Baking bread

My Mom baked nearly all the bread we ate growing up. I don't think I helped make it much. The dqy long procress usually took place while I was at school. (Mom did not work outside the home till i was in 8th grade and then worked from a home office.) As an adult, I found the idea of baking bread intimidating. Eric talked me into putting a bread machine on our wedding registry and I got hooked on using it during the next few years. Then a couple years ago, I discovered Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, and I've rarely used the machine since for yeast breads (I do use it for fruit/veggie breads like zucchini, pumpkin, and cranberry).

I have the impression that I don't experiment with recipes, but on the other hand, I rarely follow the ABin5 recipes straight up. I like to mix in whole grains, from wheat to spelt to oats and more. I got a greqt sourdough starter from Gail at work and have been playing with that since I adore the sour taste of sourdough breads.

I don't recall exactly what I put in these two. This first one is from last weekend. I also made some crackers--simply rolled some of the dough very thin, docked with a fork, brushed with oil, and sprinkled on some salt. I pressed the salt in lightly with the rolling pin. I forget the baking time. They were lovely the first day, but not quite as good or as crisp two days later when I had them for lunch. Not sure if they should have been kept differently; I put them in a plastic container.

This next one from just the other day I burned a little as I forgot to turn off the convection fan I used to preheat quickly.

(Just learned, after great effort to get my iPhone photos from there to my iPad so I could write and post on it, that Blogger doesn't have the full editor. I can only do a few hints and inserting photos isn't one. I guess I may write on here at times but must use the laptop for photos. Or may i can upload photos on the iPhone? I doubt it but will try.)