Cooking isn't magic, it's just showmanship and science*

You know that thing, where you snatch away the tablecloth and leave all the dishes standing as they were?

I may totally just have done that with m'bread buns. I baked the buns on a Silpat on a baking sheet; took them out of the oven and slid them off the sheet onto a rack, Silpat included - and then took the Silpat by two corners and whisked it away, and the buns stayed just exactly on the rack. Colour me delighted.

In other news, today is a cooks' playdate, so I was awake half the night stressing. Am now baking up a storm - dinner rolls and better sourdough - before heading off to join a double fistful of friends and take over a kitchen with Cathyn and see what comes out. Beef and veggies, largely, and Yorkshire puddings I hope - and I have a recipe for a savoury bread pudding which I think I may adapt with leeks and butternut and rye bread and butter... (The original recipe calls also for cheese. I'm not sure about the cheese**.)

Now I must hie me to the garden, to gather herbs. It's not magic, I tell you, it's science...


*...and a little bit of magic, but hush. That's a secret.

**Apparently m'wife is sure about the cheese. She says it's like a British accent: +10, anywhere in America.