Home At Last! with Patty Gironda

I found this recipe in one of my favorite chef cookbooks. The recipe is made over a couple of days and calls for starter made from potato water. I had just made up a batch of potato starter-but with potatoes and the potato water, so, that was the first substitution I made. I also switched one cup of the required bread flour for a cup of Italian flour. The results were wonderful. As you can see there is a golden crust around the entire bread but instead of a typical chewy sourdough crust this was a little more crispy. . .like German brotchen. The recipe called for spritzing the dough with water before putting into the oven-which I did-but I also placed a small glass bowl with water in the oven-occasionally pouring water on the floor of the oven to create steam. My husband told me he loved me as he ate his hot-from-the-oven bread! I wanted to share a photo of the inspiration behind all the sudden interest in bread baking.  My friend, Char Fontane gave this to me for Ch...

Guests of Bed and Breakfasts, for the most part, are pretty easy to please. A comfy bed in clean surroundings - a few pretties, here and there, and a hot breakfast with lots of fresh coffee. That's pretty much the formula! This weekend we installed a small coffee nook to satisfy the need for the fresh, hot coffee. We're still waiting on a new countertop but it's easy to imagine the finished space. Spread around the B & B are several one-cup coffee makers; allowings guests to grab a quick cappuccino or hot tea before breakfast or after a late night in Newnan. It's been seven years since we closed The Old Garden Inn. Between learning how to operate a leased-access channel and running a Bed and Breakfast, the work load was a little too heavy. But, as the opening draws near, I find myself becoming more and more excited. Choosing the breakfast menus and adding a few new items is great fun for a "foodie". Imagining the "oohs and ahh's" from ...

Happy New Year! Whew! I don't know about the rest of you, but I am unusually thankful to see 2009 arrive! It has been such a hard year for many of us. I'm sure we all want to move on to a more positive time in our lives. 2008 brought many blessings into my life but they were all somewhat bittersweet with the absence of my friend and sister, Char' Fontane. Like so many other precious women, Char' succumbed to breast cancer in 2007. I made it through my second Christmas without Char'. It wasn't as bad as the first year after her passing-but I can only hope that the years will get easier as time passes. Sadly, there were no new Christmas antlers added to my extensive collection, there was no excited "girl" chatter about the perfect gift for someone on our Christmas lists, there were no mystery boxes on my doorstep, each filled with gifts carefully chosen for me and there was no candled-filled evenings in celebration of family and friendship! I loved to...