Olive Bread Making Adventures

I should start by saying I’ve never made bread before.  

If you’ve ever had homemade bread, you know that it is damn good and no store bought, abnormally squishy bread could ever compare.  But making bread… wow, what a process.  

It takes commitment to make a loaf of bread in your own kitchen.  Heck, I’m not even talking about good bread.  To make a good loaf of bread takes a whole other level of competence and patience.

As you may know, I am not a patient person. 

However, I was going to be a guest at the house of some friends and I wanted to bring a little thank you present.  What do you bring a group that includes a health-nut, a chocolate allergy, and a cookie-holic?  

The only thing I could think of was bread.  

My father found me this recipe for this Japanese/Chinese style bread that I wanted to try, but for a gift I felt I needed something more special.  More artisan. Then, this food memory hit me on the head: there was this bread I had when I was in the south of France with green olives, topped with sea salt.  It was the absolute tastiest thing you could have especially with that warm, ocean breeze on your back. I remember seeing olives (which I used to hate) in a whole different life after eating that bread.  

So olive bread it was.  

Homemade Gift Bag and Birthday Card (for a clean freak)

When the birthday of someone I know who is a complete clean freak came around, I couldn’t resist doing something custom made.  

Firstly, I made a cute little gift bag for the present, with the help and inspiration of this tutorial.  How amazing!  You can use a ripped out page of a magazine or an old book for these gift bags, which is such a green idea.