Bread bread bread

When we got married I intentionally didn't register for a breadmaker; in my mind, it was the equivalent of an ice cream maker for our parents -- one of those gifts everyone registered for and no one used more than once or twice. However, the last month or so I've started getting more adventuresome in my cooking and I saw a recipe for bread online that was for a breadmaker. I decided it would be worth investigating.

I went on Craigslist (because I knew there are lots of breadmakers sitting in people's basements across the country) but most people were asking $30-40 for a used breadmaker. It turns out I had some unused Amazon.com gift certificates that were burning a hole in my pocket (thanks in part to a survey I filled out and also thanks to Swagbucks.com which I've been using faithfully for the last three months or so). I was able to get a brand new breadmaker (reatails for $89) for $31 (plus free shipping).

I eat cinnamon raisin bread with two sunny side up eggs nearly every morning, so I decided to make a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread as my inaugural loaf. I was prepared for a "fallen" or "sunken" loaf, but it turned out perfectly! Here's the recipe from Betty Crocker.

The whole reason I had investigated the breadmaker was that I wanted to learn how to make pretzels. Since I had the flower and yeast out, I decided to make my first batch of pretzels (without the machine). They turned out quite well! They key is that you dip your pretzels in a bath of baking soda and water before putting them in the oven. Then, you cook the pretzels at high temperature (475 degrees) so as to sear the outside but leave the inside soft. Here's the recipe.