January 21, 1994

Another recent Christmas present that I brought back to Carbondale was an Italian cookbook. Among the recipies in this one were a number of bread and pizza recipies. This was very important as real bread was pretty much nonexistent in that town. You could buy long loaves that carried such labels as "Italian" or "French", but they were really just big white bread. The pizza situation was even worse. Mostly national and regional chains with their mass produced product- inferior cheese, sauce that tasted like it came from a 5 gallon pail, crusts that were totally uninspired. The one place I found edible was way overpriced. The book had a simple recipe for basic bread and pizza dough, and I decided to try it out. The author recommended letting the dough rise multiple times, so I started it this night, with intentions to use it tomorrow.