My latest addiction....

As I see it, I kind of got ripped off with the whole pregnancy eating thing....you're supposed to have a big appetite, wild cravings, and eat lots of food, right?? Well, due to the heartburn, I think I ate far less while pregnant than usual...plus very limited quantities at all times, nothing spicy or acidic, very small amounts of my favorite hot beverages, nothing after 5:00 at night if possible....I never imagined I would live on berry flavored TUMS.

SO........

I'm currently eating like it's going out of style and my latest obsession is the no-knead bread from the New York Times that seems to be circulating the internet. Thanks to my Aunt Janet for originally sending the recipe and my friend Aileen for finally talking me into making it by proclaiming it very baby friendly and delicious. For some reason, I didn't believe her until I tried her bread at a party and then I decided that even if it was a difficult challenge to make, I'd give it a try. And as it turns out, it's nearly the easiest thing in the world, just about impossible to screw up (I even broiled it rather than baked it on my first time) and totally delicious. So give it a try....the only catch is you have to start the day before you actually want to eat it. I'll post the real link to the recipe later, but in the meantime, here's my modified version. If it seems complicated, take heart...it's not. It's just a little wordy to explain.

Mix 3 cups flour with 1/4 tsp. yeast and 1 1/4 tsp. salt. Add 1 5/8 cup water and mix until it's dissolved. Cover and let sit for 18-24 hours (as with all times in this recipe, it appears that just about any time will work). The dough will have little bubbles on top when it's ready. The next day, put some flour on the counter and dump the dough out. Put a bit more flour on the dough and turn it over on itself a few times. Let rest 15 minutes. Shape into a ball (using a bit more flour to keep it from sticking) and place seam side down between 2 floured cloths (when you have a baby and want to decrease floury laundry, you can try my latest modification which is putting on a floured plate and covering with a papertowel which also works just fine). Let rise for about 2 hours (I've done 2, 3 and 4 all with success). During the last 1/ 2 hour of the rise, preheat the oven to 450 with a coverable soup pot in it (cast iron or the like). When everything is about 450 degrees, take the pot out of the oven, dump the dough in it (seam side up) and bake covered for 30 minutes, then uncovered for 15. Then you have delicious crusty on the outside, moist and chewy on the inside, bread. Goes great with butter, butter and jam, plain, toasted...Dawson and I seem to be able to eat a loaf a day, which some may call excessive, but hey---that's just 1 1/2 cups of flour per person per day, right??? Of course, there's the butter and jam, but hey...EATING IS FUN!!! YAHOO!!!!