New Book!

Finally, it has arrived. My new, used book from Amazon, first misdirected by the post office to the wrong town, then supposedly delivery-attempted twice - while the apartment was full of people - with no notices left. It is FINALLY here, it has FINALLY arrived, and I am RIDICULOUSLY excited.

This book, in keeping with my gestationally diabetic inability to actually eat anything that doesn't resemble rabbit food, is all about PASTRY. It is the second edition of Bo Friberg's The Professional Pastry Chef, and while I the fourth edition is actually available on the market (revamped into separate volumes), this one was under $14.00 (including shipping) and therefore an excellent starting place and completely irresistible.

I have already started prowling through it, trying to ignore my Adrian Monk-like aversion to things actually touched by other people, and in the first few paragraphs of chapter one, I have already found a sentence to make me chortle with joy: "If you make croissants every morning..." well, if I could actually stand up for more than two minutes at a time, believe me, I would try. Homemade croissants? Every day? In my kitchen? Delirium! I must be in heaven.

Well... purgatory, anyway. Pastry, cooking, and baking are in my top ten list of things to do when I grow up. I just know what exquisite torment it would be to try to do any of it right now. Picture the Cookie Monster baking batches of Christmas Cookies that he is not allowed to eat. Hmmm... on second thought, maybe that's more like hell...

(Brief aside from the weird Filing Cabinet of Connectivity: I said that I wanted to be like someone once when I grew up; one person in the room rolled her eyes and in an angry voice replied, "you're 30-something years old, you're ALREADY grown up." Obviously not a subscriber to the 1000-year life plan.)

I'm going to go torture myself by finishing the first chapter. After that I can lie down and spend some time dreaming about all the foods I can't eat. Nothing like a little self-provocation to inspire that happy place inside my head.