Although it seems like a forgiving dough - I can taste that I cheated on the overnight ferment. Sorry your casserole dishes aren't big enough. I bake in a toaster oven so when my bread rises it burns on top. Another reason P a L'A is good - it spreads out more than up. I brush the bread with some slightly salty water right before it goes in the oven. But I lose that lovely floury rustic surface. Do you have a pizza stone? That helped me get a better crust back when I last had an oven - now I use it in my grill to make pitas. Also I read somewhere or another about using a SS restaurant dish lid as a cloche though I've never seen one large enough. I am currently jealously watching a neighbor build a stone wood-fired bread oven by his pond - the ultimate bread oven. He says he will advise me when I am ready to build one - and I definitely do not lack for rocks. However right now my 'yard' is festooned with logs, brush and firewood piles. Hopefully in the near future the logs will become a woodshed and I can move the firewood inside. Then maybe a bread oven - which will entail moving rocks. I'm tired just thinking about it all. Making some tea and toast and taking a nap.

Black raspberries? YUM! ! ! Haven't seen those in many a year! Grew them on the farm when I was growing up. Red raspberries were added during my early teens. No raspberries at all down here in South Texas, until a few years ago, when the reds started showing up in the store. Ridiculously expensive, but once in awhile I splurge on a half pint, just to indulge myself. It's funny, when we first got them on the farm, I thought they were really good, better than the black, But now I would much rather have the black, if I could ever find any! ! ! I did no cooking or baking this year, a first time ever. But we had our Christmas yesterday at Grandson's house, 165 mi. drive from here. I went up early yesterday morning, and came back last night. He decided that getting myself and his Dad there was enough of a task for me, but I still felt bad about arriving with no food to contribute to the dinner. But there was more than enough there, and every bit was delicious! Rusty

As soon as I get off this computer, I plan to put the ingredients for Edie's Bread into the bread machine and will let it make the dough. I need bread for tomorrow and do like to let it cool overnight. Having mostly leftover potatoes/onions/carrots left from the roast chicken (chicken in gone). Will do a hamburger patty in the air fryer and maybe a salad - haven't decided yet. You know I have been self-isolating so long that this week I had to think about what day of the week each day was. I sure hope and pray this we will be safe to go out and do things in the future. I don't want my brain to deteriorate. Have been doing crossword puzzles, sudoko, and other type of brain stimulation, but that gets old, too. Enough. Got to get in the kitchen.

For regular cookies (not big iced display cookies) or oversized ones, when there isn't room for a rich, plated dessert, there's always room for a cookie. :) Also, I read something about the science of dessert. IIRC, the sweet actually makes you feel less full. It's an illusion, of course. Cookies are often served as snacks, as well, and while not approved of for breakfast, can be served at any time of day A sack lunch often has a cookie.. Where petit fours, small cakes, slices of cake, etc., might be served with tea, substitute cookies and coffee here. Often at a gathering, people will step away from the table for a time, and return, or gather in the living room, for coffee and sweets. It might be half an hour between, but time for dinner to settle. Also, I don't know if this is just my family, but we don't tend to pig out at festive dinners. I've seen Christmas tables with thirty dishes on them in the media. Either that's for one heck of an open house, the food the family will be eating until New Year's, or they're taking the leftovers to feed the poor (which I know is done, but it would be nicer to take them fresh food rather than the leavings).