Mr. Hawthorne Makes Bread With His New Breadmaker.

Mr. Hawthorne's birthday was August 31,

and one of the presents I got him, among a stunning array of gifts, was this Zojirushi Bread Machine.

Mr. Hawthorne is excited to start on his first recipe. Basic white bread. And Ticky, don't give me any crap about not having 100% whole wheat. Mr. Hawthorne is starting with small steps. He'll get to the other flours later.

2/3 cup water goes in.

2 cups bread flour.

1 1/2 TB each sugar and dry milk and 1/2 tsp salt.

A tablespoon of butter.

1 tsp yeast.

Dang. This thang looks complicated. Whoot! Look at the buttons. I can make cookie and pasta dough, cake, and jam!?! I should probably read the directions.

Took 3 1/2 hours from start to finish for a 1-pound loaf.

A hundred years ago, when XKT was living with us - 1993? - we had a bread maker. I never learned how to make a decent loaf with the darn thing, but Mr. Hawthorne surely could. I could make bread from scratch, but I never mastered that machine. Mr. Hawthorne finally wore it out. And I thought he'd like another one. 18 years later.

That's quite a pretty loaf.

I cut off the heel, toasted it, and spread on some LOLUB. That's LAND O' LAKES UNSALTED BUTTAH!

Then I took it to an extreme level. I took Mr. Hawthorne's most excellent meat loaf and made me a sammich.

Meatloaf sandwich. A lofty, yet humble meal.

A meal after my own heart.

Buttery meatloaf sandwich on the heal of of loaf from a Zojirushi bread baker. One of the pinnacles of gourmet meals. You have no idea how good this is.