Big News on the Baking Front!

My baking challenge has been fun.  I waste hours of my time on allrecipes.com or foodgawker.com looking for new recipes, ideas and challenges.  I am able to quickly finish grading workbooks knowing that I will soon be home baking again.  And while I have been emailing multiple admissions counselors about getting my teaching certification in the States, I can't stop thinking about my bakery.

About a month ago, my baking challenge was taken to a whole new level.

A few of the teachers at my school spend a lot of time at a coffee shop across the street.  It opened this year, and it reminds me quite a bit of a trendy coffee spot back in America.  The teachers love the coffee, but they are unimpressed with the baked goods.  David, a teacher, and one of the biggest supporters of my baking began speaking with the owner of the coffee shop about her baked goods.  He told her he thought that nothing was that great, and that he knew of a baker.  He called me one day after I finished my class and asked me to come to the coffee shop.  Sure enough, he introduced me to the owner and began raving about my baking skills.  He told her that I am interested in someday opening a bakery and she would be a fool to buy her baked goods from anyone else.  On the spot the owner, Mae, asked me to bring a few things in to try.

Monday morning I came armed with pound cake, cookies and brownies.  I handed everything over for the taste test, giving her everything for free samples.  She was quite impressed because as I was about to leave she gave me the terms.  I bake what I want, when I want, set the servings, set the price, and I keep 80% while the shop keeps 20%.

I was ecstatic.  I walked back to school in a daze, shocked by what had just happened.

I have since brought Mae banana pecan muffins, red velvet cupcakes, almond shortbread, brownies and other treats.  Every time I bring her new treats I ask for feedback, and she simply tells me how impressed she and her customers are.  I keep making what I want, trying different things, just attempting to gain experience.

My phone rang on Saturday morning.  It was Mae.  She needed more brownies.  They sold out, and she had customers asking for them.  Had I not been standing in the middle of a grungy bus station in Chaiyapum I might have cried, but I held it in.  People pay for my baking.  People request it.  This is crazy.  And amazing.

But don't worry, none of this will go to my head.  I promise not to charge more than 30 baht for anything at next year's family Christmas party.

Just FYI- the owner of the shop has a facebook page, and she posts photos of the products I bring in.  You can see photos of my "A Few Extra Pounds Cake" and "Perfectly Simple Brownies" at Horm Coffee.

Yet another story about Manao.

I was very sick for a while.  Sick enough for the doctor to say, "Yes, I think we admit."  "Yes, yes, you stay hospital maybe 5 day."  I opted to spend my sick days in my own bed and not being hit on by my doctor.  Looking back, I probably wasn't thinking clearly.  I did have a very high fever.  He was quite attractive.  And his English was impressive.

But, now that I am fully recovered, and without a doctor boyfriend, I have another Manao story to get me back on the blogging band wagon.

Manao has become close friends with a golden retriever that lives across the street.  They have a bizarre love affair that usually takes place through my gate and involves a lot of licking, panting, and Manao wedging her head between the slats of the gate.  After the two dogs learned of their ability to open the gate, Cait and I began bungee cording it.

This morning, after our run, (which is still a limp-run-walk combo with my hip injury) I left the gate bungee-less.  Manao is usually tired enough that she won't bother.  Well, I was wrong.  As I approached my door to leave I could hear a commotion outside the house, and I knew that Manao's lover was in our yard.  I opened the door to more than I could have imagined.  The two dogs were soaking wet from playing in Manao's pool.  They were caked in mud from their romp in the yard.  And Manao had a bird in her mouth.

Another one bites the dust.  That is four dead birds by one friendly dog that stays on a relatively short leash.

I shooed the other golden out of the yard, only stalling for time until I had to deal with the real situation at hand.  Sure enough, Manao dropped the bird when I asked her, as if to say, "but of course, I killed it just for you!"  I went to the back yard, grabbed the shovel and two plastic bags from the house.  I carefully placed the shovel, hoping to make one single scooping motion and be done.  No such luck.  The bird was still alive.  I screamed.

I left the bird on the doorstep.  I had no intention of finishing my dog's dirty work and giving that one final blow.  Luckily, Paul will be coming over to teach this afternoon, and he will be on bird duty.  Fingers crossed Manao doesn't attempt to eat it, or play with it, or kill friends for it.

Gosh, I need a boyfriend.