we bought a cookbook a couple of weeks ago (pictured above), with the intention that the boys would pick a few recipes that they thought looked good and then, more importantly, would help prepare for dinner. our plan was somewhat successful. the boys went through the book and picked out a few recipes, yes, but they haven't been very good about the helping-prepare-dinner part. this is partially my fault, as i'm the main preparer-of-dinner person, and i haven't been great about holding them to our agreement. it's also partially their fault, as they will hide in their rooms, in the basement, or on the moon to avoid having to help make dinner.
anyway, it's a great book, and i highly recommend it.
as you may or may not know, i used to bake bread, and i got pretty good at it. (it was blogged here about 10-12 years ago, but i'm not looking back through the archives to find a link.) bread baking is an art. anyone can follow a simple recipe to produce a blob of baked dough, but it takes a lot of practice, experimentation, and experience to create a loaf with a crunchy crust, fluffy and chewy interior, and finger-licking taste.
How to Cook Everything has a simple no-knead bread recipe, and i thought i would make it to have with the chili i was planning for dinner tonight. then this morning i actually read the recipe, and it said the dough had to rest and rise for 24 hours. so i looked on the internet to find a more timely recipe, and i found this, from king arthur flour. it only took about 6 hours from start to finish, so i thought i'd try it. i still started it too late to have with the chili (which was delicious and didn't need any accompaniment), so i baked it after dinner.
and it turned out really well! with liam's help, we made two loaves, one a chubby baguette and the other a misshapen pile that looked like an amoeba that fell asleep in the sun. i sampled the baguette (which i covered with sesame seeds) and was pleased. so i called the boys to the kitchen to try the bread, and i can only describe their reaction as ravenous. they devoured the amoeba and some of the sesame baguette until i made them stop. seriously, here's what's left:
that's about a third of the bread i made, including almost all of the amoeba. they ate it plain. they ate it with butter. they made sandwiches with turkey and salami and cheese. and this was after they ate dinner.
so i guess i've found a new bread recipe to work with. i'll tweak it as time goes by, but i can't imagine a better reaction than the one i got tonight.
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