When it's not all or nothing

For the first 28 years of my life, my bread had always come from the store. (Full disclosure: it still does most of the time.) For a couple of reasons, I eventually started thinking I should make it myself. First, I became more aware of the ingredients in packaged foods. It was difficult to find brands without high-fructose corn syrup, for example. Second, I actually ate fresh bread for the first time. It was kind of a revelation. The stuff in the plastic sleeves at the supermarket just can't compete. Still, the idea of making bread myself seemed intimidating and time-consuming. I continued to buy my supermarket bread.

Eventually, I met my now-fiancé. He introduced me to a new kitchen toy: the bread machine.

Sure, I'd heard of bread machines before. I even have a friend who had extolled their virtues. Honestly, I'd kind of always shunned them though. It sort of seemed like cheating. If I was going to make my own bread, I should go all in, right? And have you seen bread machine bread? It's a totally uninspiring cube! With a hole in the bottom!

You know what, though? When I used the bread machine, I had total control over the ingredients that went into it.  And even if is wasn't pretty, the taste beat the pants off of the stuff from the supermarket. It still doesn't get as much use as it should, but I did pull it out this past weekend. There's not much better than the smell of bread baking on a rainy afternoon. (Another point for making your own bread!)

So far most of my loaves have been made using the whole wheat recipe that came with the bread machine, though I'm looking to expand my repertoire. Do you have any favorite bread machine recipes? Or go-to recipes for making it all yourself? I still want to work up to regularly baking bread without the assistance of a bread machine, but I'm happy okay with where I am for now. In the end, it's better to be taking small steps than no steps at all!