the experiment met with more success than it deserved

As I noted yesterday, I attempted to make Mark Bittman's recipe for "Easiest Best French Bread" from How to Cook Everything. I managed to do approximately everything wrong. I only had active dry yeast, not instant yeast, so I had to proof it using my own (not very good, where baking is concerned) judgment. I was a tiny bit short of flour. I had originally planned to let the dough rise for about 18 hours rather than the 12 recommended, so I used less yeast. Then I ended up staying late at work and the dough rose for about 22 hours. Only it didn't rise much, because my refrigerator is very cold. Then, because I didn't have any more flour, I couldn't shape the loaves properly because the dough was sticky. Then, because I hadn't read the recipe carefully enough, I realized I had to let the dough rise a second time (last night, on first reading the recipe, I'd wondered why there wasn't a second rise--there was) and it was already 10 pm. So I cut the second rise a bit short. Then I overbaked the bread for a couple of minutes and got quite a dark crunchy crust. (Not burnt, but close.)

Nevertheless, the bread is halfway decent. This gives me hope that if I try again and do what the recipe says, it will be delicious.