our "new" bread maker rules!!

At some point in the summer, we purchased a bread maker at a garage sale. I remember the day pretty vividly -- we were out 'sailing with Adam & Steph & Adelyn and Jon & Nikki -- and I was due to work at 3pm, but ended up getting called in earlier than that because of another co-worker needing to go out of town for a funeral.

Andy was wanting to buy these computer cords and I had my eye on the bread maker for $5. As I was using the restroom at the house (which was terribly embarrassing because I know how weird it must be having a total stranger inside your house), he was going to make an offer for the cords. I was feeling cheeky and told him to offer $3 for the bread maker. The very generous lady decided to just throw it in for free basically -- the cords were $5 and the breadmaker $5 and he only paid $5!

It has been sitting on our dining area floor ever since we got home that day. In my many cleaning adventures, I have looked at it and thought, "you know, we really need to try it some day to see if it's any good! If not, we'll try using it for just the dough making, and if it's rubbish at that, it'll just go in the bin!!"

So today's the day -- I take it off the floor, give it a good wiping down and set it on the counter. Inside was the instruction manual, so I head for the recipes section -- see the ingredients list, I have all but the one ingredient (powdered skim milk) -- so while I was out and about I stopped at a store to buy some -- no luck -- they don't sell it -- so I bought a box mix -- that you basically empty into your breadmaker with water and some oil (I proofed the yeast first, to give the maker a fighting chance) and turn it on and off it goes!!

Our bread maker in the UK (which we paid $60 for) was rubbish -- the loaves we got from it were always so stodgy -- heavy like doorstops! It never seemed to rise long enough or it fell somehow after rising -- the loaves were always shorter than the actual pan they were in.

Anyhow -- once this maker was done, I took the loaf out -- it looked amazing actually -- nice and golden brown and the outside was crispy. We had half of the loaf with dinner tonight (the shrimp from Sam's with alfredo sauce from a jar! over angelhair aka capellini pasta) and it was perfect -- just the right consistency, flavor was good -- I was super impressed with this FREE breadmaker!! It's not even a major recognizable brand name or anything!

Posted by kristen at November 11, 2006 2:27 AM