Making bread and sitting with faux-Whitman

Hello All,
I finally got a full day off so I decided to make bread and it was an astounding success!  After about an hour and a half of trying to find a good bread recipe for high altitude that did not require anything too special (ie. anything that I didn't already have), I finally settled on one and went to work.  The first hurdle was trying to get the yeast to rise.  Some websites said to use cold water for the yeast at high altitude and some said it didn't matter and some said to add sugar and some said not to and some said to use a 1/4 cup water and some said to use 1 cup water, so...I ended up with three different batches of yeast to see which worked best.

  The bowl in the middle is cold water, 1 cup, no sugar, the bowl on the bottom is room temperature water, 1/2 cup, some sugar, and the small measuring cup is warm water, 1/4 cup, and sugar.  In the end bowl #1 did nothing, bowl #2 was somewhat active, and bowl #3 exploded beautifully as the directions said it would.

The rest was pretty easy after that and I succeeded in covering myself in flour while trying to knead the dough with one hand and measure flour with the other.  However, not too long after I had three beautiful mounds of dough ready to go on the pan.

But, as with all cooking adventures, there was the mess left behind.



Once the dishes were done and I couldn't wait any longer, I pulled three beautiful loafs of french bread out of the oven.  A little butter rubbed on top and this fledgling baker was very proud.

I am now sitting on my bed with faux-Whitman writing yall and getting caught up with the news in the world.  It is such a beautiful day I think I will go take a walk in order to keep myself from pacing back and forth in the kitchen waiting to cut into my masterpiece. 

Love yall!!!

-Kate