more bread and more bubbles

Just when I thought things couldn't get any easier...

they did.  I've been making no-knead bread for a while, and while I really enjoy baking and have tried and enjoyed lots and lots of recipes from some really excellent books since I got this beauty (thanks Mom & Dad!), it's nice to have a really delicious bakery-quality bread recipe to make when the rest of the meal is a little involved.  The crust is awesome, and it only needs one bowl--very appealing to the dishwasher in our family (me!).

I'm a person who loses the recipe the minute I finish making it, so basically, I have to reprint every time.  So last time we got a craving for top-of-the-fridge bread (that's where we let it rise), I came across this recipe...unbelievable, but then again, I didn't really believe that the original no-knead would work either.  The very appealing part of this version is that the final "rise" (if one can call it that) happens in the bowl, and even though I love baking I really don't love flour and oozy dough all over the counter (try to explain that one!).  So I tried it, and it was similarly awesome.  I didn't think I would ever bother looking for something even shorter/simpler/neater.

Yesterday, however, laziness overcame, which for me meant that baking bread seemed more appealing than going out to the grocery store to buy it...but time was short, too short even for the lighting-speed version that I'd just discovered.  Enter this recipe.  I'm sure that any artisan baker would shudder at the thought of putting bread dough in the microwave, but it worked.  The finished product was delicious, the crust was crisp, and though the interior was definitely not as "developed" (and I might try taking out the balsamic vinegar just to see what happens), I'll definitely make this one again.   Start to finish: 75 minutes.

My one mod was to sub 1 T of instant yeast for the active dry.  Next time, I'm going to try this to see if I can make it even a little bit easier, though that might be asking too much.

We ate it along with spaghetti and (the best turkey) meatballs:

per pound of ground turkey: 1/3 cup each: dried seasoned breadcrumbs, grated (from the can!) parmesan, chopped onion, and minced veggies (I use red pepper, zucchini, and carrot)...plus an egg and salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning to taste.

Mix it all up, form into meatballs, and bake on greased cookie sheets at 350° for about half an hour or until cooked through.  Freeze them, first in a single layer and then in a storage bag, and then brown in olive oil before adding sauce and heating through.  I usually do three pounds at a time and that minimizes the raw-meat touching that I really despise. 

Another excitement: a bee sting (yes, in October!) for my husband led to the baking soda being out on the counter, which led us to a science experiment:

Excuse the blur, but the bubbles don't last forever!