Vintage CookBook #2: The Tassajara Bread Book

I have been baking bread for a number of years now - starting from one basic recipe and moving on to start making my own. Unlike many people, I imagine, one of my main goals with my bread baking has been to create a great sandwich bread. I'd had trouble finding the best technique for this and getting the texture I wanted had been my biggest challenge. The bread tasted great, but would often crumble in a sandwich scenario!

The Tassajara Bread Book, originally published in 1970, really does its best to encourage the reader to do their own thing - and treat baking and food preparation as a ritual. Bake with Love could have easily been the subtitle.

It was the recipe for making a Sponge that finally allowed for my sandwich bread breakthrough. The technique is a bit time consuming, but easy; more mixing and kneading, essentially. The easiness of this technique was surprising to me as it had been the first reference to this I had read. The internet is a great resource for recipes, but the era of the bread machine has made this old school / traditional / slow food knowledge a bit harder to find. Not that I have anything against the bread machine (OK, I kinda do...) as I appreciate anything that encourages people to make their own bread. But I am beginning to feel that the loving ritual of making bread is really the best part - other than that first bite, fresh out of the oven!

The Constitution - 2 Discussions

In July 2011, time magazine released it's 10th Annual History issue titled: "Does The Constitution Still Matter?" which includes the article One Document, Under Siege, by Richard Stengel. The article speaks about the current debates over the constitution and discusses major, current issues one-by-one.

One of my favorite podcasts, The Thomas Jefferson Hour, recorded a special episode as a companion and counterpoint to the article. The Thomas Jefferson Hour and the special episode, 931 - A Constitutional, are available for free on iTunes.