Typical Saturday.

Hair bow made from Newspaper.

Two French braids on each side, stop at the nape of your neck. When each is completed, you can do a few things. My friend braided the two french braids together in a normal braid, but left some hair down and braided that into a smaller braid, which she then wrapped around the big braid and then clipped into the ret of the hair. What a mouthful.  For the more hair challenged, like myself, I just put the two braids into one ponytail, so I had a regular ponytail down the back. My hair is naturally wavy and will curl at the ends, but if your hair doesn't do that, I would take a curling iron and loosely curl the ponytail.

French lemon poppyseed poundcake. The recipe is from the cookbook "Flour." If you don't own it, go buy it. Right now. Seriously.  It's by Joanne Chang, and she is a genius.  I would never change any of her recipes.  In fact, on my list of things to do in my life, is to go to Boston and actually sit and eat at one of her bakeries.  I'll get there one day!

2 C cake flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 C plus 3 TBLS butter, melted and cooled to slightly warm.
1/4 C heavy cream
3 TBLS finely grated lemon zest (about 2 lemons0
1 TBLS fresh lemon juice ( about 1/2 lemon)
3 TBLS poppyseeds
4 eggs
1 1/4 C granulated sugar


Glaze: 
1/2 C confectioner's sugar
1-2 TBLS lemon juice (1/2 to 1 lemon)


Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 9 by 5 loaf pan. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together, butter, cream, lemon zest, lemon juice, and poppy seeds. The consistency should be a thick liquid. Using a stand mixer with the whip attachment, beat together eggs and granulated sugar on medium speed for 4-5 minutes, or until light and fluffy and lemon colored. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the flour mixture into the egg mixture until just combined. Fold about a  quarter of the egg-flour mixture into the butter-cream mixture to lighten it. Fold in the remaining egg-flour mixture until just combined. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes. I checked mine at 55, and it only needed two more minutes after that.