Hello! 

Just thought I would introduce myself.  I'm new to bread making, getting relatively obsessed with it about 2 weeks ago and have since bought Hamelman's book and have been going through it.  So far, I've really enjoyed the results.  I'm using Carl's starter, which is working out great!

While I am new to baking, I've had other obsessive food hobbies, to include: tea, beer brewing, coffee roasting, wine tasting, indian food, and thai food.

A future obsession of mine will likely be yogurt.

One food book I can really recommend strongly is Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking", which goes into food science in more readable detail than anything else I've found.  For those of you that like that sorta thing.  No recipes in that book, though.

I'm also into photography, music, computer science, mathematics, and engineering.  So you might see a fair amount of bread photos here as time progresses.

I love the idea of home made food, especially that which is sustainable in terms of our busy daily lives.  It is really nice knowing what I am eating, and not having to injest preservatives, sodium, or other additives necessary for increasing the shelf life of many prepared foods.  Plus, they tend to taste much better, even if they might be less consistent than something off a production line.

See you all around!

Steve