tips*&*tricks*thursday: investing in a bread machine

Hi, everyone! It's Thursday, which means that it's tips*&*tricks day! [...and a longer post too!]


I've decided that I want to set up, not exactly "theme" days, but set things that I can discuss with y'all on a regular basis. I'm going to try to have these recurring every week, so bear with me as I dive in headfirst! Below you'll find a breakdown of awesomeness what I plan on rotating through weekly:


-on Mondays, be sure to tune in for some of my "mindless" ramblings; fear not! I'm not talking about the kind of ramblings we used to do as teenagers on our livejournals [don't judge me, please]. This is going to be more along the lines of what I hope to achieve this week, topics that I find interesting and want to share with y'all, etc. I promise to keep it mixed up and lively so you don't get bored :)
-I'm generally a gracious person, but I really want to step that up. So, I've decided to make Tuesdays my "thank you" day. It could be a person, place, thing, noun, idea, product...anything! I really want to start making it a habit to realize that even the littlest thing/act/whatever can make a huge impact, and I thought to myself "SELF! Might as well blog about it!" 
i hope you're not getting sick of hearing my SELF references already...
-Wednesdays will be when I bring my calm,inner full-on bridal self out. Thus, Wedding Wednesday. I'll share things that I have going on with my upcoming wedding, and ideas that I'm having. I'll post pictures [next week, be on the lookout for our 'engagement, REMIX' shots!], ideas, boards, you name it. And speak up! I'd love to hear y'alls thoughts, so give me a little [or a lot of] feedback :)
-Thursdays will be my "tips and tricks" day. This could range from helpful hints for the home, cooking suggestions, time savers, and handy product, etc. I'm going to try and change it up as frequently as I can - variety is the spice of life! 
-Fun Friday! Let's talk about plans, fun things. Just a heads-up, I am a DIE HARD HOKIE FAN, so either brace yourself or get excited for lots of football talk during the fall :)
-Saturdays and Sundays I'll focus more on "shoptastic finds" from the farmer's market and what to do with them. 


I hope that y'all are as excited as I am about these posts! I thought that it would be a fun way to ease myself into daily posts so you don't get bored of me already. I'll still be posting LOADS of recipes and my daily *dallyings* in the kitchen, so don't worry! I have a few more recipes up my sleeve to share for the remainder of the week.


....but hey, weren't we supposed to be talking about some tips or something? Right. 


The first thing that  I decided that I wanted to share here is the all-powerful bread machine. 

not such a lowly machine, trust me.

Growing up, I was fortunate enough to live in a household where a bread machine was a product prominently [&proudly] displayed on our kitchen counter. If I recall correctly, my mom first discovered this at her sister's house then promptly proceeded to purchase one. This was when I was probably 7 or 8 - I'm 24 now, and she still has one. 

Yup, once you go bread, you never go back.

I had to somehow find the will to live make do without one while away in college, but rest assured, I always managed to bring a loaf back after vacations, visits, etc. Now that I am a big girl living in the big kid world in my own big kid house, I was finally able to purchase one this past February. I've been in heaven ever since. 

I know that you've heard me mention a few times about the wonders of such a machine [preserves, anyone?] and I kid you not, this machine lives up to all expectations. Not only does it make jam, but I haven't bought a loaf of bread since the day I brought it home. The engineer and I go through a large loaf of bread roughly once a week, so when it's gone, I do the ol' heave-ho and get my trusty maker out of the cupboard. 


Now, I bet some of y'all are wondering what else this product can do? Fear not, here we go:
Pizza dough, starters for breads, dough [that can be made into rolls, sweet rolls, English muffins, croissants, pretzels, bagels, breadsticks...the list goes on and on], cakes, jam, sweet breads. Can I hear you being convinced? This machine pays for itself in no time. 


Whew! What a post! I hope y'all enjoyed my tip of the day, and are as excited as I am about the direction that domestic*dallyings is moving in. I'm enjoying so much sharing these things with you! I hope that you'll stick around for a long time!


....now get back to work, aren't there some documents you should be reading? :)


cheers!!