Breadman Bread Machine

Could there possibly be a better aroma coming from your kitchen than baking bread?? I don't think so either. When I was in high school I used to make biscuits from scratch and bake them. I would have baked loaves of bread but for some reason I was a complete wash out when it came to shaping loaves.



But I could make a mean biscuit!! Afterall, they smell just as good as bread...a few years ago we decided we should bake bread in our dutch over over charcoal and we did...and it was very good. Unfortunately we only did it 2 or 3 times because the time it took was time you had to be around, and that was not always convenient. Baking over charcoal is always a "hands on" project. I will definately explain why baking over charcoal is totally "hands on" in a future blog.







Since the charcoal bread baking, while great fun, turned out to be too much for us on a regular basis we decided to try a bread machine. That has turned out to be a great decision. My original opinion about bread machines was actually quite negative. A few of the women I worked with several years ago got them as Christmas presents when they first came out. The way they talked about them and the times they actually used them didn't sould like they were worth having around.



These women used the prepackaged bread mixes and if I depended on them, my machine would have ended up in the back of the cupboard too. I went online and ordered "The Bread Machine Cookbook" by Donna Rathmell German. Boy was that a great decision! To be honest, since getting a bread machine, I never buy bread in the grocery store anymore. I also no longer buy English Muffins.



Yup...you can make more than bread in a bread machine. In fact, I am on my second machine. The first one that I bought at Wal-Mart didn't hold up very well. I got the second one at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and that one has held up pretty good. Of course it was twice as expensive!!



Some of my favorite breads are sweet potato, onion, egg, and wild rice. Of course there are many more that I like but these are some of my favorites.



Here is the sweet potato bread recipe:These are the ingredients and amount for the medium size loaf.





3/4 cup sweet potato water
1/2 cup mashed sweet potato
3 tablespoons of margarine or butter
3 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
3/4 teaspoon of cinnamon or nutmeg
3 cups of flour
1 1/2 teaspoon of yeast





You just put the ingredients in the bread machine in the order given and bake on the sweet or basic cycle. Of course, by reading the list you should have figured out the first step is to boil the sweet potato. This is so aromatic and so good you will not be able to stop eating it. Another thing I do is to mix a little extra cinnamon with the mashed potato.





Try using this bread to make grilled swiss cheese and ham, you will be totally in love!!I also like to use the bread machine to make pizza dough. Then I bake the pizza on the grill!!! Just can't get any better than that....but grilled pizza is the subject of a future blog...don't miss it!



Mary

keepeez

Last week while we were in Mt. Shasta, California I went to "Pots & Pans", a kitchenware store to browse. I love to look at kitchenware and am always on the look out for new and fun things to try. Unfortunately most gadgets are just too expensive to buy just to try. Living in a "space challenged" RV also makes buying a lot of gadgets prohibitive. It makes it almost mandatory that gadgets are multifunctional!!I am always amazed by the sheer quantity of items in these speciality stores. Besides the usual glassware, dinnerware, bake ware, and beverage service items, there is more items than you could possibly imagine. I saw more varieties of corn cob holders, butterers for corn on the cob, terra cotta disks to keep brown sugar soft, and on and on and on. But, of course it is hard to just look................so I bought a product called "Keepeez".



It is a vacuum food sealer. It is designed to seal any of your existing bowls, cups, or cans 6 inches wide or less. There are larger and smaller sizes available also but I thought to start with this would be the most useful size for my purposes. It is suppose to be used in the refridgerator, freezer, or dishwasher and will make buying cling wrap unnecessary. Which when I think about it is a really "green" thing to do. That is certainly timely.I have seen similar vacuum sealers advertised on TV and quite frankly, I didn't feel this "Keepeez" performed as promised. Although I love the concept, I was very disappointed!!

Mary

Welcome

Out to Eat?



I saw a headline recently about the fact that people are eating out less. Duh, with gas costing $4 or more per gallon, I imagine people are cutting out the luxuries and eating out is on that list. That makes me think that maybe a blog about cooking might be timely, especially if it can be linked up to some dynamite recipes.





Anyway, this blog is dedicated to cooking….one of my all time favorite pastimes. Right next to eating! In this blog I hope to discuss all types of cooking techniques, kitchen gadgets, and anything else I can think of relating to cooking and food.





All comments and/or suggestions will be welcomed!!









Mary