| A piece of crunchy bread can make the simplest | | | | cornmeal. Turn dough out onto board and cut in half |
| meal - soup, stew, an omelet - into a fancy meal. | | | | with a serrated knife. Pull and stretch each half into a |
| Many restaurants are serving frozen bread these | | | | long, thin loaf. (You may have to roll the dough a bit.) |
| days. This bread is often under-baked or lacking in | | | | Slash the tops of the loaves with a sharp knife or |
| flavor. Instead of hearing a crunch when you bite into | | | | scissor. Place loaves in a nonstick baguette pan.Put |
| the bread you hear nothing. Even worse, the bread | | | | the pan on the top rack of a COLD oven. Put a pan |
| feels squishy in your mouth.What a | | | | of ice cubes on the bottom rack. Set the oven |
| disappointment.The way to avoid disappointment is | | | | temperature to 450-475 degrees. Bake for 20 |
| to bake your own bread. Your first reaction, I would | | | | minutes until the tops are light brown and the bread |
| wager, is that you don't have time to bake bread. | | | | sounds hollow. A 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder may |
| Well, this recipe for French bread hardly takes any | | | | be added to this recipe for even more flavor. |
| time at all and tastes as good as bakery bread. If | | | | Hodgson has been a nonfiction writer for 27 years |
| you have a food processor you can have French | | | | and is a member of the Association of Health Care |
| bread in a flash. | | | | Journalists and the Association for Death Education |
| Serve it straight from the oven and your family will | | | | and Counseling. Before she became a health writer |
| say "Ahhhh."INGREDIENTS2 cups bread flour1/2 cup | | | | she was a food writer for the former "Rochester |
| wheat flour1/2 teaspoon salt1/2 teaspoon dried | | | | Magazine" in her hometown of Rochester, MN. |
| oregano leaves1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaves1 | | | | Her 24th book, "Smiling Through Your Tears: |
| teaspoon active dry yeastAssemble ingredients in | | | | Anticipating Grief," written with Lois Krahn, MD, is |
| food processor. Pulse. Add 1 cup warm water and | | | | available from A five-star review of the book is |
| process on high for 1 1/2 minutes. Place dough in | | | | posted on Amazon. You will find another review on |
| bowl that has been coated with cooking spray. Cover | | | | the American Hospice Foundation website under the |
| with a towel and let dough rise until it almost reaches | | | | "School Corner" heading. |
| the top of the bowl.Sprinkle a bread board with | | | | |