After some notable failures last year, I put my no-knead breadmaking on hold for awhile. It was disheartening not to get the great bread I did when I'd started.
But I picked it up again this weekend and once again loved the process. And things seem to be a little more successful too! The first loaf was still a little doughy, but the second loaf goes in the over in a couple hours (thanks Mary!) and it looks light-years better already.
I'm coming to realize that one of the things I appreciate about baking bread is that it's something fun to do that doesn't involve a computer. My work with Mary Holste Design puts me on the computer for many hours a day, same for City Club (although not nearly to the same extent). And then my hobby, novel writing, keeps me in front of the computer. That doesn't even count the time I spent going through Google Reader or emailing/chatting with family and friends.
But when I'm in the kitchen, I'm involved, I'm having fun, I get the joy of completing something tangible, and there's not a screen anywhere to be found. So I think I'm going to keep baking bread for awhile. Once I get the basics pretty well perfected I'll start trying some of the other recipes from Jim Lahey (it was his recipe in 2006 that got me interested in no-knead bread, but apparently I wasn't the only one. It created a firestorm of demand for it, and a book of his breads from the Sullivan St. Bakery came out last year, which Mary got me for Christmas).