Like U said, why would I pay $5.95 to "make" bread? Making bread is cheap and easy. No mix needed. Any bread baking book will get U started. I own two bread machines. My zojirushi is my favorite. It makes elongated loafs and can be programmed for long rise times. Zojirushi has a website where you can download the cookbook that came with it for free! http://www.zojirushi.com/user/scripts/user/recipe_category.php?recipe_category=breadmaker

Since you registered the day you posted this, it's highly doubtful that you have any friends HERE. Doing a good job of making enemies though since ADVERTISING is PROHIBITED on these forums. Would you like to be a big person and report yourself to Gardenweb, or shall you give me that honor?

I'm a stickler for bread science, so I don't just load the machine and push start. The last thing I want, and the thing I NEVER make, is a tasteless loaf of white bread that was start-to-finish done in one-hour on the Quick Cycle. But that IS an option that works very well for busy people and is primarily why so many people buy bread machines. They're fast when you want them to be... I like a nice 2-1/2-hour to 12-hour sponge to start with and go at it from there. For all beginners - although I don't like the title - I think "Bread Machines For Dummies" by Glenna Vance and Tom Lacalamita an EXCELLENT book for general education as well as a wide variety of bread recipes - a great book. Tom Lacalamita also has authored "The All-New Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook" (Fleischmann's Yeast Edition) that is also very good. I add unusual ingredients not normally used by most people. Always adapt standard bread machine recipes to those ingredients, and use many of my own original recipes. I guess I primarily use the bread machine as a mixing and kneading tool. I don't even allow the dough to rise in the bread machine. We only use a one-pound loaf of bread per week, but I keep a constant supply of other things in the freezer, like hamburger/sandwich rolls, hot dog buns, pecan rolls, cinnamon rolls, English Muffins, dinner rolls, speciality breads, etc. I do mill my own flour for pennies, like tricia pointed out. Even with my expensive wheat, it takes 10 cents of wheat to make a 1-pound loaf of bread. With the price of commercial bleached/unbleached flour going up so much, I keep NONE in the house anymore, but use all home-milled flours and process my own multi-grain cereals that I add to many breads, and make my own flakes, as well. When I used up the small amount of commercial flour I had last winter, that was it. But I'm committed to whole grains for the health of it, and use a great variety of beans/seeds/grains in my breads. Not just wheat. It's not just about dollar and cents and getting our money out of the price of the bread machine. How often do you use any number of high-priced gadgets and appliances in the kitchen to make them pay for themselves? (And don't even LOOK in the manly areas of the home for rarely-used tools! ;-) If you want it and can afford it and really plan to use it, then enjoy it for what it is. It's a great way to control the ingredients in the breads you eat. I got my Zo so that I could eliminate trans fats, use freshly-milled ingredients and keep the heat out of the kitchen and save energy by baking in the bread machine (which I did do in my first one when I first got it). I have carpal tunnel in both arms, arthritis in my fingers, and tennis elbow in both arms from too many years of professional knitting and crocheting. The bread machine is a great tool for me to extend my ability to make bread. Some people play golf, have a boat and camper, RV, gamble and enjoy all kinds of expensive vices and hobbies - I do none of those, but I have my bevy of mills and my bread machine and a large amount of grains/seeds/beans in storage and that's MY hobby/vice. About cleaning the bread machine... The Zo is very easy to clean because it has a non-stick surface. However, you CAN'T submerge the pan in water. When I make dough, I clean the dough out of the pan with a silicon spatula. Allow the pan to sit while I make whatever bread product I'm working on. Within 20-30 minutes, any dough residue left in the pan will be hard and dry and I brush it out with a soft cloth or a paper towel. Wipe out with a dishrag and hot soapy water, rinse, and dry. Occasionally, things get tossed out of the bread pan and get inside the machine. I take a clean, soft paint brush (or a pastry brush would work), and dust the area free of any errant flour and other things. -Grainlady

I found this buried deep in the plant. If it wasn't for the cracks, it would be an award winner, lol. The color is just incredible with perfect shading from top to bottom. I will use my magic wand and make it disappear shortly. II would say it is about 3" in diameter. They are starting to ripen en masse and it is a race to get them before the septoria takes the plant.