A Bread Making Lesson

Crystal has been commenting on Michelle's blog for some time now about wanting to learn how to make Michelle's fabulous Artisan bread, so after our fun lunch at Chili's last week we scheduled a bread-making lesson with Michelle.


She emailed us the recipe, so we all made our dough the night before and then brought it with us. (It has to rise for 12-18 hours.)


Eva serenaded us with her Mr. Ickle Bickle (that's not the right name, but close) song, the main gist of which is "He's so scary, so scary."


Crystal arrived with her darling toddler in tow (which she wasn't happy about) so he added a lot of spice to her day. I had forgotten how on-the-go a 2.5 year old is...where can I get some of that energy?


After the long rising time, the bread needs to be pushed down (not so much punched) on a floured surface, then given 10 more minutes to rise.


Amie worked the whole time she was there. She had her mini computer, her phone in hand, a pen in the other hand and so on. She is a wonder!


Crystal's boy wonder was quite enamored with the children's cutlery at Michelle's house (much to Eva's dismay) and ended up with 4 different utensils in his lunch.


We had a tasty lunch of chicken salad, croissants and fresh peaches (apparently I took this photo before putting the peaches on my plate).

Crystal brought cannoli for dessert.

After the 10 minute rising, we put corn meal (Michelle's finely ground) onto a towel then put our dough down, then put more corn meal on top of it before covering it with the towel so it could rise for another hour and a half.


Mine rose the highest! I was surprised mine worked at all, especially since my yeast had expired.


The bread bakes in a preheated over AND preheated dutch oven for 30 minutes on 450 degrees.

Crystal's very subtle, body-hiding pose.

My loaf!

It turned out beautifully.

Poor baby Jack wasn't happy about being locked in the house, especially when he was desperate to go home for a nap. He was a champ to have lasted as long as he did.

Our self-portrait.

It was a few hours of good conversation, good food and learning a new skill.

**Have you ever made Artisan bread?
Do you wish you had the energy of a 2.5 year old?
Do you like chicken salad?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I met with the head of Human Resources at the school district today and talked to him for a few minutes while he looked at my resume. It couldn't have gone better! He said he'd be calling me for an interview when he gets back from a business trip in over a week. Woohoo!