Holding the line at 7-8 despite Ron Popeil's best efforts.

My size 7-8 waistline that is. ~inhales gut a bit~

I mentioned earlier that I have a gen-u-wine Ron Popeil Signature Series Pasta Machine. I purchased this treasure for the princely sum of 14.99 less 50% because I did not ACT NOW. Rather, having spotted it on a Thursday, I went back on Saturday 1/2 price day and nabbed it. Seemed to have all the parts. Even though I WAIT!!(ed) there was not MORE! No Ginzu knifes, no lemon zester no second unit for the price of one. Still, it was cheap at twice the price.

No manual though but easily remedied with a PDF I snagged online. Interestingly the Manual has order form in the back for replacement parts, (I seemed to have the basic compliment intact), and optional accessories. Among them was a sausage horn, and casings. Hmm stuffing ones own sausage does sound fun, but I was unwilling to part with more for that plastic part than I paid for the machine.

It did a pretty good job on linguine, fettachini, and some rigatoni. It was tasty and I am still messing around with recipes to find a combination of texture, color and flavor that I like. I am not convinced though that it is so much better than good quality dry past cooked properly. At least when you weigh the time and difficulty of getting all the nooks and crannies clean after. I vaguely remember that the parts are dishwasher safe, but I am not sure putting egg fortified glue is such a good idea for the dishwasher. It takes a while and it exposes my nails to dishwater for longer than is good for them.

What's that you say? Latex kitchen gloves? That just seems a little to femmy to me. I mean I'll wash dishes in an apron and kitten heels but gloves? No man wants to be seen in kitchen gloves.

Anyway the point of this post was supposed to be about my multi-task idea. Alton Brown (a personal hero of mine, dunno if he ever crossdresses, but I think he could pull it off..)..has said don't own any kitchen equipment you can't use for more than one purpose. Watching the little pasta machines dough hooks whirling around I had a flash. Bread dough. Either that or some possible suggestion for such in the PDF I hastily scanned looking for a basic recipe said as much. Doesn't matter, I had resolved I'd abuse the machine some time in that way. Speaking of single use machines I think I own two bread machines, used to use them not sure why I don;t now. Oh right! These machines are used for a month or two then never again..a fate that I fear will soon overtake the pasta maker.

Saturday Dee came home between soccer games, with one hungry kid and needing to take something portable back to another of them still on the field. She complained we were out of bread. She greedily eyed a two dollar bill with a serial number that would be perfect for the owner of a 1974 Oldsmobile ram-air 455 cutlass, and a couple of other questionably interesting singles. Rather than have her give my money to some fast food place, I decided to make some bread. OK this wasn't a practical solution for the needs at hand since the next game was over in 20 minutes. For that I found some whole wheat hamburger buns that were remaindered because only Dee or I will eat them. Even the mold doesn't like them as much. They look nutritious , but they actually are pretty soft and tasty..but I digress. two slices of American so-called cheese, some mayo, some sweet pickle relish. Done.

Meanwhile I looked for a recipe.

Came up with:

2.5 cups flour
2 Tbs oil
1.5 Tbs Canned Evaporated Milk
1/2 cup sugar...(clearly not a diet recipe)
1 1/4 teas salt..(honestly, cooking is chemistry, but 1/4 teaspoon gonna make a difference???)
1 cup 80 degree water. I went with tepid.
1 pkg yeast.

Did that recipe as accurate as I could, ran it around a while, pulled it off all the odd little hooks in the machine and finished kneading by hand. kinda a stiff dough. Dishwasher was still warm, so I put that loaf in there to rise. Started a second loaf in the machine. As I said its a pain to clean, I need at least $3 worth of bread out of it to justify the time. This one I guesstimated proportions, I worried not at all when the milk spilled a little over the spoon, and flour I just dumped a couple of cups not even leveled off and added pinches of flour till the dough looked right.

It was nice and smooth and light and a little hand kneading and it was done. I let it rise and hour and punched it down. I then took a nap and woke 2 hours later. Loaf one was raised but not all that much, loaf two was at the top of the pan.

That recipe was from a bread machine website, and I wasn't using my bread machine much less theres. Another more conventional recipe suggested 400 degrees for 20 minutes. seemed high to me, but I didn't want to make a research career of this little project. 20 minutes later it was browned nicely and the larger one looked perfect, the lesser one still a little flat, about a little over 1/2 a loaf high.

Cooled them a while on a rack, they sliced nicely and tasted great. The larger one had good texture a bit like a dense dinner roll, the smaller a little compacted and doughy but tasty eating with butter. Gotta go easy on the bread and butter. Worked too hard to get into juniors sizes!