As it turns out, I did pretty much none of the things I thought I might this weekend. No, my time was spent in three ways:
- setting up my new (used) Palm TX,
- prepping pre-orders for Polymer Clay Color Inspirations, so that I’ll be ready to turn them right around once the box arrives from UPS on Monday night,
- and baking bread.
Mmmm, the bread. Friday was Scandinavian Light Rye, which I used to make these monster BLT sandwiches. Ok, strictly-speaking, they were only BL’s because, as you know, we don’t like tomatoes around here. It’s ok, though. A nitrite-free bacon & lettuce sandwich on homemade rye with just a bit of organic mayo is so scrumptious, the tomato would only ruin it.
Saturday was French Bread, which was delicious with whole wheat spaghetti. I made tomato sauce, too, but I chickened out when it came to using it. I had cooked it for a few hours, but it still smelled too much like raw tomatoes to me, so I froze it. I plan to add some meatballs, or sausage (or both) and dump the whole thing in the crock pot sometime and hope for the best.
This morning, the leftover French Bread became French Toast, which I made with eggs from Eamonn’s favorite chickens. It was delicious enough that even my picky Aidan liked it. I may have to start getting up earlier on weekdays once school starts so that I can make them a treat like this now and then.
This evening was to be a hamburger night, with homemade Hamburger Rolls, but I finally got scheeved-out enough by the ant situation in my kitchen that I couldn’t bring myself to let a batch of dough sit there unattended to rise. As a result, supper came to us courtesy of Burger King, and tomorrow afternoon we have a date with an exterminator.
So,as you can see, I’ve been getting a lot of use out of my bread machine. The $20 it took to buy it used eight years ago has been money well spent. These days, I am so in love with the idea of making a “daily bread” for my family, but I don’t have the time or desire to make it the old-fashioned way. The bread machine is perfect for me. I can assemble the ingredients for most loaves within five minutes, press a button, and have homemade bread in three hours. The hardest part is remembering to turn the machine on early enough so as not to delay lunch!
Want more? Here is some great bread-related reading and viewing:
- All of my bread recipes – including the rolls and the french toast – are from the very excellent Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook
- Molly Irwin has an excellent blog and companion flickr group called One Good Loaf
- Stefani of Blue Yonder talks about her daily bread journey, and shares a recipe: part one and part two
- Soulemama reflects on her great-grandmother’s bread board
Now, go enjoy this last week of August! Maybe bake a loaf of bread or something 😀
Okay, I HAVE to buy a bread machine!!!
Best kitchen gadget I’ve ever bought!
yes, i (almost) agree, one of the best helpers in the kitchen. irish brown bread is quite boring comparing to the many varieties we used to get in germany a decade ago. there is really great french style white bread but for the sake of more minerals and vitamins we appreciate the bread baking machine. number one of the little great helpers is definitely the washing mashine, just imagine hand washing those many pants from two hard kicking boy and a gardening husband!!!! cheers from very rainy southwest-ireland eliane
.-= See Eliane’s latest blog post: essen einkaufen | victualling =-.