umbrellas. As I was at the graduation I realized that it has already been 8 years since I graduated high school. I cant believe how fast time has gone by and how much has happened in the past 8 years. A lot of it very different from what I thought 8 years ago my life would be like. I never thought I would be married by 22 and already have two kids with the third on the way. No way did I ever think that I would go to culinary school and become a chef/baker. Overall I am pretty happy with my life I have made a lot of stupid choices in the last 8 years, but I grown up so much because of it.
On Saturday the owner of the bakery I work at took me, my manger, and my other co-worker out to lunch. She took us out to lunch because we both are quiting. It was a nice lunch and it was great to talk to other mothers. After the lunch Curbris took me to get my haircut. I have been needing a haircut for a while, but I always make an excuse not to get one. So Curbris pretty much made me go do it. I cut off 11 inches of dead hair it was a lot shorter than I wanted it but I still like. Plus with being pregnant it will grow back really fast. After my haircut we just walked around the mall and hanged out at home. Sunday and Monday we ate lots of BBQ because of the Memorial Day weekend. On Monday we also took the girls to the zoo. We went pretty early so the it wouldn't be to hot. After the zoo we went swimming, the water was a little cold, but it did feel really good because it was so hot outside. I guess that is about all the has happened recently. My camera has been giving me trouble so I didn't take to many pics, but I have a few that I will post in another post.

Menu Monday

This our Menu for May 18 - May 24.
My brother Jack is graduating this week so two days we will be doing dinner with my family.

Monday - Tamale Pie

Tuesday - Jack's graduation dinner

Wednesday - Salisbury steaks, mashed potatoes, and corn

Thursday - Jack's graduation

Friday - Mandarin chicken, steamed rice, broccoli

Saturday - Homemade corn dogs, potato nuggets, green beans

Sunday - Whole chicken, carrots, potatoes

Menu Monday

Here is our menu for May 11 - May 18. This week I am going to do a few items that have been on some of our past menus, but I never got around to making them because something else came up.



Monday - Teriyaki chicken and noodle bowl with broccoli

Tuesday - Bean & Beef Tostadas with mexican rice

Wednesday - Calle Ocho Cuban Hash

Thursday- Easy Beef and Noddle Dinner

Friday- haven't decided may use gift card to Pei Wei

Saturday- Homemade corn dogs, beans, and corn

Sunday- Chicken Sopa with rolls

Mother's Day!!

I had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend. Saturday morning we took the girls to the zoo and had a blast spending time together. When we got home we rested for a while, the sun really drained all of us. All week Curbris has asked me what I wanted for Mother's Day and I told him the only thing I want is all the dishes washed and the house clean. So Saturday afternoon after he rested for a bit he starting cleaning. Me and the girls left to run some errands, but it was great to come home to a clean house especially since I didn't have to clean it. We ordered some pizza and rented a movie and had a pretty good night.
Even thought I didn't ask for anything Curbris still got me a few things one of those things was a new vacuum. Our vacuum lately has not been sucking up anything so I am constantly taking it apart to remove the dirt that I pick up off the floor. Let me tell it is gross all the dirt and stuff that is on the floor. So we went online and picked a vacuum, I tried to pick one that was a good price, but I also wanted it to be bagless. Here is our new vacuum and I love it.



It has this cool brush attachment that is great at picking up stuff off the couch and other places.

On Sunday I had to work in the morning which I was really bummed about because I was hoping to have it off. When I got home from work I got everybody up and ready for church. Church was great. When we got home from church Curbris surprised me with a few more things also the girls made me somethings at church. Here's a picture of everything that I got.

Curbris got me these beautiful flowers, a card, and the balloon that says, "Queen for a Day." I love him so much he really made me feel like a queen.

Here are some of the things the girls made me. In Sadie's nursery class they made cards, a necklace, and she gave me a really cute picture frame with her picture inside. Karma's nursery class didn't do as much, but she did color me a picture and she even offered me her fruit snack that she got from nursery. She loves eating her fruit snack when she gets home from church so it meant a lot that she wanted to give it to me. I cant wait for next year because Karma will be a sunbeam and she will get to go up front and sing.

Curbris also made a great dinner for us. I love cooking, but it is nice to be out of the kitchen sometimes. Since I had worked in the morning I didn't get to much sleep so I took a long nap and woke up to all this food. Curbris had grilled ribs and chicken he also made baked beans and green beans with cheese. All the food was delicious and I really appreciate all the time and effort he put into the meal. To round out my wonderful day he picked up this chocolate cake for me and added the whip cream to it. It was wonderful day and I love my family very much. I especially love being a mom.

Potty Training Update and More.......

I hardly ever quit at anything I start, but for now potty training is put on hold. After a day and a half I realized that I am just too tried and not ready for this. We will start up again when I stop working in about a month. That way I can be more rested and be more patient, also it will help to establish a routine. Since I work long night most days we don't have a really routine established because I am just trying to make it through the day. At first I really felt like I sucked as a mom, but than I realized that I am trying to do a millions things at once and I need to give myself some credit for that. When u have 1 2 year old and 2 1 year olds all day plus on top of that being pregnant that is enough to make a person go crazy.

On Wednesday I went outside to water the grass and the girls were outside playing and helping me water. I was on the other side of the yard watering and had my back turned to them when I turned around I found Sadie in the mud. At first I yelled no, but than I realized she just a kid and she was having a blast. So I took off her clothes and she played in the mud for a while. Karma didn't want anything to do with the mud. Here are some of the pictures I took of Sadie once she was done playing the date stamp is wrong I forgot to reset it.

Mud was everywhere.

Karma

Two months from today Karma will be turning 3. Wow it is amazing how times flys by and it amazing to see how much she has changed in that time. She now talks nonstop, I think at least a 100 times a day she says this, "Mommy where's daddy? Mommy where's daddy? Mommy where's daddy? Daddy at work? Daddy at work?" At first it was cute, but now it drives me crazy. Since she will be 3 in two short months I figured I better stop procrastinating and get her potty trained. With such a crazy work schedule most days I do good just to make it through the day, but no more excuses I am going to get her potty trained before she turns 3. So today we went to the store and she got some Disney Princess panties. Once we got home I took off her diaper and put on the panties. She was really excited and kept looking at the panties in the mirror it was pretty funny to see her. I set up her potty seat and we did a few practice runs. The thing that made it the hardest was that her sister and cousin wanted a turn, but Karma kept telling them," no it is my potty!" I put on a movie and the girls all settled down and watched the movie. During the movie Karma told me she had to go potty I was trying to get Hopies and Sadie to stop fighting so by the time I made in the bathroom with her she had already peed on the floor. It was a good try for our first time I know that patience is going to be a factor in helping her get it down. So over the next few days I am going to post on our progress.

Menu Monday

Here is our menu for 5-4 - 5-10:

Monday - Chicken Pasta Casserole

Tuesday - Taco Salad

Wednesday- Tex-mex chicken and rice

Thursday - Sloppy Joes, potatoes, and veg.

Friday - Teriyaki chicken with noddles

Saturday - Ribs, baked beans, veg

Sunday - I am not cooking it is Mother's Day, Curbris is in charge.