Homemade Bread

Sometimes virtue is rewarded. Since I got out here, I've been teaching Michele an advanced course in the art of baking. She had the basics down, but she lacked my decades of experience and obsessive reading. My bread-baking career began when I was 10 years old. That's more than 30 years of kneading and shaping.

So all along, I've been getting to eat her wonderful loaves. And tonight, tonight her baking career reached new heights. She finally had a decent reliable oven to bake in, and the loaf that emerged tonight was flawless: crusty, light, chewy, flavorsome, a handsome braid crowned with sesame seeds.

Mmm, thank you, Michele. And thank you, dear landlord, for replacing the ancient dead stove with a new one that actually functions.