the Baking Babe… 

By education, Kat is a professional translator who reads, writes and speaks three languages.  But Kat is also an artist who loves coffee, and who dreamed about having her own ‘artsy coffee shop.’  When that opportunity arose, she started baking treats and pastries to sell at her coffee shop.  Years later, she’s still baking—but now mostly for us.

When Kat & I decided to start up a little B&B and Coffee Shop on the tiny island of Koh Mak in Thailand, Kat did what she always does: she dove full in; lock, stock and barrel.  She immediately went to Bangkok and enrolled herself in a barista school.  And as soon as she as she completed the barista school, she enrolled herself in a baking school.  Kat then started baking and making coffee, over and over and over again; carefully tasting each and every interim result—while recording lessons to memory, and tweaking recipes as she went.

I might say carrot cakes, cheese cakes and brownies are some of Kat’s particular specialties, but more likely they’re just some of my favorites.  These days—since Covid, and being back on the Idaho side of Thaidaho—Kat bakes more breads than treats, including all of our our weekly sourdough bread and baguettes.  She’s now had her sourdough starter growing for five-plus years.  

The big difference here—in Teton Valley, Idaho—is our high mountain elevation of 6200 feet MSL (+/- 1900 meters), and our very low average relative humidity (+/- 15%).  Both of these things affect baking in a big way, especially compared to the sea level and tropical climate of Thailand.  All of Kat’s mental lessons and recipes from Koh Mak had to be relearned and updated!

I try to periodically post updates to our Thaidaho Facebook Page, but since we’re now retired and no longer doing food, most of those updates are either Kat’s Art or about our summer-only camping/glamping spot (Thaidaho Victor).  But every once in a while—when Kat is particularly nice (meaning she bakes one of my favorites!)—I will still share photos of my undeserved good luck.

You can Click on any photo to launch a slideshow starting at that point.  And if you’d like to chat with Kat about any of this, you can email or message her via her Contact Page.