How it Began

Here I am at 10 years old in 1970 with my first two loaves of bread. No one in my family baked bread, but I just wanted to try it. I made a simple white milk bread, but I couldn't bake it until my folks came home from an antique show. I was too little to use the oven by myself.

Papa told me to underbake the second loaf so we could finish baking it another day and have fresh bread then. Bad idea. He went on to prove to me that some people are natural friends to yeast, but others accidentally kill the yeast every time. Pop has a black thumb when it comes to yeast.

My wonderful father is still alive, still married to my Mom (50 years in 2007), and he has given me much better advice since then. He has a bread machine now, and it's much harder for him to kill the yeast.

I still bake the old fashioned way, kneading by hand. I rarely use bread pans, prefering Elizabeth David's undercover method with a round loaf on a pizza stone. Buon Gusto!