I've been Bitten.

No, not the Twilight Saga. Mark Bittman. I am in love.

I've always appreciated his columns in the New York Times and love his How to Cook Everything and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. Both are beautiful and thorough cook books. I also love that he is aware and has written about the over production and consumption of meat and its effects on the environment and consumers health. It's an issue that I'm passionate about, so when I see someone with celebrity-like status speaking out and helping to educate the population, it only makes me smile.

After reading through his article on Jim Lahey's 'No-Knead' bread recipe, I pumped myself up to give it a shot. I tried once before to make bread and ended up with a flat loaf of flour. No one in the house ate it...

I followed his directions to a T and ended up with a beautiful loaf that made me glow with delight for the next 24 hours. I used half whole wheat flour and half regular, next time I think I'll try reducing the whole wheat by a half cup to see if it will be fluffier. Not saying that it wasn't, but after I had my success, I started reading more about how to make bread. One site suggested that if you add a half cup less of whole wheat flour, it's fluffier. We'll see. I'll report back! Either way, it really was soft on the inside and had a delicious crunch on the outside.

Above: Dough being prepped to rest and be baked

It's a real inactive recipe. The dough rests for about a day. A day! Actually, it just sits over night. This bread is really beautiful. It requires no kneading and really is no hassle. Next time, I might try making little balls out of the dough to make mini loafs to use as bread bowls. How cute would that be? Perfect for soup season!