Those Bagettes look yummy and easy to make. Thanks for the recipe. My DIL swears by her KA too. I ordered a machine and it should come today! But it was very inexpensive with mostly great reviews. What I like about it is that it matches the kitchen, and doesn't take up a lot of room. Link below. The biggest complaint is it's hard to read the panel because of the yellow background, but I keep my kitchen glasses sitting on the counter at all times. :) Natal, if you're reading this...the machine gives me three choices of crust color. Wouldn't that effect the texture of the bread if I chose a light or dark color? Also, I was looking at the bread mixes on King Arthurs, they have one that is a sugar/cinnamon bread. I read the reviews and no one mentioned adding raisins to it. I love me some raisin bread! Is it okay to add raisins to a mix like that? Here is a link that might be useful: Bread Machine

I used to eat toast or English muffins, french toast (still whole wheat) a bagel, that sort of thing for breakfast. I don't eat that anymore. The healthy bread is for when I want a carb but I cut the bread in half and after baking freeze it. I'm not inhaling it the way I used to and it's primarily for weekend breakfasts. I haven't bought a ciabatta loaf or baguette in nearly a year. We stopped eating most pasta, rice, potatoes, pretzels, popcorn and other carbs mindlessly. I still eat some carbs every day but I do think about it and have to really want it. I had a slice of spinach, meatless pizza from Whole Foods today but only one slice not two and I don't get any of those tempting desserts (a gelato cup) to go with it. If my weight creeps up, I skip or heavily cut back on the carbs. For every carb I skip, I eat some natural, toasted nuts. I buy raw cashews and almonds and toast them myself. I also eat more lean meat: smoked oysters, grilled chicken breast, non fried fish, sirloin, pot roast, etc. No rotisserie chicken anymore- I loved the skin too much. I stopped baking sweets. No more brownies, cakes, scones and pies around all the time. I used to bake because it was just fun. I still make something for special occasions, but that is what it is, a special occasion. No ice cream in the house all the time or cake squares in the freezer. No constant availability of homemade brownies. I do keep my favorite dark chocolate around for when I want some. I still eat some cheese but not as much. I eat a lot of Greek yogurt and spend more money on the vegetables I could eat all the time: asparagus and fresh wilted spinach. I rarely eat fruit. I rarely eat sandwiches and stopped getting fast food a couple times a week. I'm 161 right now at 6' and right in the middle of the bmi. I would like to be 140 ultimately but then I will have to buy all new clothes again. Probably a whole lot more than you want to know, but I am so happy to have lost weight!!

dcarch, my first thought was "how arrogant to charge $625 (MSRP) for a cookbook." But, then I started reading the reviews on amazon. I especially liked the review by the guy from egullet.com. Here are his pros and cons: Pros: ---- * Level of detail is incredible * Covers the "how" and the "why" of every detail of the cooking process * Depth and breadth of coverage is... well, worthy of 2400 pages * Stunning photography, graphic design, and even printing Cons: ---- * Many of the recipes are very challenging * Coverage of hyper-expensive equipment can be off-putting * Too tall to fit on any normal bookcase Regardless of how fabulous the book is, even the Amazon discounted price of $450 is simply out of the reach of most home cooks. The soon-to-be published home version at $150 is still out of the reach of many. Here is a link that might be useful: Amazon link to Myhrvold books

Hi, there! Are you speaking of the bread that's shaped like Santa's head with the hat, etc? I was just doing a search on it as I saw it on the Martha Stewart Living show (the old one) way back in December of 1999. I printed it out so I do have the recipe if this is the one. The pastry chef was Michel Richard. Let me know if this is the one? Good Luck, Judy