Charmed Life
Anyone who knows me well knows I hate to bake. Just loathe it. Can’t stand measuring. Can’t stand having to be precise. Can’t stand following directions. And, most of all, can’t stand the fact that you really don’t know if a cake or pie will be good until it’s finished and you have no way to improve it—as opposed to, say, soup. You have a terrible soup 2/3 of the way cooked? It can be saved. Not that chocolate cake, though.
Anyway, a few years ago I saw an article in Mark Bittman’s NYT column that featured a recipe for bread that was so simple it seemed unbelievable. But, as I said, I don’t bake, so I read it, said, “Hmmm,” and moved on. Then somehow it got back on my radar this fall, and in a great karmic chain of events, a friend gave me the no-knead bread bible by Jim Lahey. I have to admit, I was still sorta scared to tackle the bread, but now I had the book, so I had to do it.
I won’t bore everyone with the details because this is all you really need to know. Yes, this bread takes about 5 minutes of labor all told. And, yes, it comes out of the oven looking absolutely beautiful. And, yes, it tastes damn good. All for the cost of about $1, I think. We’ve dubbed it the Christmas miracle in our house.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 12/28/09 at 03:06 PM
