Breadman Bread-Machine Review

My Mother-In-Law gave me a Breadman bread-machine for Christmas last year, and I absolutely love it.  It’s my first bread-machine, so I don’t really have a good point of reference to say it’s better than others, but she has the same one, and it’s her second one.  The first one was a different brand, and she said it just didn’t hold up as well.

My mom had a bread-machine when I was a teenager, and all I remember about it was that it didn’t seem to work very well.  It kind of put me off of the idea of bread-machines for a while. But last year, I had a fairly big health scare, and have been trying to avoid soy since then. Trying to avoid soy is a monumental task because it’s in pretty much everything, even most breads.  I finally found two different breads in the grocery store that didn’t have soy, but they were about $6.00 a loaf, and they really weren’t that good.

I’ve also started reading a lot of blogs about cooking, cooking on a budget, and making slightly better food choices.  Quite a few of them mentioned bread-machines, and I found some bread-machine recipes that looked really good.  The idea of making home-made bread seems a little intimidating, and very time consuming to me, but the idea of dumping ingredients into a bread-machine and coming back to fresh bread in a few hours seemed wonderful.  So I put a bread-machine on my wish list.

French Bread w/ Rosemary 

The bread-machine has been wonderful.  The breads are delicious, and the ingredients are all things I can pronounce.  I really hate math, so I haven’t taken the time to figure out the cost per loaf based on the ingredients.  I do know that a bag of flour isn’t $6.00, and we get a lot more than one loaf from a bag of flour, so I think it’s definitely cheaper than the bread I was buying before.

You have to measure very carefully, and the machine moves around a little bit (don’t put it on the edge of the counter) during the kneading process.  It’s largely just put your ingredients in, push a few buttons, and come back later, which I love.  Oddly enough, you have to stir the ingredients during the Quick Breads cycle.  I didn’t stir the first time I used that cycle and ended up with a floury mess, but it has been fine when I follow the instructions and stir. 

This bread-machine has a delay feature that I love.  You can delay the baking by up to 24 hours as long your recipe doesn’t have dairy products, or anything else that can spoil quickly.  I always make a lot of soups and stews in the slow cooker during the colder weather, and it’s wonderful to be able to set the timer on the bread-machine so that we come home to hot soup and fresh, warm bread. 

All in all, I have to say if you’re considering a bread-machine, go for it.  It seems to be a good investment, especially if you’re trying to avoid certain ingredients in your food.   Breadman seems to be a reliable brand, and has some great features including the delay setting, a fruit/nut dispenser, and the ability to customize and program your own settings. 

Twist Ties - More Than A Simple Way To Close Bread

My long weekend hasn’t gotten off to the smoothest start.  One of our cats, Milo, started vomiting Thursday night and was still vomiting Friday morning.  He has a habit of eating anything string or ribbon like, so I was concerned that he had possibly managed to eat something he wasn’t supposed to.  His appetite and behavior were normal, everything was normal, except the vomiting.  I checked all of his usual forbidden “snack” choices; all of our shoes still had the laces, all of my dresses and tops with ribbons still had the ribbons, the Christmas wrapping paper, etc was undisturbed, and nothing else seemed amiss.  But the vomiting was very, very unusual for Milo.

I called his vet and got him in for an appointment.  Milo hates the vet.  He hates any situation where things are altered from his normal routine, and he doesn’t like to be touched by many people, so he really, really hates the vet.  I ended up dropping him off so he could be sedated and x-rayed to look for any sort of impaction.  I was really hoping that this would turn out to be yet another case of me panicking needlessly about the fur kids.  It wasn’t.

Photo from Wikimedia

Milo has apparently eaten something metal.  His vet says it has to be metal because of the way it shows up on the x-rays.  It looks like pieces of thread in his intestinal tract.  There are four pieces, about a half inch long each, of whatever “it” is.  Everyone seems to suspect twist ties.

I can’t remember the last time we had twist ties in the house.  We buy the cinch style garbage bags, and it seems like all of the bread and bagels we’ve bought lately have come with the plastic clip rather than the twist tie.  That being said, I can’t imagine what else it is.  It doesn’t look at all like jewelry in the x-ray, and I’m not missing any jewelry.  Neither one of us can think of any metal thread-like object we’ve had.  The vet says it doesn’t matter what it is because that’s not going to change the course of his treatment.  We’d just all like to know from a curiosity standpoint.

Milo stayed overnight at the vet’s office for observation.  He ate well last night, which they say is a good sign, and today’s x-rays show that the object seems to be moving along, so it’s looking good for him to pass it.  He will be staying at the vet’s office until he passes it, since he will have to have surgery if he doesn’t pass it soon, or if any complications develop.  We’re really hoping it passes soon with no complications.

And we are now instituting a ban on twist ties in our house.  I have a feeling this episode is going to be expensive, and it has definitely been nerve wracking.  So, no more twist ties!  I just don’t trust him not to pilfer one away for later snacking purposes.  I guess twist tie versus plastic clip closure will now be the determining factor in buying bread and bagels.  Who knew such a seemingly innocent object could lead to so much trouble?