One of the reasons that I love to cook so much has very much to do with its tangible and fairly immediate results. There is little in life that delivers satisfaction for heart and soul and tummy so quickly. Even the simplest of efforts appeases and comforts a famished belly.
Baking on the other hand, requires quite a bit of patience and a stillness of the brain that I don’t have all that often. I’ve only been baking for a little over a year now, but I think I get it and may even be learning to love it. It’s not patience as much as it is care and not stillness as much as it is empathy. AND… that smell that fills the house for hours and hours after you’ve pulled your loaves out of the oven? Nothing fills the house with that warmth in quite the same way.
I tried a new recipe last week for a potato bread from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. It was quite the crowd pleaser and not much is left of the two loaves that I whipped up.
I think this year I am gonna try to get a better understanding of ratios and proportions in baking so that I can start to experiment a bit more and panic a little bit less when things don’t go according to a laid out recipe. Also gonna take a stab at some sourdough.
aneelee 
Hi:
You know the book Ratios by Michael Ruhlman? That might be what you are looking for your next baking step.
I have enjoyed your blog and keeping up with Lira in a really oblique way.
i’m gonna have to take a look at it! and i thought that may be you. indeed nice to reconnect.