Sunday, March 18, 2007

How to Make your Bread Machine More Useful in Your Kitchen than it is as a Boat Anchor or a Doorstop!

I love my bread machine. I mean it – I really do LOVE it! That may be hard for some of you to believe – but I do. I am amazed at how often I talk to people who have given up on their bread machine and left it our for the garbage men or left it in their garage to collect dust. In our house, there is nothing like a nice warm loaf of fresh bread to fill out our dinner menu or to fill hungry tummies when the main course doesn’t appeal to everyone’s “delicately fine-tuned” taste buds. When I was growing up, there was always a jar of peanut butter and a plate of sliced bread on the table. We always had to try what was prepared, but bread and peanut butter were often what filled our tummies.

I used to make bread by hand – totally by hand. No mixer or food processor or bread machine – simply a big bowl and a large spatula. When we opened our produce store, I knew that homemade, handmade bread was no longer going to be an option. So for Christmas, my wonderful mother-in-law blessed me with a breadmaker. Wow, I thought! No more work, just wonderful bread, made hot and fresh daily! After my first two weeks of trying to produce an edible and attractive loaf of bread, I was ready to toss the breadmaker out with my Salton food dehydrator. (That’s another story for another day!) But, I persevered. I checked out bread books from the library, I visited hundreds of cooking websites, and I started my own science laboratory – all to discover how to have my life made easier with my bread machine. It was not love at first sight. It wasn’t even close. Annulment, divorce or permanent separation was looking like my only option. Thankfully, we made it work.

How? Go to http://www.veg4health.com/Articles/howtomakeyourbreadmachine.html for the rest of the story and my great bread recipe.

1 comment:

Wendy Woerner said...

Nancy,

I wanted to let you know that I finally made some homemade bread today. After talking to you and seeing your results I just had to try. We did not use your recipe, as we did not have all of the ingredients, but we plan to soon. I found a great whole wheat bread recipe in an Amish cookbook I have. It's so good, the kids and I just love it! I don't have a bread machine to help me, but kneading by hand for 10 minutes really isn't as long as it seems. I am thinking I might forego purchased bread altogether.