A while back, I had been baking bread in my bread machine quite often. Then I got sidetracked by a lot of medical issues which involved trips downtown fairly frequently, and I got out of the habit. After that the West Bend breadmaker stopped working properly: it would kick back into “Basic” bread mode no matter whether I tried to select “Dough” or “French” or whatever. So I stopped making bread altogether.

Last weekend I went into the local Bed Bath and Beyond to see what kind of double sheets it might have, and whether I could find any I liked (mine are all subject to massive wrinkling of the bottom sheet, which is uncomfortable).

Sheets are on the second floor of the place. I had to walk past the Small Appliance section to get to the escalator, and I thought “I wonder if they have any bread machines and if so, how much are they?” They had six of these Oster 9050 Expressbake Breadmakers for $79 apiece, so I bought one.

Ta da!

Tonight I made my first loaf of bread in it.

From Bread

This is a two-pound loaf of French Bread per the machine’s recipe, and it slightly overtopped the pan. That meant removing the bread pan was a bit of a hassle. I had to get a paring knife to trim the bread around its handle in order to get my fingers under it to lift.

Boy, did it taste good with our cheeseburgers and home fries and corn on the cob.