A story about yeast, but not a gross one.

Last week I decided that I had to get back to weight-loss mode, something I should have been doing all summer. (But really because Matt and I have a wedding to attend in a little over a month, and I don't want to arrive there as a complete disgusting fatbody.) And I was doing pretty well, eating salads and grilled chicken, avoiding cupcakes and cutting back on boxed wine.


And then I bought my friend a wedding gift, a pretty dutch oven (I already told her that was what I was getting her; I'm awful with surprises), and I decided that I should find some good dutch oven recipes. In the process of searching for recipes, I became very hungry. Famished, even.


And then I came across this bread recipe, from Pioneer Woman. It looked so tasty, and I thought, for quality assurance purposes, I should try out the recipe before giving it to my friend.


I followed the instructions, for the most part. The only step I didn't really follow--and it must be a very important step--had to do with the kneading of the dough. Initially I followed that instruction, but after about 2 minutes I thought my Kitchen Aid was going to die. I had walked out of the kitchen while the mixer did its thang, and when I came back the mixer had slowly inched itself toward the edge of the counter. Kitchen disaster averted!


So I tried to knead the bread by hand, but I didn't know what I was doing. After it sat for a couple of hours (during which time the dough was supposed to increase in size, but mine didn't), I haphazardly put it in the oven.

It looked pretty. (But not as pretty as Pioneer Woman's.)

And while it was hot it tasted pretty good. Not surprisingly, though, it was far too dense and heavy. In fact, the "bread" was so hard the next morning that I could have used it as a weapon to fend off any murderer trying to get into my house.

Fortunately, it wasn't a total loss. One of my friends gave me these super fun cookie cutters for my birthday, so that I could bake treats for Mitch.

So I made Mitch some bread treats.

He immediately took his treats and buried them around the house. Last night we discovered a dog-shaped piece of brick bread in our bed. Great. Do any of you know how to bake good bread from scratch? Any foolproof recipes? Or, do you have any great dutch oven recipes I should include with the wedding gift?