Where to begin?!?  I took over 600 pictures last week (half are blurry and unidentifiable...as usual) - trying to document the fun and craziness of my New England adventure - and there is so much to tell I'm almost stumped!  So I'm going to begin at the end...

This is the last thing I made at my class...pictured above is my Tender Yellow Cake with Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting...in a word?  Worththeairfarehotelrentalcarclassfee.  My three travel companions and I flew to New England for a week long pastry class (Pastry:  Principles and Practice).  The classes were held at King Arthur Flour, Baking Education Center in Norwich, Vermont.  I learned a lot.  Mucho lot. Every day we baked - Palmiers, Chocolate Roulade, Eclairs, Pate A Choux, Linzer Tarts and Pie...just to name a few!  It was this diabetics dream come true!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shopping in the King Arthur Flour store was almost as much fun as the class...I might have had to ship two boxes of goodies home to avoid a heavy bag fee!  I had no idea my pantry was so inadequate!  Every day I did my best to stock up on "necessary" items!

In the next few weeks I'll be posting recipes for the delectable pastries we learned to make...all of them coma worthy!  Plus I can hardly wait to tell you about the lobstah and chowdah and the flagship stores for Stonewall Kitchens, LL Bean and Ben and Jerry's and the Maple Museum!  Oh!  We also walked the Appalachian Trail and The Freedom Trail!!!  (About twenty feet of both but that still counts, right?!)  From Maine, to New Hampshire to Vermont to Massachusetts - it was a whirlwind of F U N !!  But for now, I'm just going to whet your appetite with a few more baking pics...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The mister was a little preplexed as to why pastry classes are not offered in the Seattle area - and why I had to fly all the way across the country to find one...if you bump into the mister please do not spill the beans - do not tell him there are baking classes in Seattle, he needs to be kept in the dark because I want to go again next year!