What's happening to our bread?

One thing I miss most about living in Europe is the fresh bread.  Bread in the States doesn't seem nearly as fresh and tasty as it does in Europe.  That being said, we do have our favorites here too but last week our local grocery store stopped carrying it. What are we going to do without our favorite loafs?  We tried a variety of other breads over the last few weeks- some too flimsy (even after toasting it), some too small, some too oddly shaped.  So, I decided to make my own (still oddly shaped).  I saw this easy recipe. It's fast, looks pretty tasty and seems to have very little down time. It is looking a little funky but it smells delicious. I guess I will have to try and perfect this over the next few days.

....and I tried it again, this time I let it rise a little longer than the suggested 10 minutes (about 30 to be precise). It filled out a little and the end result was prettier.