just like Nancy Drew

When Theo's really pleased with himself, he kicks his feet and waves his arms so he rocks and bounces in his chair, thump, thump, thump. He squinches up his face and snorts with laughter. I'm doing my own version of that right now.

Yesterday I learned how to do something I've been wanting to know how to do for over a decade. I've tried off and on, with very mixed results. I finally solved the puzzle, and I feel the most immense satisfaction. It's a feeling of profound completeness, like I got back a missing limb, or found the magical key in a fairy tale.

I made a really good loaf of bread.

I don't just mean edible. The crumb is silky, chewy, and light. The loaf has the perfect, proud roundness of a chickadee in a birdbath. And when it came out of the oven, the crust sang to me, a song about its golden, crisp perfection.

This is the bread I sometimes pay $6 a loaf for. I'd tried and tried to duplicate it, turning out crumbly tasteless brick after flat, doughy brick. I was beginning to suspect this bread was made by bakers with bionic arms, or was baked in commercial ovens hot as hellfire. Or maybe just straight-up summoned by the black arts.

But here it is! In my kitchen (and my belly). Made by me. I never have to buy bread again (well, I'm sure I will, but it'll be because I want to).

How did I do it? I read a book. This book:

http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/

It was laughably simple. There are only a few new tricks in their procedure, and I think the key is the cup of hot water poured into a roasting pan just as you put the bread in the oven. It gives the dough oven spring like I've never seen. It's a hockey puck when it goes in, and a balloon when it comes out. So much spring, in fact, that in spite of the two deep slices in the top, the bottom of the bread cracked, too. I suppose it was just busting with pride, like me.

Kind of ridiculous, I suppose. It's just bread. But it's BREAD.

Most importantly, I didn't just do it halfway, as I often do - tinker, get bored, move on. I got to the bottom of it, like Nancy Drew.

So I'm bouncing and snorting like Theo. He inspired me to it, in a way. Watching him learn a new skill every week - laughing, crawling, standing, surfing - made me think I could learn at least one new thing this year.