Last night's dinner was made with Lou's spaghetti sauce and the FP French bread Annie posted for me.

A while back Lou was kind enough to mail me a recipe's worth of spices and dried herbs for his spaghetti sauce. Well I finally got around to trying it last night, simmered some Italian sausage in it and YES we really enjoyed it! Based on this one try I would say that a very tasty sauce can be made from dried herbs and spices, but it's going to be decidedly different from using fresh. You may like one or the other or (like me) both, but they're not the same thing. The primary adjustment I'll make next time will be to reduce or omit the chicken base. Minor point though. Thanks Lou! I'm just sorry it took so long to try it.

And then there was the bread. Let me preface that it takes a lot for my wife to notice or comment on differences in food. But all it took was one bite and she was asking where I bought the bread. She couldn't believe I made it. It's not often that I'm thrilled with baked goods out of my oven, but this was a clear exception! I'm really excited that my first attempt at breadmaking was such a success.

The one problem I had was the FP. My 11 cup Cuisinart struggled, then finally smoked up and shut down. That surprised me because I've used it for similar quantities of pizza dough. Fortunately it did re-start, but, shockingly, without the lid on! Seems I temporarily blew the safety devices as well. I'm no safety freak but I found that a bit disconcerting. By the time things cooled down everything seemed to be back to normal. Good thing, or that would have been some mighty expensive bread!

Thanks again, both!