Olive Pull-Apart Brioche

This week has been filled with more positives than negatives.

 And, that makes it a good week.

But let me tell you about one of the bad aspects.

(Happy ending, don’t worry…)

Just before Christmas, a call went out on Twitter to find someone to foster a little kitty who was due to be put down within hours.  The kitty was in Los Angeles and I got a few direct tweets asking if I knew of anyone.

I called my mom.

She had been going back and forth about bringing a new kitty in her home.  She was nearly ready since the death of her cat about a year ago. She said that she would keep the kitty through the holidays.  And, maybe, if it worked out, she would adopt the kitty.

Her name is Serena and for the first few days she lived up to her name.  There would be the occasional hiss to the dog, but mostly, she found a chair that she liked and she would stay there.

Serena came to my mom without having been fixed.  She had a little cold in the shelter which didn’t allow them to give her the surgery.

Well, by New Year’s, she was no longer serene.

Ever see a cat in heat?  Oh boy!!

The day before the scheduled surgery, and the same day this recipe was being made, I got a call from my mom…. the cat had gotten out.

My mom was leaving to go to a city meeting and kitty had been acting funny all day… she had actually been trying to get out for a few days.  Well, the door opened and she took the opportunity to get out into the world, nearly tripping my mom in the process.

My mom spent most of the night looking for kitty.  And by morning, was on the hunt again.  For one thing… we needed to catch her before one kitty needing adoption became six or seven kitties needing adoption. One blessing of living in a small community, by 10am, all the neighbors were on the look out for Serena.  She had been spotted in one neighbors yard or another’s.  A couple boy kitties seemed to be a bit more active, not participating in their usual afternoon naps in the sun.

Just as my mom was leaving on an errand, she saw her!  And as any good person would do on the quest to get their kitty to safety, she stopped her car in the middle of the street, slithered under a car, endured cat scratches all over her arms… and got kitty locked inside.

It was unknown if this particular recipe was going to happen.

At every step, I was unsure if I were going to have to abandon it and instead go and save a kitty.  Even though, I would have hopped into my car, without looking back, to help my mom find the kitty… I had been wanting to figure out this recipe for so long,

I was happy that she didn’t need to call.

I have no doubt that this recipe would be wonderful as Have Cake, Will Travel originally intended it.  In fact, now that I have done this, I will try it as a tradition cinnamon pull apart brioche.  But, I had in mind a more savory bread.

Let me say this about the bread…

I bring many of my creations to the boyfriend’s office; it is within walking distance of our homes, and by lunch it is filled with seven or eight very hungry people.  But the greatest benefit of them is that they give me very honest praise and criticism of whatever I bring.  Three are vegan, five are not.  Some dishes are hits amongst all.  Some are eaten only by some.

This was gone in 15 minutes.

 Olive Pull-Apart Brioche