What's Better than Homemade Bread?

Today was one of those grey and dreary days - snow, then rain, then snow, then rain...all of it dull and I already miss my kids who only left yesterday. So I wanted to eat something delicious, but I didn't want to cook anything. Naturally there was no one else around, so I let a machine take on the job....today it was the bread machine.

I admit, I don't like to actually BAKE bread in the bread machine. I hate the shape - big rectangle blocks of bread- no matter what kind of bread you bake. For me, different kinds of breads don't just smell distinctly different, or taste distinctly different, they should look distinctly different too. So when a couple of true bread machine lovers told me that more often than not they just do the kneading in the bread maker and then let it rise in a loaf pan or whatever, shape it into whatever they want it to look like, and bake it in a traditional oven. COOL!!!

On Monday I whipped up a fantastic brown bread recipe I found in Norene's Healthy Kitchen . You can find all sorts of delicious doings over at Norene's website - Gourmania, but I digress...back to the bread! The secret to the glorious colour...cocoa and molasses. It didn't taste exactly like the Montreal pumpernickel bread I love, but it looked close. I even scored the bread and shaped it in a long loaf. It was sooooo good, we scarfed it down in no time and I had to make it again today!

What a wonder the machine is...dump some ingredients into the special pan, turn it on, go relax for an hour and a half and let the smells do their magic on your spirit. Take it out of the pan, shape it, let it rise and then stick it in the oven for 30 minutes...heaven!

What could be better than Homemade Brown Bread you ask...

....eat it warm from the oven with thick and creamy New Zealand Rata Honey melting into the bread as soon as you spread it...

...followed by a lunch of Rustic Avocado & Bean Spread slathered on ...you guessed it....homemade brown bread. I didn't have the energy to do much and the avocado was ripe...one more day and I'd have to dump it....some beans I had cooked and didn't use in the Garlicy Bean & Spinach Soup I made recently...some fresh cilantro and lime juice. Lunch was delicious. The only thing that might have made it better would have been if someone else made it for me!