Like Enoch in the Bible, This May be My Final Goodbye

I have been having a love affair with amazon.com.  It's just so enticing. Everything I ever wanted is there for the taking and I don't even have to place a bid!  I can buy someone's used books or find that particular toy and it will come right to my house!  But just as I'm about to place the order, I see that I will still have to pay shipping.

I hate paying for shipping.  I understand the concept (stamps cost money) but I don't like it.  I currently have 5 items waiting in my basket. I just have to pay shipping.  But I can't because they are from private sellers who all charge shipping!  I am so torn.  I feel so cheap.  And a little tawdry.

A few months ago I allowed myself to indulge just a little bit and feed my Suzy Homemaker secret.  I love bread.  I love Italian restaurants where I can order a dinner salad and eat bread all night long while sipping on my Diet Coke.  I'm not talking Olive Garden breadsticks but real, chewy, warm, crusty Italian bread.  I made it my life goal to make the most chewy homemade bread.

I spent hours researching my technique and discovered that, no matter how hard I tried, I would never get my sourdough batter to taste like San Francisco's.  I also discovered, through trial and error, that fruit flies are attracted to sourdough batter start.  This was particularly disappointing after growing it for a month.

I found a website that gives step by step directions via Julia Childs in the 1960s.  Surprisingly, her technique is still relevant today, although I choose to use a bread mixer rather than knead.  I followed the directions, made mistakes, and had success until I had the perfect french bread texture and taste. But it was ugly.

Enter Amazon.

I really had to have it. I put it in my basket and went through the process of purchasing it but then I stopped. I couldn't bear to pay shipping.

But then I saw this:

I'm pretty sure this is the most beautiful bread pan I'd ever seen. I really, really, really wanted it but it cost so much and then there was shipping on top of it so I didn't get it but if I had I knew I would have reached the pinnacle of my very existence and baked the most divine loaf of bread ever. It's cast iron. Like my head.

Then one day Jaime from csn.com contacted me to do a review on products. They have everything and they don't charge shipping. Not only that, the pans were a couple of dollars less at CSN.

Remember that other place I used to torment myself with their wares?  I don't.

If you don't hear from me again, it's because I have fulfilled the measure of my creation. My family agrees.  We ate the whole loaf.

If I am still around when my baguette pans come, prepare yourself to be wowed.  Or sorely disappointed.

*Bread is made from regular bread flour, quick rising yeast which I always let rise the full double or more, freshly ground wheat, cooked freshly ground wheat berries (one cup water to half cup of cracked wheat), salt, about 4 T brown sugar and olive oil until I like the smell. I heated the pan and seasoned it with Canola oil to pre-season, formed the loaf and let nature take over. Cooked at 400 for 10 minutes then dropped it to 350 for 20 minutes. Smeared with butter. Sometimes I add sunflower seeds to the dough but make myself remember where I came from (Utah State University, home of the granolas).