My bread sponge needs a name!

This blog is not dedicated to the Flour cookbook, I promise.  However, it is rather difficult not to want to make one of the recipes from this book as you flip through it!  That being said, I attempted another Joanne Chang recipe: Country Bread.  The first part of this recipe requires making a sponge (my very first bread sponge!).  Joanne calls her sponge at Flour "the Mother" or simply "Mom".  I have been feeding my sponge since I first put it together, and I think by now my sponge has its own personality and microbes, so it absolutely must have it's own, unique name.  I am at a loss - I can't think of anything appropriate.  Usually these names come to me instantly.  For example, C's bf, "B", just gave me a plant for Christmas, and I immediately knew he was a Rodney.  So please, I am desperate: help me name the sponge!  (Only nice names please - he is very much alive and has feelings, too...oh and he's definitely a boy).

Newborn sponge...only five hours old!

Once the sponge had time to "do it's thing" in the fridge overnight, it was time to gather the rest of the ingredients for the country bread.

Starting with AP & bread flours and water. 

Shaggy, stiff dough, time for the sponge!

Hello, little sponge.  Time to get to work.

Now for waiting...round one.  The dough sits in the "tropical" oven (78-82 degrees) for three hours.

Puffy puffy puffy and "relaxed".

Out of the bowl.  Plop.

Smooth and lovely.  Time to divide.

I decided to do two small loaves and a big loaf.  I spaced them three inches apart as per the recipe directions...

...clearly this was not enough space after two or three hours...amorphous blob bread?...mickey mouse bread?

Flour dusted and slashed!

500 degrees and a steam bath on the lower rack made these loaves deeply golden with crisp crust.

After surgery to separate the loaves...

Glamour shot.

Up close at the slashing...looks a bit like wheat perhaps?

Posing with the bread...Mimi tried to get in the shot, too (she was present throughout the baking process, so she does deserve some credit).

Cutting into the bread - always such a scary and exciting moment!

Divinely chewy and elastic on the inside with a crust with integrity on the outside.

Perfect with soup, nut butter, anything!

...next task for the nameless sponge: multigrain sourdough!