For Adam

Teta Ole's Lithuanian Rye Bread

The sponge:
2 cups rye flour (T.O. has been using dark rye flour lately, but it's too corse for her tastes, so she's going to try adding light rye flour)
2 cups boiling water
-- pour the boiling water over the flour, mix together, then let cool to room temp--
2 cups warm water (I'd say around 70 degrees)
1/2 cup honey
3 cups rye flour
1 Tbsp. salt
starter (rye is preferable, but T.O. says you can try it with white or whatever you have)
-- mix together and let sit at room temp for 12-14 hours--

The next day...
6 cups rye flour
5 cups white bread flour
1/4 cup honey
1 Tbsp. salt
3 1/2 cups water
1 can evaporated milk
yeast (maybe 1 packet?)
-- mix in to the sponge, then set aside some of the dough as a starter for the next batch before you start kneading --

Then you make it like any other bread... at least that's what the lack of further instructions would imply :-)

If you try this out, let me know how it goes and what other tweaks you made to the recipe!

Also - this makes about 6 standard-loaf-pan-sized loafs - so T.O. advises me not to make the full recipe...

Good luck!