Daily bread

I have tried best I can - several times - to grow herbs. I've harvested a few victorious leaves of basil and sprigs of rosemary and thyme, but overall, I am still gladly purchasing the goods from my farmers' markets and handing over the $3 or $4 to get the pre-packaged stuff at the grocery store.

Bread, though: I can do this. And I can sustain it as long as I want it. I'm completely sold on the Artisan Bread in 5 method and am eating the best fresh bread, rolls, pizza dough and baguettes I can find in Spokane. I'm not bragging about my skill because I'm positive that anyone who knows how to measure can do it, too. And for someone who loves her bread, I've saved a lot of money on the loaves I would have bought at the bakery and dough balls I would have picked up at a pizzeria.

The ABin5 method is easy, but you will still need to plan for about an hour and a half from start to finish. This gives you enough time for the dough to rest, bake and cool a bit. The five minutes, as the originators will tell you, is the hands-on time. That is true. If you get home around 5, though, you can figure that you'll have dinner and bread both ready to go by 7 p.m.

The idea is that you make a giant wad of dough and store it in the fridge; then you just pull off chunks as you need them. Each wad makes about 4 pounds of dough, and usually my dinner-for-two-sized loaves require just under a pound. Therefore, it lasts the better part of the week.

One thing I've discovered lately is that you don't even need to clean the container you keep the dough in after you've used up the majority of it. You can use the remainder for your next batch and it will flavor the dough in a similar manner as sourdough.

Have I sold you on this yet?

I am also a little bit thrilled by how this tastes as pizza dough. And I recently used it to make rolls for pulled pork sandwiches and may never eat it any other way, if I can help it.

This dough has ruined me. If you haven't tried it yet, do.