The Daring Bakers - Julia Child's French Bread

I enjoy baking bread and we do it pretty regularly at our house, so I felt up to my first challenge from the Daring Bakers.

I did read the recipe several times, as advised, and even made notes and diagrams to help with the shaping. I appreciated the extra tips graciously given by breadchick and found them helpful.

The shaping of the bread, though, was the biggest challenge. I would love to do this sometime with someone who has had experience making french bread.

Using a spray bottle during baking was a great tip. The bread was crackly-crisp. Everyone crowded around to squeeze the bread and listen to the sound (just like Ratatouille!) Inside was soft and chewey and delicious.

I could use a tip on getting a browner crust.

Try it for yourself! The recipe can be found at: http://breadchick.com/?p=336

Cherry Pie Birthday

My daughter, Abigail, baked a beautiful cherry pie for my husband's birthday. It looks like another blue ribbon to me! (She won her first blue ribbon for pies two years ago with this recipe.)

The recipe comes from reliable Pam Anderson's book CookSmart for Perfect Canned-Cherry Pie.

Baking in Oklahoma

Wow, that was easy. (Setting up the blog.) Now the fun begins!

I've just signed up for The Daring Bakers Challenge. I can't wait for the first recipe to arrive. Happy Baking!

PS-The title for my blog is obvious to anyone who has ever lived in Oklahoma during the summer. I have lived here for almost 18 years and I love this place, but it can be hot around July - September. I limit my baking then to bread machine recipes (which includes an easy english muffin bread that is baked in the microwave from James Beard's book: Beard on Bread) and no bake cookies.