Garlic, Baby
I got lucky and inherited a bread machine while in Ohio. So yesterday I spent a couple of hours in the baking section of the grocery store picking up various flours and yeast and such. Due to some technical difficulties I didn't get around to putting all the components for a loaf of rye bread in the machine until about eight o'clock but we were impatient to see how it would turn out so instead of delaying the baking time so that it wouldn't be done until morning we went ahead and set it to immediately do it's thing. As I sat in bed clicking various buttons on the new portable DVD player, trying not to wake the snoring monkey, smells of a bakery wafted through the house. He even rolled over to briefly comment on how good it smelled. However, since I had to improvise with a recipe from the internet because I don't have the recipe book that came with the machine I am not sure if it all worked out like it was supposed to. The taste of the bread is good but the loaf ended up being a lot shorter than what I expected and the crust was a bit too hard. There were several different factors that could have caused this result. I will just keep experimenting until I get it right. It would be better to try to get the original recipe book though since my research is suggesting that some recipes won't work with certain machines. I will just keep working on it.
Since stepping on the scale at the grocery store entrance proved without a shadow of a doubt that eating lots of cheeseburgers and junk food while road tripping will just make your ass even fatter than it already is in just a week prompted much veggie and fruit purchasing. I have grand visions of giant vegan fruit smoothies for breakfast and freshly baked bread with homemade roasted garlic spread and fresh raw veggies to crunch for lunch. Maybe throw in some roasted red pepper hummus for dipping. Since I will make all of this from scratch it takes planning and time. This morning chocolate banana smoothies and dense rye bread with a thick tough crust was as good as it got. Besides I am the only one who loves hummus and large quantities of blended roasted garlic with thyme, olive oil and sea salt smeared all over my bread. Emeril and I would get along just fine.
Posted by gwendolyn on December 02, 2003 at 10:37 AM