Baking Bread, At Last

The recipe I used is from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois, which I "discovered" through some lovely person on the The Post Punk Kitchen. Even though I'm a food photographer, I'm usually too hungry and too lazy to fetch my camera before we gobble up what I've just prepared.

There is something unique about bread though, that made me run to get my camera when I made my first loaf. Ever since I read about sweet Laurel of Laurel's Kitchen baking multiple loaves of bread in her juice cans every Sunday, I've wanted to incorporate bread baking into my routine. It also brought to mind an interivew I read where John Lennon talks about baking his first loaf of bread and taking a polariod of the finished product. With a similar sense of accomplishment, here is a quick picture of my first loaf.

Here is John talking about his experience, which I thought was charming and funny:

1980 Playboy Interview
With John Lennon And Yoko Ono
by David Sheff
September 8-28, 1980
Published January 1981


PLAYBOY: The word is out: John Lennon and Yoko Ono are back in the studio, recording again for the first time since 1975, when they vanished from public view. Let's start with you, John. What have you been doing?

LENNON: I've been baking bread and looking after the baby.

PLAYBOY: With what secret projects going on in the basement?

LENNON: That's like what everyone else who has asked me that question over the last few years says. "But what else have you been doing?" To which I say, "Are you kidding?" Because bread and babies, as every housewife knows, is a full-time job. After I made the loaves, I felt like I had conquered something. But as I watched the bread being eaten, I thought, Well, Jesus, don't I get a gold record or knighted or nothing?