a foreword

My mother once gave me a unicorn diary with a silver lock and key.  At the time, I was in the habit of turning down all sound advice, so I left the pages empty.  If I could keep my secrets there now, I would.  But then, who could watch this private disaster unfold?

An introduction is in order for the birth of this new monster.  Hello.  My name is L.v.  I am an average twenty-something: a college graduate with a thick layer of debt, a stack of unused textbooks, and a pile of reservations about my career track.  I also carry this notion that life slips more slowly through your fingers if you love, entirely, what you do. 

And so, with this fantastic idea, I am about to make the most idiotic decision of my life.  I am quitting my job, tossing aside my expensive undergraduate degree, and endeavoring to find success with the thing that makes me happiest: baking. 

Here is where this public diary comes into play.  I have no formal training in the pastry arts and only a sliver of experience.  But, I have a cache of reputable recipes and a family whose support for my high-flung fancies is unfailing.  To keep myself honest, I am opening this confessional as a place to document the successes and failures of my culinary home-schooling and to track, hopefully, the opening of a bakery from the very very beginning.  Here goes nothing!