Bread fulfillment

Every cookbook lover knows the feeling: that thrill of discovering a new book to cook your way through, the promise of a new adventure, and the disappointment when your schedule gets in the way. If you have felt guilty, like me, for letting a prized cookbook collect dust, don't lose hope.  Even if you only have the time to gather the ingredients one by one, week by week, one day you'll seize control and find the few extra hours you need to pull it all together and make flour into bread.

Even if it takes you a month in between when Amazon fulfills your order and when your oven gets preheated, carry on! This "Saturday white bread"from the book Flour Water Yeast Salt is my first attempt to conquer this beautiful book written by Portland-based baker Ken Forkish.  I've always been fascinated by bread making, so when I was lucky enough to dine at a friend's house and eat incredible pizza and bread made from this book, I knew I had to have it in my library.  It's a pretty exciting moment when you bake that first loaf and hear the crackle of the bread, the room still and quiet because you can hardly wait to slice into your science experiment.  The bread must rest before you indulge, just like sometimes our cookbooks must rest on the shelf, as the bakers within us gain momentum.  But don't forget the inspiration that made you buy that intriguing cookbook in the first place.  Dust off your cookbooks, one by one, my friends.  We're in this together.