Challah Swimsuit Issue

Last week was a hard one, with all the frenzy of putting up a show thrown in on top of the usual madness. A day of rest wasn't something I was likely to come by, but I did get an afternoon of rest on the Sunday before it all boiled over. My baking imagination took full advantage of this and demanded challah. I used to make challah quite a bit, but in the last few years I've been making it only once a year, by request, for Rosh Hashanah dinner. The holiday challah is a Martha Stewart recipe, with an astonishing 8 egg yolks per loaf. Just as good, and much better for late night weeknight grazing, is the challah recipe from the redoubtable Silver Palate, which I recently (finally) bought. Sheila Lukins and Julee Rosso know what they're doing, especially when it comes to eggs, butter, and quintessential Upper West Side food.
The top of the loaf tipped a bit, but it was perfect warm out of the oven, perfect in a sandwich, and most perfect of all in one of my favorite midnight snacks, bread and milk.
To be clear, this isn't some fancy bread pudding. It's bread. And milk. Or, more properly, bread in milk. I take a bowl of milk, soak it up with a large hunk of preferably sweet bread, and eat it. And love it.

Thanks to Miriam for snapping the challah at its best angles, and for the swimsuit shot, which is too risque for public blogging..