Bread!

Lo and behold! I made bread yesterday, and it did not suck! In fact, it's actually quite tasty. I'm very pleased with myself, given that my prior two efforts were as dense as a rock, and about as tasteless. I ended up doubling the salt of the slow-rise bread recipe in Joy of Cooking, kneading for much longer (which resulted in a stuck workbowl, but that's another story), letting it rise in the oven with a pan of hot water underneath for moisture, and letting it benchproof for much longer.

Except now I am out of King Arthur bread flour. Le sigh.

I also made heresluck's trusty granola recipe, except mine is honey + molasses + cranberries + cashews instead of raisin and honey and almond. I actually like the almonds better, but I forgot to get non-cashew nuts. Actually, I'm not even sure why I have cashews right now, given that I don't like them as much. I also attempted the molasses cookies from Cook's Illustrated's holiday baking edition, which were very chewy and molasses-y, but never developed the cracks like the recipe said they would. Oh well. My coworkers aren't complaining anyhow.

Given my last attempt at cooking ended in March of the previous year, I'm not making any grand statements about finally cooking again. But I'm hoping that I will continue to do so, despite the annoyance of dirty dishes.