March 21: National French Bread Day and Fragrance Day

If you lined up all my fragrance products in a line they would reach from here to the moon. Okay, well not quite to the moon. But they do reach across my dining room table! I love body sprays. I've been known to get, well, a little carried away with them. I just like to smell good. I guess you could say I celebrate National Fragrance Day, everyday. If you think this is bad, then you don't want to know my record amount of mini hand sanitizers I once had...

There's 23 of them...

Sophie is not quite sure what to think!

 A couple of weeks ago when I was at work, the following conversation took place as a customer was about to leave:

Me: Thanks! See you later.

(The man, who is the father of some guys I went to school with but who I don't actually know, starts to leave but then turns around)

Man: I just have to ask, what scent is your perfume?

Me: Uhhhh it's a vanilla scent.

Man: Aww ok. Well it smells really really good.

It is important to keep in mind that this guy is around the age of my father. I came home and told my dad that he is never allowed to compliment the fragrance of any of my friends. It was embarrassing.


Several days later, I was once again wearing a vanilla fragrance and as I was checking out at a clothing store, the around-17-year-old-girl says to me:

Girl: I don't want this to sound creepy, but you smell really really good. What scent is that?

Me: Uhhhh it's a vanilla scent.

What have I learned from this? Old men and younger girls (neither of which I am interested in) like the smell of vanilla. I've been staying away from vanilla scents lately and have been going with fruitier scents.

It's also National French Bread Day. Well, I could have just bought a loaf of french bread at the grocery store, but I made my own. It. Was. The. Best! It was light and airy and tasted so fresh. While it doesn't look as professional as if it were bought in a store, it tastes better. One day, I think I'm going to make all my bread at home using a bread machine. I love bread machines.

JazzyJ's Light And Airy French Bread:

Ingredients:
- 1 cup water
- 2 1/2 cup bread flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons yeast

Directions:
1. Place all directions in your bread machine in the order recommended by your manufacturer. Select dough cycle.
2. When the dough is done, place dough in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes.
3. Roll dough out on a lightly covered surface into a 16 inch by 12 inch rectangle. Cut the dough in half so you have two rectangles.
4. Roll the dough up and taper the edges. Do the same to the other rectangle. You should now have two long dough logs. Slice diagonal cuts in the top every two inches to let steam escape.
5. Cook at 375 degrees for 20 -22 minutes.

Right out of the bread machine!

Normally when I let dough rise, it doesn't do a good job. However, the picture above this one is before it was set to rise, and this picture is after rising for about 20 minutes! Rising success!! Also, what a pretty mixing bowl that is!

Ready to bake!

Toasty brown and oh so delicious!

Stay tuned, tomorrow is National Bavarian Crepe Day. YUM.