After a 6-year moratorium, I have been cooking up a storm in the past 8 months and I finally figured out why: I miss my kids.
After spending several hours in the kitchen everyday for 19 years, I left the courtroom the day my divorce was finalized, raised my fist in the air ala Scarlett O’Hara and gleefully exclaimed:
With God as my witness, I shall NEVER cook again!
And for five years I didn’t. I fed my kids and myself mainly smoothies, protein shakes, salads and the occasional grilled wrap or homemade soup.
Then last winter, my youngest son– the one that has always lived with me– moved back to his old hometown. And suddenly I found myself cooking all of my kids’ childhood favorites: homemade mac and cheese oozing with real cream, butter and several pounds of cheese (which is why in my house, it’s known as “crack-and-cheese,” it’s that good!), 10-pound lasagna (so named because that’s how much it weighs and also, how much weight it seems to put on me– I find good lasagna simply irrisestible ), homemade chicken and spinach parmesana over plump fettucine, good ol’ fashioned all-American meatloaf, big fat sausages smothered in green peppers and onions served up in crusty, tender-middled rolls…Well, I could go on forever. And that doesn’t even begin to cover the cookies, banana puddings, brownies (topped with ganache, no less) and other desserts I’ve made.
Food=love. And good memories.
Oddly enough, even though I gleefully, and often, invite my three sons over to revisit their childhood dinners, I’ve found that my kids have come to prefer salads, smoothies and shakes over comfort food. What hath Mommy wrought?
But I still keep cooking away. And baking my brains out.
Lately it’s been bread and brownies, mainly because I got a new bread maker. I so regret that shortly after swearing off cooking, I foolishly gave away most of my cool appliances– an ice cream maker, an electric pressure cooker and a West Bend bread machine that wasn’t very expensive yet made fabulous bread.
This time around, after walking in front of the television one day, I got sucked in by Wolfgang Puck whipping up all kinds of things in his very own “bread and dessert machine” and ordered it. I have since sent it back because it overcooked virtually everything I tried to make in it and replaced it with T-Fal’s “Emeril” (Lagasse) breadmaker from Amazon.com. It’s expensive enough to qualify for free shipping and also has a $20 rebate, valid on purchases through the end of Nov. Amazon doesn’t ever charge tax.
The reason I was interested in both of these machines is because they make big loaves: the WP a 2.5 pounder and Emeril’s, a whopping 3 pounder. They also each have dual paddles which is important if you make a lot of big whole-grain loaves. And both machines not only made bigger loaves than the top-of-the line Zojuirushi, but are less expensive by at least 50 bucks, too.
Emeril’s even has a special insert that fits the baking pan to make baguettes. And it also supposedly makes pasta. Both supposedly make jam. I say “supposedly,” because I haven’t checked either function out. (But I do intend to make homemade pasta soon!)
Here’s what I learned when I was married and made bread every single day: Not only does it taste amazingly good– incredibly much better than anything that’s store bought. And not only can you control the ingredients by using healthy ingredients and perhaps even more importantly, by leaving out bad things like High Fructose Corn Syrup and preservatives (bread on the shelf is loaded with dough conditioners and preservatives), but you can also make A LOAF OF HIGH-QUALITY BREAD FOR PENNIES, as compared to the $3 or $4 per loaf you’d pay in the supermarket (I buy whole grain and it’s EXPENSIVE and never as good as homemade). Have you priced a loaf of bread lately? It’s ridiculous!
For about 50 cents, I can make a loaf of high-quality stone ground wheat bread similar to what I used to pay nearly $4 for at the supermarket. I can also make classy artesan breads as well as loaves of French and Italian. Plus I can quickly make other baked goods like brownies, bars, cakes and all kinds of rolls from scratch, usually using one pan for everything or two, if I’m using just the dough cycle. No matter what I make, they are all so much cheaper and fresher– and much, much more delicious!– than anything I can pick up at a supermarket or traditional bakery.
THINK about it! If you have a family and made just one loaf of bread per day instead of buying store bought, you could easily save $300 to $1,000 per year just on bread. No kidding!
The machine is a little bit of an investment but if you use it, will quickly pay for itself. And you needn’t go with a high-priced model. WalMart and Amazon have a highly rated model– I think it’s a Breadman (stay away from Sunbeam! It has terrible reviews!) that goes for about $54. Granted, $54 won’t buy you twin mixing/kneading paddles or a few of the other features like the “gluten free” cycle, but you will be able to make a delicious 2-pound loaf of white or whole-wheat bread as well as “quick breads.” Like most machines, even this cheapie has a quick cycle that bakes a loaf of white bread in 59 minutes.
You can sometimes find used breadmakers on CraigsList, and always on eBay, but I haven’t found a good deal othere yet. To me a good deal would be $20, including shipping. If you’re going to pay $30 or more why not just hop over to WalMart and for an extra $20 bill, get a brand new, more modern model that has an impressive warranty? Anyway, you really have to be careful with the used models– some of the breadmakers look to be pretty old so they may be on their last legs. And many of the older models bake vertical loaves instead of horizontal ones. A petty point, yes, but personally I think it matters when you’re trying to slice the bread for sandwiches.
I have made all kinds of bread and brownies over the past two or three months and I tweak most of the recipes. The best one I’ve made so far is a corn-stoneground whole wheat yeast loaf. The bad thing about tweaking recipes is trying to recreate it. I’m going to work on that because it is some of the best bread I’ve ever had in my life!
The bread machine is good for whipping up dough in a hurry, too. I love scones and can throw all the ingredients in the bread pan, make the dough, then remove it and bake them in my regular oven. What a time saver. And money saver, too– I was paying $2.50 for ONE scone over at Panera. I can easily make them for less than a tenth of that!
One aside when trying to save money: Don’t skimp on flour. Generic flour just isn’t as good as name brand. King Arthur is the best flour and right now it’s on special at 50 cents off a 5-pound bag over at my local Publix. So, for just over 3 bucks I can get a sack of flour that will make umpteen loaves of bread. My favorite yeast is Red Star. My only complaint is that it’s hard to find. Our local WalMart has it and it’s 93 cents for a 3- packet package. They also have a jar of Fleischmans instant yeast for about 4 bucks that will, like a sack of flour, make umpteen loaves of bread and is a better deal by far. Still, I go for the Red Star.
WM also has Vital Wheat Gluten. It’s cheap– under two bucks, as I remember– but is imo essential for certain types of bread, especially stone ground wheat.
I’m posting some of the new recipes I’ve tried. They were great!
SHREDDED WHEAT BREAD ( I made this and it was awesome!)
1 1/2 c. warm water
1/4 c. sugar
3 biscuits, shredded wheat
1 pkg. active dry yeast
2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1/3 c. oil (I used melted butter because I like the taste better0
1 c. dry milk powder
4 c. bread flour (I used whole wheat mixed with 4 tsp. wheat gluten to make 4 cups)
I actually boiled the water and poured over the shredded wheat to get it soft. But if you do that it’s VERY imp’t to wait until the temp cools to about 100 degrees or it will kill the yeast.
Then just throw all ingredients in the bread pan according to manufacturer’s directions and set on whole wheat cycle. Makes about a 2-[ound loaf.
RECIPE Southern Cornbread (Yeast)
Ingredients
• 1 (7 gram) package active dry yeast
• 1 cups warm water (100 to 110 degrees)
• 4 1/3 cups all-purpose or bread flour (Again, I used stone ground wheat mixed with 4 tsp wheat gluten)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 2/3 cup cornmeal
• 4 tablespoons melted butter
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 large eggs
• 1 can whole kernel corn, drained (I left this out because I didn't have it on hand, but it sounds good!)
• 2 tablespoons cornmeal (optional)
• 1 egg for egg wash (optional)
Add the ingredients as directed in breadmaker handbook and set it on "light" crust. Makes about a two-pound loaf. The egg wash would go on just before the machine goes into the Bake cycle. You can sprinkle the 2 TBLSp of cornmeal over that if you want. I didn't bother with either and my crust was really crispy and delish.
BASIC SCONE RECIPE:
Ingredients 
- 3 cups of flour
- 1/2 cup of white sugar
- 4 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 3/4 cup butter
- 1 egg
- 1 cup milk
(I like to use whole cream instead of milk and cut back on the butter. Add a little extra liquid, about a half to a full Tblsp. to make up for the loss of the butter, though.)
Directions
- It’s recommended that you use a pan covered with parchment paper, but I don’t and it works fine. You can use a jelly roll type of baking sheet, a cookie sheet or other baking pan. About 15 minutes before the dough is finished, preheat the regular oven to 400°.
- Throw ingredients into bread pan according to manufacturer’s directions (Liquid then dry or whatever) and set on dough cycle until finished.
- Flour a surface and knead the dough very briefly.
- Place on your parchment paper and give any shape you want to the whole thing. The dough should not be thicker than 3/4 inch.
- Crease the dough almost all the way down on the lines where you will cut it after cooking. (I used the pointy tip of a steak knife dipped in flour)
- Place into preheated oven at 400° F and bake for 18-20 minutes.
- Remove from oven and, after letting it cool for 5 minutes, cut, and serve warm or keep for later.
- If desired, drizzle with a simple glaze of milk and powdered sugar.
