There are many reasons why I adore Jean. Today it's because she emailed me this. Stay tuned for the chocolate one.

After reading the article, I think a major mistake I made with the Alice Waters loaf (apart from my screwy oven) was I over-mixed it. I used my KitchenAid mixer, and I think that was too much, I should have just hand-mixed it. That's what I did with the Gourmet loaf (literally, I mixed it with my hands, I didn't even use a spoon) and it turned out so much more tender (tenderer?).

About that Alice Waters loaf: I know normally I'm really quick to dismiss a recipe that didn't turn out as being the fault of the recipe (which is probably a fault of mine) but with this one, I'm more inclined to think the recipe was fine and I just didn't follow it well enough. Everything else in that book has been terrific, or I made it wrong. In fact, really the only thing about her cookbook that I haven't loved is that it doesn't have ribbons attached to the spine for easy bookmarking, a minor flaw at most. I would recommend it to everyone, especially if you're like me and can't really cook even simple things without help. Thanks, Nancy!