Bread

About that bread - it's the Jim Lahey no-knead bread that Mark Bittman wrote up in the New York Times a couple of years ago. It's the greatest thing ever, of course, especially since I lost the recipe. You don't need the sheet music to whistle 'Summertime' either. This bread is chewy with a great crisp crust, and the longer you let it sit before baking, the more sour it gets.

Here's the recipe in my head - possibly, probably different from the original. Mix flour, salt, and yeast, then warm water - half as much water as flour by volume. Make sure it's evenly wet, but don't worry much after that, then cover it somehow - I have a bowl with a snap-on plastic lid that is pretty airtight. You could just wrap it in plastic, but somehow you need to keep it from drying out over the next 12 hours or so. Let it sit overnight, then preheat the oven and a heavy casserole with a lid to 450 degrees. Flop the dough out and knead - no, sorry, don't knead it - roll it about a little and get it kind of round, then drop it into the hot casserole. You can rub the top with olive oil if you want. You can sprinkle it with salt. You can sprinkle it with rosemary. Cook it with the lid on for half an hour, then with the lid off for another fifteen minutes. Make everybody wait while it cools for 15 or 20 minutes on a rack - luxuriate in the power of making everybody wait. I wouldn't advise sticking too closely to this recipe - certainly not after you've made it once - it's more fun to figure out just how hard it is to screw it up. Don't let it cool too long.