Pain a l'Ancienne Rustic Baguettes

     Last week I baked Pain a l'Ancienne Baguettes, one of  the fabulousl recipes in Peter Reinhart's wonderful book, The Bread Bakers Apprentice.  It was the first time I used my bread stone  from King Arthur.  I've made baguettes before, and I don't know if it was the recipe or the stone or a combination of the two, but the baguettes were wonderful.  The crust had the crunch that a good baguette should, as well as nice big holes with a tender crumb.  This was a rustic baguette using pre-fermented dough made with ice cold water.   The baguettes were everything a baguette should be. 
      My mother would always have some type of crusty bread when she cooked meatballs and spaghetti.  You needed the bread because you didn't want to miss even one drop of her thick homemade "red gravy" (spaghetti sauce to most of the world).  My mother always had a least one dog, and she always fed them table food.  Whenever my mother made meatballs and spaghetti, our little "coyoodle" (mutt) Curley would pace anxiously around the house.  Meatballs and spaghetti was Curley's favorite.  Before we ate, my mother would chop up some spaghetti and a meatball with a good ladle of sauce on a small plate for the dog.  After Curley finished eating, my mother would have to clean her face because of the sauce in her whiskers.  My brother and I were well cared for, but we always knew we played second fiddle to our family dogs.