Homemade Bread

I've had this book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, checked out from the library and sitting on the passenger seat of my car.  My intention was to read it while waiting in the school car queue for Kate and John, then pop home and, in five minutes, whip up a freshly baked, piping hot, loaf of crusty artisan bread.  Then I started receiving notices from the library that my borrowing due date was approaching.  So, afraid I would lose my chance, I started reading it.

"Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read.  One does not love breathing."

- Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The book is written by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.  I started at the beginning and I didn't skip around.  Yes, I was reading, page by page, a cookbook.  This isn't usually how I approach a cookbook but there was something about making bread that made me want to be sure I really really understood it.  We got home and the kids actually mixed up a batch of dough (literally less less five minutes).  Once you form the dough, you must let it rest and then bake it - so those parts take more than five minutes.  But the batch lasts a full week, just keep in fridge and cut off pieces of dough when you're ready to bake another loaf.  It is delicious.  (Don't request it at my local library though 'cause I'm not finished reading about the variations that can be made from the original recipe!)

We've had it toasted in the morning with cream cheese and honey or jam.  Yesterday with salad and salmon.  And tonight with homemade chicken dumpling soup.  Yummmmm.  It smells warm and toasty in the house but this was the view outside my desk window this morning.  Pretty, yes...but it is April - enough already!!