A slice of Heaven in Angola, IN

Todd's brother Scott, and his wife Rebecca, opened their bakery (Heavenly Breads & Sweets) in Angola, IN. This is a dream come true for them. Scott has been a baker since he joined the Marine Corps in 1982(ish). He worked in a couple of bakeries after leaving the Corps. He finally owns his very own bakery. Rebecca has been in Sales & Marketing positions throughout her career. It's the perfect match. He makes the breads & sweets and she sells them. Oh yeah, and Dad hangs out at the bakery as the official greeter and chief volunteer.

After we picked Cameron up from confirmation camp, we stopped at the bakery. Todd and Emma have already made a visit. First visit for Cameron and me. The shop is soooooo cool. I am a carb addict, so this is just my kind of place. I walked in to see racks of bread. This is only one of them...

... and then I turned to the left to see the cookies and pastries under glass...

We got lessons on how dinner rolls, hot dog buns, and kaiser rolls are formed:
Dinner rolls:
Put the dough on the plate and slide the plate into this cutter machine:

Ta-Da! Dinner rolls(top picture) and hot dog buns (bottom picture) ready to be proofed and then baked:

After the hot dog buns are cut, they go through a very cool forming machine. Silly me me thought Scott and Rebecca rolled them out by hand like playing with Play-Dough!

Kaiser rolls get their name because of their shape. That's it, nothing else. Scott & Rebecca are already getting requests to make these for local Mom & Pop restaurants.

At this point I started losing interest in the breads, because Emma was learning about decorating with icing. Anyone who has watched me eat a piece of cake knows that for me eating cake is a science. I eat the cake first (by cutting it away from the icing), and then the icing with minimal amout of cake to enjoy. Oh, and I want the roses... ALL OF THEM! How cool would it be to have an Aunt and Uncle that own a bakery and let you play with frosting? Our kids have it so good.

Emma practicing on the stainless steel counter, just like the professional behind her:

I don't know how she resisted putting that tip in her mouth and squeezing the frosting as hard as she could. I wanted to.

Decorating with determination and persistence:

Before we left, I decided to take a picture of the last bag of Pumpernickel Onion rolls on the rack. These rolls are affectionately knows as Doberman Turds in the Meyers family. They are large, oblong pumpernickel rolls with soft onions in the center. The nickname came from Dad Meyers. During Thanksgiving dinner many years ago, he proclaimed that they look like Doberman turds. The family laughed, and the name stuck. Yes, they look like Doberman turds. They are big and dark brown. They taste nothing like their loving name. They are best warm with either butter or cream cheese. They are listed on the 'menu' as D.T. Rolls:

Here is a link to their website http://www.heavenlybreads.com/ Maybe someday they will start accepting online orders. Right now, they are too busy for that with all of the local business they have.