bread and jam for lunch

As a rule, I am loyal to salad. I eat it every single day for lunch, and often for dinner, too. I do this to be healthy, but also because I love salad. Only this afternoon I got the lettuce out to make my salad and thought... Yuck. I couldn't even look at it without cringing. Apparently, salad and I have been spending way too much time together lately. We need some alone time to sort out our relationship. So, I lunched with my old flames PBJ and homemade bread. It was bliss. We are in the crush stage. Who knows happen now with me and "S."

I have been baking lots of bread lately. Nothing beats bread warm from the oven when it's freezing outside. It is simple to make. This is adapted from Jim Lahey's recipe in his book, My Bread. Here's how:

Put 3 cups bread flour, 1/4 teaspoon dry yeast, 1 1/2 teaspoon salt into a bowl. Stir it around. Add 1 and 1/3 cup plus 1 Tablespoon cool water mixed with 1 teaspoon olive oil. Mix well into a slightly gloppy (moist) dough. You may have to add a tad more water. Cover with plastic wrap or a plate and let sit for 18-24 hours until dough is about doubled in size and bubbly on top. (You may use 2 cups bread flour and 1 cup whole wheat. If so, use a heaping 1/4 teaspoon yeast.)

Coat a cotton or linen tea towel with flour then sprinkle it with cornmeal. Pull the dough up out of the bowl and form it into a ball, folding the edges under into an oval. Place this onto the center of the flour/cornmeal-laced towel. Cut a few slits across the top. Gently cover with towel edges. Let rise for two hours. 

You will need a heavy, covered baking container to bake the bread in. This can be crockery, clay, or enameled cast iron. I use the clay pot shown here. I wet it down with water before putting it into the oven. Thirty minutes before the two-hour rise is completed, put the pot into the oven and turn it to 475 degrees. Thirty minutes later, take the pot out of the oven, remove the lid and quickly, yet gently, place the loaf of dough inside and replace the lid. Bake it for thirty minutes, then take off the lid and bake it for about fifteen minutes more, till golden brown and crusty. Cool on a wire rack at least fifteen minutes before cutting. Put loaf cut-side-down on a plate and cover with towel as you use it. Cover with a bag by end of second day if it is not gone yet.