So this makes me think about the possibilities of a bread machine. I would love to have homemade bread more often around since Eli loves to eat a slice of bread with his lunch or dinner (and I probably would too if I had tasty bread around).
Do any of you use a bread machine or have you heard of any specific brands that seem to work well? I've seen a whole spectrum of them online, on Amazon ranging from:
Sunbeam 5891 - $44.38
Breadman TR875 - $79.95
Panasonic SD-YD250 - $119.31
Zojirushi BBCCX20 "Home Bakery Supreme" - $172.34 (this seems like a lot to spend on a bread machine!!)
I'm leaning toward getting the cheapest one for now - the Sunbeam - since it has great reviews and seems like a decent machine for my purposes - to make white and whole wheat bread, maybe some cinnamon bread once I'm done with Healthy Living :)
Let me know if you have any recommendations though! Or good recipes!
*On a side note, it snowed a TON today... I'm trying not to be grumpy about the city's street parking rules when there is more than 2 inches of snow... (this is when I really hate our lack of a parking space or garage), However, tonight I had to park both cars 2 1/2 blocks away because the closer side streets were full. Tomorrow I'll have to trudge through the snow with Eli to be able to go anywhere. Who needs a treadmill when you can carry a 20-lb, bundled baby and big ol' diaper bag through the heavy snow? :)
So all of you with garages... ENJOY THEM!
And one other comment - yesterday I successfully talked the city parking guy out of giving my friend a ticket!! Her car had been in a 2-hr parking space longer than 2 hrs, and I saw his parking jeep stop next to the car, getting a ticket ready. I was just leaving our playgroup and was parked behind my friend's car, so I ran over and relentlessly talked him out of giving her the ticket. My favorite quote from the grumpy parking guy?
Parking guy: "YOU THINK I DO THIS FOR MY HEALTH??" - when I asked him if he was really giving her a ticket (in the beginning of our lovely conversation) So my advice when battling a parking officer... play on his emotions and focus on the baby/kid factor, and you may just succeed!
10 comments:
I have the Panasonic one and I love it! Another lady, who uses it almost every day and simply raved about it, recommended it to me. It is a little more expensive, but it's awesome!
We have a William Sonoma bread machine that we like. It was pricier... but we go it with wedding gift cards!
thank you!!! love the suggestions.
I'll loan you my bread machine. His name is Brian. All you have to do is clean up the mess afterwards . . . flour on the counter, on the floor, in the sink, in the oven (how does it get there?) . . .
Way to go on the parking ticket! I certainly don't miss all the parking restriction stuff. I can't count how many times we forgot to move our car and got a ticket! oops.
If I were you, I would definitely want to just bundle up and have a nice cup of hot cocoa. Enjoy the snow . . I'm jealous, since we hardly get any here!! :-)
You will always be my hero for getting me out of a parking ticket! I don't know of anyone who would actually go through the trouble of arguing with the parking ticket guy to get a friend out of the ticket! You obviously weren't doing it for your health! :) If so, I would give you 5 bonus points for your Healthy Living Challenge!!!
By the way, I have a Breadman breadmaker. I like it, but every time I see a cheaper one I wonder why I got the more expensive one. You are welcome to borrow it to see how well it works!
I have the Breadman, it is a few years old now, and we haven't used it much because it doesn't do a good job letting the bread rise. It worked okay for about a year, but then it consistently failed and I gave up on it. We end up with a heavy brick loaf, instead of a lighter fluffy loaf. But ours could just be a lemon.
We had the breadman and it stunk. Right away, the non-stick surface stuck. We couldn't get the baked bread out of the machine without tearing it up. So we used it to just make the dough, but even that got stuck in the machine. It was a pain to clean.
So then I returned it to BBB last year (after having it 4 years), and bought an Oster - the kind I bought my mom a few years back. I found a barely used one on Craigslist for 30 bucks, I think my mom's was 50 bucks from Sears (but I can't find it sold in stores anymore). It works MUCH better. I still have trouble with the crust being to hard, but that's because I am doing something wrong. Heather is the bread baking expert, so I should ask her. But it seems that bread from the machine always yields harder crusts, even on a lighter setting. If I make dough and bake it in the oven, it turns out better. And this time, the dough slides right out of our Oster.
Go with good reviews of a cheap machine! (The Breadman was $80 or 90!)
p.s. I got another parking ticket at the BART station this week. My 2nd in 3 months. I can't stand it, the signs are so confusing. Forget public transportation, it's costing me more than driving to Berkeley!
I know nothing about bread machines, but I sure do sympathize with the parking situation. Carrying baby and groceries, etc for a few blocks in the snow is HARD! I will never take our garage for granted.
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