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A toast to home breadmaking

[See disclaimer at the bottom]

I had set my clock for 8:30 this Sunday morning.  That, my dear readerly friends, was indeed a bit audacious.  But what came next was completely unexpected:
– I smelled bread.  Wonderful, warm, fresh bread.
– No, I wasn’t still dreaming!

…and then the amazing part:  I got out of bed, without actually hitting the snooze button multiple times!  I think that’s a first in years.

You see, I had had the good foresight to prepare bread for my breadmaker the night before, and set the timer to have the bread all finished by 8:34am this morning.  I made it downstairs just in time for the bread to finish, and then I prepared myself a wonderful breakfast of Toast ‘n’ Jelly Pepper eggs!  This is from a delicious recipe I learned from my mom:

  • Toast with jam (the good kind that’s 100% fruit, not the Smuckers high fructose corn sweetened crap! I love the St. Dalfour brand of conserves!) and butter
  • A sunnyside-up egg on top [can’t buy those on amazon, sadly!]
  • Fresh ground pepper to taste

Yum!

The bread was from this Hodgson Mill 9 Grain bread mix:

  • Upsides: very delicious, rises reliably, good texture (just the right amount of crunch and density), and quite inexpensive! 
  • Downsides: not 100% whole wheat, not very high in fiber, pretty high in calories.
And the toaster (“Back to Basics TEM4500 4-Slot Egg-and-Muffin Toaster”)?  Whoa, crazy!  It does toast and eggs at the same time!  Just bought it, and this was my first time trying it.  Pretty nifty!
Back to Basics TEM4500 4-Slot Egg-and-Muffin Toaster
  • Upsides:  Cool to the touch, seems to toast/cook very reliably, it times toast+eggs well, and you can even hardboil eggs with it!
  • Downsides:  This thing is pretty hefty-sized (though no more than is reasonable for the food capacity), the egg cooker thingies aren’t no-stick (even with a dusting of canola oil, I had to use a spatula to get the egg out). And for a single guy (with one roommate), did I really need to buy the larger version (they have a smaller version that toasts two slices of bread and cooks one egg concurrently)?
Still, despite what seems like more disadvantages than advantages, I’m glad I bought this.  The toast + egg this morning were delicious! 🙂  And at <$2/box for the bread, I could make a whole loaf per day cheaper than a single cup of Starbucks coffee!  Which reminds me of a hint:  When shopping at Amazon, if you see a “subscribe and save” option, subscribe!  Even if you don’t want to get a subsequent shipment of the item, you can save 15% on the purchase and then cancel the subscription with just a couple of clicks at any time.  
Alas, I can’t link you to the specific breadmaker that I use and love, because, well, not only has the model been discontinued, but apparently Regal (the company) doesn’t make breadmakers at all anymore.  But here’s a list of best-selling breadmakers that could be helpful for you.
Oh, and I went full-out and bought yet more bread’y things from Amazon this past week:
  • A Rada Cutlery large bread knife.  Cuts like butta! :p
  • A Progressive International Adjustable Bread Keeper (aka, a breadbox!).  And yes, I am bigger than it!
  • And — though I admit this doesn’t really count as bread’y — it did go well with the toast:   Medaglia D’ Oro Instant Espresso Coffee.  Not as delicious as I hoped in water, but it does make for a great (and very inexpensive) iced coffee.  Take cold milk, stir in some of this stuff, add a touch of sugar or flavored syrup, and WOW.  We’re talking major energy, and pretty decent taste to boot.  Certainly much cheaper than the 5-Hour Energy Extra Strength Berry bottles that I bought previously (but they also do the trick energy-wise, and are admittedly more portable/convenient)
*  *  *
DISCLAIMER:  I had originally intended this post to highlight the waking and gustatory wonders of bread-making, my new neato toaster, and so on.  But ended up adding lots of amazon.com links, all of which earn me massive amounts of money (like 75 cents or so on sales of the bread knife, for instance).  So I felt a disclaimer was in order.  And hmm, now that I’ve already disclaimed, I’ll go ahead and add even more obnoxious links below, for your handy purchasing pleasure :p
    

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Adam Lasnik

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2 responses to “A toast to home breadmaking”

  1. Regenschirme Transparent Avatar
    Regenschirme Transparent

    In the meantime you can buy a toaster which is using a laser technologie – it can write any logo or text on your toast – which you put into the program – it’s got a laptop-interface.

    Reply
  2. rowingexercisem Avatar
    rowingexercisem

    I suddenly felt hungry when I read your blog. Toasted bread with jam is simply delicious! 🙂

    Reply

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