Homemade French Bread

My friend is a fabulous cook and recently showed me how to make her yummy homemade french bread.  Now, I don't do bread.  Yeast and I have a tumultuous relationship at best.  I watched my friend make her bread from start to finish and went home and tried it myself the next day.  The bread rose and looked alright, maybe a little flat.  It tasted good, but the it was a lot more dense than my friend's version.  I should have take a picture to post, to keep things real on this blog, but alas I didn't.  The next flop, cooking or crafting, I will post on here, promise.

Anyway, last night, I decided to try again.  I bought new yeast and was careful not to overwork the dough when rolling it out.  Much better the second time around.  Relief and triumph, rolled into a delicious slice of yumminess.

We ate it with lasagna and spinach salad.  No, I did not make the lasagna.  That is what Costco is for...I'm not crazy.  I'll just make two loaves of french bread that I could pick up at the grocery store for $1.50 each instead.

I caught my husband eating a couple of leftover slices for breakfast this morning.  That's when you know it's good. 

If you are interested in the recipe, let me know and I can post it...or if you live nearby, give you a demonstration.  I'm a visual gal and need to see it being made for it all to make sense for me.  From start to finish, this bread takes about 2.5 hours.  That's including rising and baking time.  Not too bad for french bread.  AND if I can do it....you definitely can.  I don't know anyone who can mess up yeast recipes like yours truly, so this will be a walk in the park for the rest of you.