Bread

A year ago, my best efforts at baking bread ended in barely-edible bricks. Today, I bake virtually all the bread we eat. This is very very satisfying, as you might imagine. The things that made breadmaking a chore for me -- the kneading and the cleanup -- have been remedied by such diverse aids as a bread machine, a good stand mixer, and the New York Times (NYT) no-knead bread recipe.

Right now, I'm eating toast made from a batch of white bread (made in the bread machine). There's struan (kneaded in the mixer, then formed by hand and baked in the oven) in the bread box, another loaf of white bread in the bread machine, and a batch of NYT on the counter, doing its slow-rise thing. All my bread is yummy these days, and I just can't get over it. Yay!