Artisan Bread and Eileen Cook

Right this very minute I am waiting for my brand new stand-alone oven timer to reach 450 degrees so that I can bake my very first round of homemade bread!

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Okay I'm back. The oven is at temperature, I've slid the dough in using my brand new pizza peel and a very professional flick-of-the-wrist. And now we wait...

I'm a little nervous, this being the first one and all. At the recommendation of a blogger whom I don't even remember now, I bought Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. After perusing the basics, I decided I could handle the steps for fresh bread any day I want it, and I went shopping for a few necessary items.

Yesterday I mixed up the dough--no kneading--and let it rise, first on the kitchen counter, then in the refrigerator, until it nearly filled my (newly-purchased) 6.5 qt. Tupperware container. The idea is you mix the dough once and let it 'mature' in your fridge, pulling out grapefruit-sized balls of dough as needed, i.e. anytime you want fresh bread. Right this very minute, I have a large lime green container of dough taking up valuable real estate in my fridge. And I'm kind of excited about it!

But my first round of artisan bread is in the oven!! I have thirty minutes to wait to see how well I did.

While we're waiting (because I assume you are just as eager as I am to know how it turns out), here's a little diversion. The fabulous Eileen Cook has a giveaway that can be translated into books. (You could pick up Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and be baking your own bread instead of just reading about it here...or you could get one of Eileen's books.) Here are the deets from Eileen herself:

Remember your first serious relationship and how you celebrated every milestone? You couldn’t wait for your official one year anniversary because you were having so much fun you wanted to celebrate every milestone in between? This is the anniversary of our first date/kiss/time we said I love you.

That’s how I feel about What Would Emma Do. End of June marks the six month celebration since it hit the shelf and that calls for a celebration and a celebration needs prizes.

YOU COULD WIN A $75 GIFT CARD TO AMAZON/BARNES AND NOBLE/CHAPTERS/ OR INDEPENDENT BOOK STORE!!!!

Do you realize how much summer reading goodness you can buy with $75? You can order a copy of WWED for a friend, pre-order the nifty covered Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood and still have money left over for fun reads like: Swoon, Giving Up the V, Being Nikki, Look Both Ways, any of the recent GCC reads, or zillions of others! Think of all that book fun that could be yours. Be the envy of your friends!

Entering the contest is simple. Between now and July 2nd send me a link or email me if you do any of the following:

- post on Facebook/MySpace/Your Blog about why you liked WWED, a review of the book, or why you want to add it to your to-be read list

- Email your friends about the book

- Email or write your library about the book

- Email or write your local bookstore about the book

- Choose WWED for your book club

- Any other way you have of spreading the word!

All names will be entered to win. A winner will be selected at random and announced on July 3rd. It could be you!

Start planning your to-be-read list!

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My pizza stone just cracked into three jagged pieces in the oven. Darn it! But the bread is still okay.

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Consensus: the bread is delicious!
Younger son: "It's perfect. I give it a quadruple thumbs-up."
Older son: "Oh, we're having this for dinner!" Paired with an actual thumbs-up (just one).
Husband: "I'd put this on the same level as the Kemah Crab House." Some of his favorite bread.

Hooray! I did it--and judging by the still-mostly-full Tupperware in my fridge, I'll be doing it again soon. Right after I replace my pizza stone.