If you're really lucky...

If you're really lucky, you have friends like mine who are amazing, and know you through and through. Friends who are willing to, say, get you a giant cast iron dutch oven as a birthday present.
Naturally, once you have said dutch oven you'll start looking for ways to use it. Julia Child's recipe for Boeuf Bourguinon? Stew? Soup? Heck, fondue? No, none of those is quite right for an inaugural run with the oven.
And then...you stumble across something so amazing, so perfect, it's like a sign. An easy-as-can-be bread recipe that requires a dutch oven and basically no work to turn out an artisan loaf that will make people think you slaved over a hot oven to make it perfect. If you just happen to be going to the house of those same good friends for dinner, and the hostess just happens to have made chicken soup which would go perfectly with your bread, well then. You obviously have no choice but to share your new found knowledge and your loaf of beautiful, delicious bread.

As you can see, we came home with less than half a loaf left. I made it rather plain, half wheat/half white, and we couldn't get enough of it. I'm totally going to get the ingredients for the other blogger's suggestion of a rosemary and kalamata olive loaf. It sounds divine, and easy enough that it will be manageable even this week. ("The Music Man" opens next weekend, so we have rehearsals every night.)
Shane did ask me why I was making bread this way rather than my normal way and I said, "Because I get to use the dutch oven for this!" He answered, "Ah, you need to play with your new toy. Got it."
Our weekly total for this week was $32. It was all set to be only $22, but a certain husband made a midnight run to the store for snack foods this week. Fritos with cream cheese and salsa anyone? *Sigh*