A few years ago, my mother-in-law unloaded a large, cumbersome, late 90’s bread-maker on us. We took it with the ambitious plan of using it right away and then left it on a shelf in our pantry for years (as we seem to do with a lot of these fun gadgets). Such is the life of parents’ with 2 young children.
However, 4 months ago, feeling completely fed up with the laundry list of unrecognizable ingredients in bread (and way too lazy to run out to the store but in need of something for the kids’ lunches), I pulled out the WellBilt bread-maker and I fell in love. I know it sounds completely pretentious to say such a thing about a bread-maker but my enthusiasm stems from discovering something so practical that was sitting right under my nose. And seriously, don’t knock it until you try it.
When I originally envisioned making my own bread, images of being covered in flour, sweating from the endless kneading and 2 kids screaming for my attention immediately came to mind. Who knew that bread making could be so easy and that the rewards were so great? I mean, I literally toss the ingredients into a bowl and push start…that’s it. This gadget kneads, rises and bakes the bread – voila! The recipe took some time to perfect but we savor our homemade bread and since that day, we have not purchased ONE loaf from the store.
Yes, the savings (about $20 month) is always a plus but there are 2 things that put me in a truly blissful place: 1. We have completely eliminated the crap from processed bread (and we even get to throw in our own “extras”-think Flax or honey-when we are feeling particularly sassy. 2. And this is what stole my heart, the smell that is produced by this white metal monstrosity is heavenly. I mean truly glorious. Having the scent of freshly baked bread waft into your nose upon entering your home instantly takes you to a calm, happy place. For a moment, it soothes the stress of chores and chaos.
It’s zen in a smell.
Forget yoga, buy a bread-maker!
ps the image above looks NOTHING like the bread I make…that would be wishful thinking. Ours looks more like this (not quite as sexy but still delicious):
