Writer's Workshop 3/11/10

What lights my fire? Five things that I am passionate about...

Go see MamaKat and see more passions

(other than raising my kids and being a Mama, I have a lot of other passions... being a Mama goes without saying)

***

1. Well... from yesterday's post... it's obvious it's bread baking. Not regular baking in general... I intensely dislike baking cookies and making cakes and desserts in general... but baking bread...

is my passion.

I have often dreamed of opening up a place that specializes in Artisan Breads. A place where customers can come in... grab a cup of tea or coffee, with a great book, and eat my sandwiches and dunk their bread into Olive Oil and just... "be".

I have recently delved into the world of sourdough and catching my own yeast from the air, and not using commercial yeast at all, and now use my own leavening... and it's been such

a pleasurable journey. The patience it takes to make a starter, and feed it, and keep it alive, is much like the patience needed to take care of a newborn, and it's a patience learned and perfected with each "child".

My bread making and baking has matured in the last couple of years, and am now in the process of having a wood burning stove built to be able to stoke up heat to 850 degrees and really create breads that rival good bakeries.

I am praying one day to duplicate the oven in a bakery one day...

***

2. Writing... probably my first passion I discovered when I was very, very young... about 7 yrs old. Putting pen to paper, and now finger to keyboard, is intensely satisfying...

Finding the time and energy to continue writing my novel and cookbook is the most difficult part. Writing a blog is easy... each page doesn't have to build upon the previous one, a few hundred words, and the work is complete. Because my novel and cookbook are so close to my heritage and my upbringing, it's difficult to write and cry from happy memories all the time.

***

3. Crocheting... since I was 6 years old... I love it. My Nonna taught me, in my living room of our tiny house all those years ago... and it's the one thing she and I shared that has lived on. I didn't know her well, like my other hundreds of cousins did, we lived far away... but that one thing stuck. My Mama sees me crochet and sees me hold my hook exactly like her Mother did, and it brings tears to her eyes. My Nonna died with her crocheting in her hand, sitting up. I love how peaceful I feel when I am making something. I love how I can think of her when I am working on a piece. It's the only piece of her I am able to hold on to... and it's a precious gift, and I keep it alive so I can feel just a tiny bit closer to a Grandmother I never really got to know very well... When I am stitching, I can remember bringing my little blankets I was making in grade school to her house when we visited, and how proud she would be, and all the face grabbing and face kissing and looking at my tiny, perfect stitches, and her pride... A couple of times, we would sit and crochet together, on her plastic covered couch. She didn't understand one word I said, and I didn't understand her Sicilian dialect, I spoke Calabrese, but we bonded over yarn... even for a short time... it was precious.

***

4. Photography... especially creating digital books from the photos. It's a new passion of mine, and I would spend HOURS and HOURS doing it, if time permitted...nuff said...

***

5. Reading... There is never a day that goes by, that I don't have a book on my bedside table ready to devour a few pages at a time just before nodding off to sleep. It's another passion of mine that goes waaaaay back to when I was a very young girl... My Mother was and is an avid reader, and I know I inherited the passion from her... and I thank her for it every day... when I ask God to bless my Mama and keep her well.

***

So what are your passions?

Do tell...