I've been nurturing my sourdough starter for quite a while now, and I've come up with a pretty good routine that involves feeding the starter, forgetting about it, feeding it again, and forgetting about it. After about a week I peel back the saran wrap from the incubation bowl and get a strong whiff of hooch. There's usually a good half-inch of sourdough sake floating on top of the starter, which means it's time to bake. Today I made up a recipe that looks promising. Here are the instructions, as I recall them: Sourdough Loavettes with Herbs and Garlic Ingredients 1/4 C olive oil 3 cloves garlic, minced 1/4 C assorted fresh herbs, minced (I used rosemary, oregano, thyme, and chives) 1 C warm water 1 T dry yeast 1 t sugar 2 t salt 2-3 C sourdough starter 5-6 C flour (all purpose or a combination of AP and whole wheat - no more than 50% WW) Method 1. Heat the oil and garlic in a small saucepan until the garlic starts to sizzle. Take pan off heat and cool. 2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine warm water, yeast, and sugar. Let stand 5 minutes. 3. Add starter, oil and garlic, herbs, salt, and 3 C flour to yeast mixture and beat on low speed. The dough should be thick, but not form a ball. I like to let the mixer run for about 10 minutes before adding the rest of the flour, just to give the gluten time to develop without straining the motor too much. The dough should form strong ropy strands after about 10 minutes, then you're ready to proceed. 4. Add enough flour so that the dough comes together in a soft ball that cleans the sides of the bowl. Add as little flour as possible - too much flour inhibits the rising process. Mix for about 1-2 minutes. 5. Cover workbowl with a cloth and let rise 1 hour, until doubled. 6. Turn on mixer briefly to release trapped air, then turn out dough onto a floured counter. 7. Divide dough into 8 pieces, roll into squatty baguettes and place on an oiled and floured baking sheet. Cover with a cloth and let rise 1 hour. 8. Preheat oven to 400. 9. Place breads in oven, spray the inside of the oven and the bread about a dozen times with a water sprayer, and close the door quickly! 10. After 10 minutes, open oven and spray with water again. 11. Bake for a total of 35 minutes, or until toasty brown. Let cool completely (yeah right!) and enjoy! I created these to be sandwich rolls, but they may be a trifle big for that. They're about the same size as the loaves of bread that they serve at the Spaghetti Factory, that grand bastion of Italian cuisine. I like their spaghetti with Mizithra cheese - so sue me! Wow, these are starting to smell really good.