I am new here and I just wanted to introduce myself. I am not new to bread baking, although I am new to this artisan style of bread baking. I have purchased Mr. Hamelman's book, and have really enjoyed reading it and learning from it. My first batch of poolish is sitting on the counter, starting to bubble. I chose the ciabatta with poolish as my first trial from his book.

I live in the panhandle of Texas, about 50 miles from Amarillo.

This site has a vast amount of knowledge, its good to see people getting together and sharing their expertise with each other.

I used to make "regular" homemade bread on a weekly basis, but sort of slowed down on that. I have decided (for economic as well as the reason of homemade bread not being full of high fructose corn syrup and who knows what else) to start making my own bread again.

I'm glad I found this site!