Tonight is the party for a friend and former coworker who got tired of the foolapalooza and walked away from the never-ending madness.
I was going to bake him a loaf of Shiner Bock bread. It's his favorite. Makes an excellent breakfast bread, he says.
I marked my calendar. I wrote reminders. Even wrote up a shopping list. I even remembered to get more Tabasco to spice it up.
With all this in mind, I forgot to buy shredded cheddar at the store. The recipe needs the sharp cheddar, and other cheeses just won't do.
Crap.
So, instead, I baked a loaf of garlic parmesan because I keep roasted garlic handy. I roast up a few heads a week so I've got some for baking or spreading on toast or whatever.
Now, starting a garlic parmesan late in the evening is a bad thing, because the later the loaf, the more likely I will be asleep when it's time for brushing the top and sprinking on reggiano and red peppers for decoration. I always feel bad when I don't decorate each of my parmesan garlic loaves to a consistent level of prettiness.
Still, it's a darned good loaf, decoration or not. And it's not like he's dying - I can always bake more.
BY THE WAY
I keep the rye, wheat, and bread flour in large Mason jars in the kitchen.
My Mason jar holding the bread flour has a large series of cracks near the bottom.
Thank goodness it was almost completely empty and I always keep a spare bag of flour for such emergencies.
I guess I need to do the same for cheese if I'm going to make a habit of doing Shiner Bock Cheddar, but I do garlic parmesan a lot more often.