Isn't she beautiful? I had to chose between round or oval; red, orange or green; black or colored handle......sigh.....I went with the red. Of course. It's a firefighter's wife's curse. IT ALL MUST BE RED! I bought the largest one they sold, because, after making the bread, I'm going to make
BBQ BRAISED BEEF FOR DINNER!!!
Along with a good pot, you'll need a bowl. I am addicted to buying beautiful bowls. Wanna know why? Because they are ONE SIZE FITS ALL. The kitchen store is a wonderful place. No dressing rooms. No skinny clerks asking if they can "get you one size up". "No thanks." (I'll just buy these and tell myself I'm going to lose the 20 lbs I need to fit into them.)
Notice, my fantastic orange ceramic bowl is MADE IN ITALY!! I wonder if one of my relatives over there made this bowl? I wonder if there's a recipe for clay?? Probably NOT in ITALY!!
I love fresh rosemary. And fresh basil and thyme. I found a WONDERFUL garden shop in Stoughton, MA - run by a little Italian man - "Central Florist". I'll never go anywhere else. He has the best of EVERYTHING. And if he doesn't have what you want, he'll order it for you when "His guy comes from NJ with the delivery". That was good enough for me. No need to ask any questions.
Crusty Bread:
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp yeast (I used the instant, the no need to dissolve kind)
1 1/2 tsp salt
ABOUT a cup of cheddar cheese
ABOUT a tablespoon of fresh chopped rosemary
I added to that:
1 1/2 cups of room temp water.
After I added the water, it seemed too dry, so I added a little more (like 1/4 cup)
I covered it in plastic wrap, and started making dinner.
Meat sauce.
It's very important to TIME YOUR BREAD ACCORDING TO YOUR SLEEP SCHEDULE.
It must be left ON THE COUNTER for at least 12 hours, up to 18 hours. I made mine at 1pm on Saturday, so that at 8 am on Sunday, it would be ready for the oven.
I set the oven at 450.
I put the covered pot in the oven EMPTY.
While that was heating (you have to let it heat for 30 minutes) I got the bread out of the bowl.
STICKY STICKY!!
Put flour on the surface you're going to flip the bread onto. I overdid the flour a little. But, flour is cheap.
I molded the dough into a ball and let it set.
Use the plastic wrap from the "sleepover" to cover it and let it sit for the 1/2 hour while you wait for the pan to heat up!!
Rainy, cold....covered pool....bletch. I love to bake in the fall...but I'd rather a cold, sunny day.....
......no rain.
"Dear Mother Nature, enough with the rain. We're good."
Take advantage of the time you are waiting to update your Words with Friends games.
I have 20 games going right now. It's become more like a part time job.
When the timer goes off, plop the bread into the pot. Recover, and bake for at LEAST 30 min. Make sure the bread is DARK GOLDEN BROWN.
Remember, at LEAST 30 min.
"Mom, I'd be happy to clean up ANY MESS you have"
This was too light, so I popped it back in for another 10 min.
The smell of the rosemary is so nice. I use rosemary any time that I can. It's VERY GOOD when you cook SPARE RIBS on top of a few stalks of it. Oh. My. Goodness. (that'll be another day. I have to dig out from under all of my dirty dishes before I can make ONE MORE THING in this kitchen!!)
Joe thoroughly enjoyed the bread, hot out of the oven with a smidge of butter.
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