Waking up early

I love waking up early.

Lizzard Loves wheat (L) & Asiago & black pepper (R) bread

The time in the morning when it feels like I have the whole city to myself is easily my favorite time of the time. Its quiet, there are so few distractions & I can use the time to do the things I want to do. Some favorite morning activities include running out to the lake path & enjoying the sunrise over Lake Michigan, catching up on my blog :), prepping for the day (laundry, dishes, making breakfast/lunch) so I don't feel rushed once Chris wakes up, and cooking. Oh, coffee- of course there is coffee throughout the early morning time....who are we kidding?

Today it is bread baking that has me awake early. My wonderful friend from college & her husband own a copy of Jim Lahey's "My Bread" (link is to the book's Amazon page) and I was flipping through it during a visit to their beautiful home last fall. Sidebar, I love visiting my friends & family in their homes. It makes me so happy to see how they've chosen to decorate, what foods they keep in their fridge & what books they are reading. I hate to live far from friends & family, but the visits make up for the distance; a little bit anyway. So "My Bread" is a beautifully photographed cookbook all about the "no knead" method of baking bread. I was hooked & ordered myself a copy so I would have it when I got home.

Lizzard Loves.Half wheat, half cinnamon raisin walnut bread

I'm finally experimenting with different flavors in the bread (its only taken me 4 months!) and this morning I have 1 loaf of wheat & 1 loaf of asiago & cracked black pepper. Over the weekend I made cinnamon raisin walnut for the first time and it made for stupendous toast (and that is not hyperbole - although I know I could be accused of being hyperbolic sometimes.........the toast was REALLY great!). Here is a photo of last weekend's effort.

Lizzard Loves.Asiago and black pepper (L) and wheat (R) dough

Here is the today's dough finishing its second rise (with the "no knead" method, you need to let the dough rise for 12-24 hours - so I made the dough yesterday morning & I bake it today!).

The bread is making my kitchen smell so darn good. I can add that to the list of things I love I suppose.....I love the smell of baking bread. I'm waiting for my bread to finish baking and I've been perusing Jim Lahey's bakery website it is a bread lovers eye candy for sure!

Yikes- I'm running the risk of being late to work- bread is done! Hooray!