The Bread Maker

I love my bread maker. A couple of years ago when I got interested in the ethics of food I put one on my amazon wish list. When a very large box arrived at my office near my birthday, I had no idea what was inside. It was the bread maker--a gift from my college roommate. I was thrilled, in spite of the less than environmentally friendly packaging to get it to me.

I use the bread maker to make pizza dough a lot. Maybe I eat too much pizza. But, the pizza I make myself is such that I can control the ingredients and watch the salt. It also means I can use local flour in my pizza dough which was a real impetus for getting the machine -- the desire to use local flour.

I hardly ever eat bread bought from the store, but on the rare occasion I do I try to get bread made with at least regional flour (there are a couple of brands in this area with flour from Montana). And I do wish I could find a better baguette recipe for the bread machine. I'd be willing to make the dough in the machine and bake it in the oven if that were possible, which I do for rolls.

But tonight it is pizza on the menu. I am turning some of my lovely farmers market finds into the vegetable base for home made white pizza -- no tomato, just summer squash, zucchini, onion, some pine nuts and fresh oregano and just a little mozzarella cheese. Delish!