"Hmm...I see cooking in Cathedral Hill got a little dangerous..."

This is what my dad said to me upon seeing the charred control panel of our dishwasher sitting on the front porch waiting to be taken out to the garbage the other day. It seems I had a bit of an accident in the kitchen a couple weeks ago, and everyone is pretty amused by it so I thought I might as well post the photo on my blog.

I was baking (my first ever!) loaf of focaccia bread in the oven, and the timer went off. Not seeing a potholder handy, I grabbed a dish towel and pulled it out. Now, I do recall thinking to myself that something smelled a bit like burning plastic. I even recall glancing in the oven to see where that smell might be coming from. Seeing nothing burning in the oven, I was COMPLETELY oblivious to the smoldering dish towel I was holding in my hand. My phone rang upstairs, I set the towel down on the counter and ran to answer it...when I came back downstairs there were some pretty impressive flames shooting up from the counter that melted the plastic on the front panel of our dishwasher. I'm not really sure what the moral of this story is, except that you probably NEVER want to invite me to cook in your kitchen...but one good thing came of my adventure this day - a delicious loaf of bread! Here it is:

Recipe

Rosemary Focaccia Bread

This was everything I was hoping it would be: dense, flavorful, and not at all greasy like I've found some store-bought focaccia to be. It was fantastic with the soup I made earlier that day. It's a great bread for a first-time bread baker like myself, because it's fairly uncomplicated and doesn't involve too much kneading. As long as you don't burn down your kitchen or any major appliances in the process, I'd say you'll be very pleased with the way this bread turns out!