Hello fellow bread lovers. I'm so glad I found your site.  I'm Susan. I'm 52 now and have been married to my artist husband for 33 years. We live in Virginia. Last summer a friend gave me some Amish friendship starter and that got me interested in learning more about making sourdough breads. I adapted that starter to the recipe in Joy of Cooking with half the sugar and used it to bake with for awhile. My starter unfortunately went bad so I had to discard it. By then I was hooked. I wrote off for some Oregon Trail Starter from the friends of Carl and had that going for awhile. Soon after that I was finally successful in making my own wild yeast starter which I've been using ever since.

My latest project has been learning how to make baguettes. I found this recipe online: http://primesolid.com/chris/bread.html [1]

My loaf looked a lot like the one in his picture and my husband who has had baguettes in France was pleased with how mne turned out.  I found some more helpful advice on a King Arthur blog with many detailed pictures. I especially appreciated the pictures on how to shape the loaves which has always been a challange for me.

http://blog.kingarthurflour.com/2008/05/02/baguettes-do-try-this-at-home/ [2]

I recently found the discussions here about the Anis Bouabsa's baguettes and can't wait to try that recipe. It's great to see all the pictures and to read so many helpful tips. I don't have a digital camera, so unfortunately won't be able to participate in that aspect of this forum.

I look forward to learning a lot here.

~Susan