Yes, Melissa there will be Olive Bread.

Edie Tonight, old girl, you did it!

You did it! You did it! You said that you would do it,

And indeed you did. I thought that you would rue it;

I doubted you'd do it. But now I must admit it

That succeed you did. You should get a medal

Or be even made a knight. Leslie It was nothing.

Really nothing.

Edie, All alone you hurdled

Ev'ry obstacle in sight.

We know that we have said it,

But-you did it and the credit

For it all belongs to you!

This has only taken, oh say, about 35 years. Now I didn't work on it daily and some decades I didn't even try. This is a HUGE success. I have to thank my husband for always being an excited and willing participant in my crazy adventures (he just admonished me to save him a little bread for when he gets home). And I should thank our now missing friend, Dan Johnson, who was there for the first attempt when we killed the yeast with hot water and then pummeled the dough to death with "karate" kneading.  And a "wink" goes to another unnamed friend who was so "I don't know what" that he sat in front of his oven and watched a loaf of bread rise "a la" an Andy Warhol film - if you don't know Warhol's films they are liking watching bread rise.

And a BIG thanks to Jim Lahey author of the book My Bread who made this success possible. Where was this book 30 years ago?????



Art at Auction

Two Paintings I am offering for sale

to benefit the Ohio State University Faculty Club

Friday, March 25, 2011

Preview and Silent Auction Starts at 6pm

181 South Oval Drive Columbus, Ohio 43210

Easton Sunrise

Setting the Table

Exhibited at the American Impressionist Exhibition 2010

Nashville, TN

Olive Bread - Something Happened!!!

My sister-in-law got me hooked on olive bread from a bakery in Brookline MA.  I can't find anything that compares with it in my hometown. So... I found a book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and it promised good bread with no kneading. I have never been very good at “yeast things"!  And this book had a recipe for Olive Bread.

I started last night, making do with the ingredients we had in the house. My husband brought home olives. I know I asked for pitted, but I got beautiful Kalamata olives with pits in. It turns out the bin was miss marked. A cherry pitter seems to work with olives, but not what I wanted to do first thing in the morning.  And I shot a lots of pits clear into the family room.  I rolled out the bread to the ½ inch thickness per the instructions. I put the olives all over the dough and rolled it back up just like the directions said. Then you are supposed to form the dough into a ball. My ball of dough wasn't right. I knew it wasn't right.  Parts of it didn't want to stick to other parts of it. Some of the olives tried to pop out of the dough.  There were very specific directions on how to do the ball, very specific.  Personally I need pictures. My husband was asleep. He could have figured it out. Oh well, I proceeded.

Next the loaf goes into the oven. I was using an old clay deep-dish pizza pan. You are supposed to slide the bread onto the stone and then pour hot water into a pan that is under the bread and shut the oven door really fast. Well the thermometer fell down and you can't slide a piece of dough onto a pie plate. I did the best I could.

Next I let it bake for 35 minutes per the directions. Of course when the time was up, I pulled it out and had to cut into it. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't what you get in a bakery. I let it cool. When I did cut into the bread further, I found all the olives in a nice long row....  Oh, and did I mention the hot steam cracked the deep dish pie plate right in half.

Like I said, something happened!!