Bread best practices...

Bread recap - these are the two techniques got me really into bread:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/08mini.html
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx
The first one basically says that you don't have to knead if you're willing to wait (and use a high-hydration dough), and the second one basically says that pre-risen dough will keep well in the fridge so you can just pull out a small chunk whenever you want. Both use interesting gimmicks to get high humidity early in the cooking process for a nice crust.

The latter technique, based on the book "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes", is really key. It has a fast growing movement behind it because it makes baking bread quite a bit more spontaneous and easy. More here, including lots of variations with the same dough like bagels and cinnamon rolls:
http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/

Once you get the hang of making some new refrigerated dough every few weeks things get really fun. At any given moment you can take whatever random ingredients you have in your fridge and create, on short notice, something intensely yummy by combining it with some of your premade dough. Carmelized onion rolls, chicken calzones, cheese bread, bacon pizzas, cinnamon rolls, etc.

I've been working on my own 100% whole grain variation different than anything I've yet seen published, let me know if you want the details...