...must begin with a single step. Or, more appropriately, a journey of a thousand bakeries must begin with a single bite.
Its the end of a year, and the beginning of a new one. What better time to begin a journey than at the beginning of a new year?
As most people who are likely to read this know, at this point, I've become very interested (you could even say 'passionate') about baking. Maybe its just a passing fling; maybe its the beginning of a beautiful new relationship. Only time, and quite a bit of (metaphorical and literal) travel will tell.
I've never been much good at journeys, in particular at the staying-committed-to-it part, so I'm hoping that this chronicling of my adventure will help keep me honest and on task (if only the same would happen for my actual job...). I honestly feel like I've already started the journey, just from a couple different trail heads all at once. I've looked at schools (online) and (more or less) chosen one already; I even have a rough date in mind. I've started baking a bit in my home kitchen (much to the excitement of my roommates).
It still feels to me like something is missing though -- there's an avenue of approach not yet addressed. So, my resolution, to start off the new year, is to visit at least one (distinct) bakery every week. A quick google maps search for "bakery" centered on Chicago returns this. [edit: the google map embed wasn't working, so for now its just a link] So it seems I have plenty to choose from. I'm sure several of those are Jewel/Dominicks/Whole Foods, but hey, even visiting those might be a good idea.
What I would like to do, at a minimum, at each bakery is try 2 things:
1) something that I can standardize (or, at least, get close to) across all bakeries (maybe some kind of bread, or croissant, or something)
2) whatever the owner(s)/baker(s) consider to be their personal specialty (if that overlaps with #1, well.... shoot)
I'm not much of a writer, or journalist, so this may be a bit painful to read for those of you better educated in the linguistic arts, but I'll try to make up for it with gratuitous food porn whenever possible.
This blog will probably include bakery reviews (which will undoubtedly become more competent as I progress (if I progress...)), pictures/details of things I work on at home, as well as no shortage of anxiety-ridden angst and dismay over, well, just about anything at all (as well as no small amount of nothing).
