Bread

Has anyone noticed how much a loaf of good bread costs at the super market lately? Around here, unless I can get it on sale, it costs me almost $5. With a kid in school and husband working away from home, even on a good week where we manage to cook lots, we go through a few loaves of bread. We used to only make bread in the bread machine to go along with soups when that fresh, warm, buttery goodness was too hard to resist. I had tried various quick method yeast breads from magazines and websites but they just never turned out to be worth the effort and I don't usually have time or attention span to spend all day babysitting bread dough.

Even buying the expensive but worth it locally milled whole wheat flour, local honey and all of the ingredients, we figure a 2lb loaf of bread machine bread costs us the same amount as the store bought loaf, but lasts longer because it is more filling and has the added bonus of no mystery ingredients or preservatives. I used to use the machine only for the dough preparation, then bake it in the oven in bread pans. I did this because I had the impression that brad machine bread was kind of gross. I had tried bread from a bread machine in the late 80's when I first discovered bread machines, and it was soggy and just not very tasty. The oven makes a nicer looking loaf. I had owned my bread machine for years before even attempting to eat a loaf made and cooked right in the bread machine.

 I tried it earlier this year and it was delicious, as good, maybe better than baking it from scratch or baking it in the oven. This is a task that is worth doing. The first step is to find a location for the bread machine to live because if it is in your way or you have to lug it out every few days, you are likely to decide not to bother. Ours lives most of the time on the counter and has become part of our routine. Once you are used to it, it really takes very little effort to chuck a bunch of ingredients into the pan of the machine and press a button. You can come home to the smell of warm, fresh bread any day of the week!

The other thing it makes is great pizza dough, so once a week we make pizza. Fridays usually we have "pizza and Sci-Fi night" where we have make-your-own-pizza, pizza pockets, or any other creation made from dough, sauce and sometimes imaginative ingredients. Kids love this! We then sit down exhausted after a long week and watch Star Trek or some other science fiction dvd. The rest of the week we try to eat at the table together but one night per week we eat in front of the tv and just veg out. I am so thankful for my bread machine! If I were to buy a cow or goat I would then not ever have to drop everything and run to the  store for bread, milk or eggs nor worry about big storms or Zombie attacks cutting off my food supply entirely. Wow, that offers a certain kind of freedom!