Has anyone else tried this new bread recipe? I've made a couple of batches now. Great to have a nice fresh loaf of bread at dinner and it makes a good pizza crust too! (Much better than Chuck E Cheese :) From Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery that Revolutionizes Home Baking by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois (Thomas Dunne Books, 2007). Copyright 2007 by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. Note: This recipe must be prepared in advance. 1-1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast (about 1-1/2 packets) 1-1/2 tablespoons kosher salt 6-1/2 cups unbleached flour, plus extra for dusting dough Cornmeal In a large plastic resealable container, mix yeast and salt into 3 cups lukewarm (about 100 degrees) water. Using a large spoon, stir in flour, mixing until mixture is uniformly moist with no dry patches. Do not knead. Dough will be wet and loose enough to conform to shape of plastic container. Cover, but not with an airtight lid. Let dough rise at room temperature, until dough begins to flatten on top or collapse, at least 2 hours and up to 5 hours. (At this point, dough can be refrigerated up to 2 weeks; refrigerated dough is easier to work with than room-temperature dough, so the authors recommend that first-time bakers refrigerate dough overnight or at least 3 hours.) When ready to bake, sprinkle cornmeal on a pizza peel. Place a broiler pan on bottom rack of oven. Place baking stone on middle rack and preheat oven to 450 degrees, preheating baking stone for at least 20 minutes. Sprinkle a little flour on dough and on your hands. Pull dough up and, using a serrated knife, cut off a grapefruit-size piece (about 1 pound). Working for 30 to 60 seconds (and adding flour as needed to prevent dough from sticking to hands; most dusting flour will fall off, it's not intended to be incorporated into dough), turn dough in hands, gently stretching surface of dough, rotating ball a quarter-turn as you go, creating a rounded top and a bunched bottom. Place shaped dough on prepared pizza peel and let rest, uncovered, for 40 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough or refrigerate it in lidded container. (Even one day's storage improves flavor and texture of bread. Dough can also be frozen in 1-pound portions in airtight containers and defrosted overnight in refrigerator prior to baking day.) Dust dough with flour. Using a serrated knife, slash top of dough in three parallel, ¼-inch deep cuts (or in a tic-tac-toe pattern). Slide dough onto preheated baking stone. Pour 1 cup hot tap water into broiler pan and quickly close oven door to trap steam. Bake until crust is well-browned and firm to the touch, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven to a wire rack and cool completely. Here's a link to some video demos of how easy it is. You can modify it too with whole wheat flour etc. The book has all kinds of recipes and variations. Eden

That is a pretty little wildflower and how cool that you can sow your Mom's seeds, collected that many years ago! Last year I direct sowed some Zinnias I had in a ziploc of flower seeds I've collected over the years. They were tall red zinnias called 'Scarlet Dahlia'. I figured they would attract hummingbirds (which they did). About half a dozen germinated and grew tall and red. The other day while organizing the seeds, I noticed the packet of Scarlet Dahlia was stamped "packed for 1991." Doesn't that mean they were harvested in 1990?! And some of them still germinated. I have kept my seeds in ziploc baggies in the refrigerator for years. Apparently some last a lot longer than you would think.

Congratulations, Cinda :-) I love nasties in baskets...or anywhere. I was just beginning to clean up the bed around the light pole where I plant nasturtiums and I notice that one stalk is still green and there's at least one seed that is sprouting! Pretty cool. I love nasturtiums! Linda

Some years ago, there was a massive snowstorm on April 1st after a winter of practically nothing. Since this has been a year with practically nothing, I keep telling myself that it is not "safe" to believe that we have really come through the winter with, well, practically nothing. But that's hard to do when it's 82 degrees out! The main good thing is that we were told last fall that we should move the perennials next to the back of the house to other areas of the yard, or otherwise they'd get destroyed during our house renovations. There just wasn't time, we'd resigned ourselves to losing them, since we thought work was going to start in Jan/Feb. But, well, we still haven't started, and the ground is thoroughly soft, and at least some of these plants are still dormant, so we can save them.