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JAN

07

2007

a sunday of laundry, football, and bread making - that's enough, right? two loads of laundry, first some clothes from the hamper, followed by some bath towels. the patriots were battling the jets on television, a close first half, but then they started to pull away to finally win and advance, facing the best-NFL-record chargers next sunday.

as for the bread machine, it'd been sitting in my basement gathering cobwebs, a gift from alex before he left for japan many years ago. not sure where he got it, i think it was something he stole from the office kitchen when his company closed its doors. every so often he'll ask me if i've used it yet, and the answer was always no until today. it didn't come with a manual but i was able to download a pdf version from the manufacturer. instructions were pretty straight forward: a cup and a third of water, 2 tablespoon of melted butter, 2 teaspoon of milk (they asked for "dry" milk, i just used regular milk), 4 cups of flour (i used special bread making flour), 2 tablespoon of sugar, 2 teaspoon of salt, and 2 teaspoon of baking yeast. i didn't realize i wasn't supposed to mix the wet and dry ingredients, since apparently it's important (not sure why) for the yeast to go in dry. after i added everything into the metal loaf-shaped pan, i put it into the baking machine, set how dark i wanted my crust (medium), and hit the start button. it was pretty fun watching the machine knead the bread into a large sticky ball. everything was automatic, i didn't have to do a thing. the machine made some noises, but i hardly noticed because i had the dryer running (which is much noisier). after it stopped kneading the dough, it stopped to let the bread rise, and then started the baking. it was pretty interesting, i've never actually seen bread made before, so it was all new to me. 3 hours later i had a loaf of bread, the size and shape of a small toaster oven. my father came by just when i finished baking and we taste tested the fresh bread. it tasted like french bread, with a hint of sourbread. there was a lot of crust but that's my favorite part of the bread. i think tomorrow i might try the express bake setting, where a loaf of bread can be made in about an hour. the bread machine is really just a novelty, since i'm not a big bread eater. there are recipes for other kinds of bread, which i might attempt to make in the near future. i can now add bread making to my list of things i've done (although with a machine, so that's probably asterisked).

my father came by to give me a ride back to belmont where i had dinner with my family. i arrived with my freshly-made loaf of bread, still steaming from all that trapped heat. when i returned to cambridge hours later, an tao was already in his bedroom, preparing for bed. i didn't see him the entire day (he left this morning by the time i rolled out of bed around noontime).