Oh, THAT? That's Just Homemade Bread.

This is the kind of thing that happens when I don't spend all my free time curled in the recliner with my eyes glued to the TV screen, completely involved in the lives of FICTIONAL CHARACTERS. I'm not saying that TV viewing does not have it's important place in my life because it TOTALLY does. But it's amazing what I can get done when I, for example, TURN OF THE TV. Like homemade bread.

I bought a breadmaker a few years ago and use it intermittently but what I really didn't like about it was 1. it made the bread a weird shape and 2. the bread was never really that good, no matter how many recipes I tried. So I was browsing through some gourmet recipe sites the other day looking for some gourmet recipes to prepare for dinner...OK, I just happened to stumble on the website, OK? And this woman who seems to be, like a GODDESS of breadmaking, mentioned that it was actually best if you used your breadmaker to just make DOUGH, then take it out and bake it in a bread pan.

Huh. So that's what that dough setting is for. I liked this idea, so I printed out one of her recipes for oatmeal bread and made it. It was easy. The bread machine does the hard work so, basically, you just plump the bread in the pan and let it rise and bake it. Done. Now, just fluff a little flour on your nose, stagger in the living room and announce that you have made HOMEMADE BREAD and, OMG, are you fabulous or what?

I would give you the recipe but I have made the bread three times now and, each time, I make it a little different. It's good but I want it to be sweeter, chewier and denser. So I keep adding things like maple syrup and brown sugar and more oatmeal and messing with it and it gets better and better. And, I guess I added a lot of ingredients this last time because it's technically supposed to make one loaf and it ballooned out into two. No problem. More bread for us! Once I have it perfected, I'll share the recipe. In between nomming down on bread smeared with butter. Oh, the diet? Oh, yeah. I'll have an apple with it. And that will balance out the calories. Right? Right?

But I LOVE Going To The Grocery

I have never understood people who say they HATE going to the grocery. I LOVE going to the grocery. Now, given, it can lead to situations where you are wandering through the aisles eating Pop-Tarts, but those situations are rare. Actually, eating a Hostess Fruit Pie is much more common.

Wait.

Did I say that out loud? Forget I said that. I would NEVER eat an entire Hostess Fruit Pie while grocery shopping. And if I did that, say once, I would totally pay for the empty wrapper.

How can anyone not get excited about going to the grocery? There's all this cool, cool stuff there. And new products. Oooooh, I LOVE me some new products. Or even old products that probably everyone in the whole entire world has been using for years and I have just recently stumbled on.

Like these.

I know you have read about my picky, picky childhood wherein, if someone had tried to force me to eat a tomato in any form except Campbell's tomato soup, I would have spontaneously combusted from the heartfelt anguish, but now I am a big, huge fan of the tomato. I, however, had never eaten canned tomatoes. It took a while for me to get over my qualms about chunky things in my sauces, but once I got over it, I got over in a big way. Onions? Bring 'em on. Green pepper? Pepper me up, baby. And tomatoes? Oh my, yes. But who knew you could get luscious, diced up tomatoes in a can? Even flavored and spicy?

Oh. Everyone already knew? Well, what about the fire roasted ones? Did you know about those? Mmm hmm. I thought not. Try them. They are goooood.

And now, in the realm of products which are still fairly new. Have you seen this cheese? It's like the canned Parmesan cheese only NOT. Because it is FRESH. And you grate it yourself. With the handy, dandy grater built into the package.


Is that not absolutely the coolest thing you have EVER seen? And, why, yes. Those ARE scallops, olive oil and Alfredo sauce in the background. Because I am rather a gourmet chef.


OK, not. But when I told Tom I was going to put some Alfredo sauce and some cheese and some bacon on those scallops, do you know what he said?

"Well, you can't go wrong with cheese and bacon."

I love that man.

And he is SO RIGHT. Any recipe with cheese and bacon is automatically excellent. Except for fish chowder. But that's another post.