10th day of the new year and I'm burnt

I'm a little off track, so unofficially this is '25 days of my favorite things, day: whatever it is'

Bread

I do love a loaf of fresh-baked, homemade bread. A short while back I found an old recipe I had clipped on how to make a sourdough bread started. I decided to give it a try (I love sourdough).
For those of you who have never done it, a sourdough starter is made by putting flour and water together and just letting it sit until it starts to ferment and make it's own yeast. There are some rules and regs around this, i.e. have to add to it the first 6 days, have to cover with a cloth, have to take from it at least once a week, then add again, etc, etc. I have made numerous other breads before, I thought, "what could be so hard about sourdough?" HA!
I started before new years (I should have a counter: BREAD, DAY 12!) My first batch was conceived on 1/5 to be brought to a gathering. Bread did not rise sufficiently and did not cook all the way through. Hello gathering, meet plan B.
I changed my strategy. Through a miracle (or mistake, depending on which way you look at it) I changed cloths and managed to create a stinky, bubbly bowl of starter. By the way, it's supposed to stink. (like beer)
Today was ATTEMPT 2. It rose nicely, well, too nicely. By the time I put the thing in the oven tonight at 9:41pm (!) it was enormous. It must have air pockets the size of Texas. Darn near went over the edge of the pan. Then for reasons unknown, the top is now a deep, dark brown. Almost burnt. Why? Oh, the tragedy. Stay tuned for pictures, and follow-up of ATTEMPT3.