My grandparents didn’t speak English. Well, I guess they did speak English but they chose to only use their native tongue at home. Sadly, this meant that I knew little about them or their former lives in Eastern Europe.
The one connection to my heritage was through the wonderful foods that my grandmother made.
My grandparents saved and bought a two flat on the west side of Chicago where they raised their family of seven children in a tiny upstairs apartment. Three minuscule bedrooms, a living room, and a kitchen big enough for a large table and a built in china cabinet. There was a old fashioned farmer’s sink, a white refrigerator with a rounded top, and a stove. My early memories were of a stove that possibly used wood or coal, but later on I remember a gas stove that had some sort of a heater built into it. I don’t think their apartment had any sort of central heat, and they relied on space heaters to keep warm in the winter.
My grandmother was a short woman, and to me, appeared to be a bit stout. She was always in motion getting this or that. My grandparents were elderly by the time I was around, and my grandfather spent most of his time in bed. I remember him as a frail man. However, he was quite strong in his younger days.
The kitchen, was the heart of the house. When my parents would visit we would all sit around the kitchen table. Coffee was served along with some sort of homemade strudel, a rolled coffee cake called a kolache, or jam filled cookies called kolachky. I was offered coffee, even at a young age. Mine was usually equal parts coffee and milk with an overdose of sugar. The adults drank theirs black.
I was probably six in this photo, and even then, I would drink coffee when I visited my grandparents.
My grandmother wore her hair pulled back in a bun, and unless she was going out, she wore one of her house dresses that had tiny patterns on them. Some were pink, others yellow, but all in the exact same style. Over her house dress would be some sort of an apron. Hair bun, house dress, and apron, I thought of them as the required uniform for grandmothers.
A birthday party for my grandmother, likely in the late 1940s.My grandparents, circa 1950s?My grandfather is standing, and seated directly below him is my grandmother. By the style of the outfits, I’m guessing the 1920s.
When she would see me she would smile and say, “Good boy,” at which point she would give me a hug. She smelled vaguely of yeast and garlic. It was a pleasant smell.
Many years later I learned that both my grandmother and my grandfather spoke fluent English. In fact, my sister told me that my grandfather didn’t even have an accent. I believe that he wanted the grand kids to learn their native tongue so he never spoke English around us. None of us took the hint.
My parents lived in my grandparent’s downstairs apartment until my oldest sister was nine. She has fond memories of going upstairs and being pampered by our aunts, who were teens at that time. This was during the war years and she recalls sitting on the front porch with my aunts and soldiers who were on leave, “I have a photograph of that somewhere,” she told me.
My aunts had cleaning duties on Saturday and my sister would go upstairs and watch them as they meticulously washed and dusted the entire apartment. When all was done my Aunt Susie would play on the piano “Lilli Marlene, ” “The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers.” and a few other tunes, a recollection that my sister cherishes to this day. Apparently, an unnamed soldier had sent my Aunt Lil the “Lilli Marlene” piano music, since her name will Lillian. I’m guessing that this was from a hopeful but unsuccessful suitor, as she eventually married my Uncle Steve.
My sister remembers my grandmother making bakery every Saturday. She would set up a folding table and place it in the kitchen next to the china cabinet. My grandmother would heap flour on the table and make a crater in the center of the flour mountain. There she would add her liquids, which varied depending if she was making a sweet bread, or her luscious light rye. She did this all from memory; no recipe or measuring cups or spoons were required. She knew how much liquids to add, and when the knead was done by the touch of her hand. I had dozens, possibly hundreds of slices of her rye bread over the years and I never remember a single one being less than perfect.
Here, my Uncle Jim is holding one of my grandmother’s rounds of light rye bread.
I’m 15 years younger than my oldest sister, and my aunts were long married by the time that I came around. However, my grandmother’s habits continued. She was always busy, always making things from scratch. She would still can vegetables from her Victory Garden, grind her own hamburger meat, make her own noodles, and bake her own bakery.
Her bread is my fondest memory of her. I remember that the light rye bread was often dotted with caraway seeds that added their own distinct flavor. She would bake it into a giant round, so large that it had to cut into reasonable chunks before slicing. The bread had a hard crust and a solid, yet soft interior. It was heaven in a slice and was delicious with cold butter, or served up in a ham, hard boiled egg, and horseradish sandwich.
In memory of my grandmother I decided to make a light rye in the bread maker. My goal was to make a bread similar to her’s as a homage, rather than trying to duplicate her recipe. Let’s be honest, there were no bread makers when she was making bread, and if one did exist it is unlikely that she would have used it.
This bread tastes very similar to hers, but the crumb is a bit lighter and more spongy. The crust, however, is dead on. Here is the recipe that I used from the Zojirushi bread maker manual:
The ingredients are very simple. Use the the Active Dry Yeast amount listed. The Rapid Rise Amount is for when you are using the “Quick Wheat” setting on the bread maker. Since all of the ingredients were listed in grams, I was able to weigh everything, including the water. No mess, and so easy!Here is everything in the bread maker. Remember, liquids on the bottom, then dry ingredients, finally yeast in a little well made in the flour. I set the course to “Basic Wheat” and pressed start. That was it!The finished loaf. Not the beautiful round that my grandma made, but a lot easier!You can see that the crumb is soft and airy. Childhood memories restored!
Most families have their own traditions, as does ours. Their significance may or may not be recognizable to others, but they are still important.
One of our traditions centers around our birthday celebrations. When someone in our family has a birthday they get to choose the dinner menu for their special day. The rest of us work as a team to make that dinner for the celebrant. Our labor is part of the gift that we give them.
Inflation, the Trump tariff taxes, and other factors have made beef prices skyrocket through the roof and now we think twice when considering hamburgers for dinner. Steak has become a rare luxury item in our home, so it is no surprise that it is a frequently requested item for a birthday dinner.
We recently celebrated my daughter’s birthday. This was her chosen menu:
Steak, salad, broccoli, real mashed potatoes, cut up strawberries, yeast rolls and Rainbow cake.
What is Rainbow cake? When my kids were very young my wife had a major operation that left her bed bound for many weeks. I took off time from work to not only take care of her, but also our small children, one who was still in diapers. I wanted things to be as normal as possible for our children, and I came up with activities that we could do ranging from going to the zoo to having picnics at our local park. I did all of the cooking during that time and one day I came up with the idea of making a rainbow cake. I added a magical descriptions about the cake concerning the power of the rainbow, and the cake became a hit. In fact, some of my kids request that I still make Rainbow cake for their birthdays to this very day.
My daughter enjoying a slice of Rainbow cake for her birthday.
All of the above is just background for the reason of this post, which is another writing to encourage you to save money by using a bread maker.
I have done several posts showing how easy and inexpensive it is to make bakery quality bread using a bread maker. Today, I’ll write about using the dough function to make other yeasted products. In this case, dinner rolls.
I don’t think that I have made dinner rolls in over a decade, so don’t expect perfection. The bread maker easily makes a perfect dough, but dinner rolls are still more work than pressing a button as you have to form them, and bake them in the oven.
I found a traditional recipe from an author named “Sally” that looked good, so I went with that. Honestly, they turned out delicious. They were exponentially better than commercial dinner rolls and significantly better than those from the grocery store bakery. Rich, yet light, they had a slightly sweet and eggy flavor and were a dynamite addition to our birthday feast. For me, they were extremely nostalgic, as they reminded me of the wonderful rolls that my mom made so many years ago.
I was too lazy to cost out this recipe, but I know that they these rolls are significantly less expensive than comparable ones purchased from a good bakery. The level of work is a bit more than the “press and forget” bread from a bread maker. But since the machine does all of the heavy lifting, it is a pleasure to make them.
Consider giving this recipe a try, and you will elevate a simple dinner into something special. Let’s take a look at the recipe.
This recipe is for a traditional bake. To convert the recipe for a bread maker remember to add your liquid ingredients first, followed by the dry ingredients and the yeast last.
I measured the milk and added the butter to it. I microwaved the mixture for around 15 seconds until the milk was warm to touch but not hot.
Into the baking pan it went.
In went an egg and then the salt.
Next, I added the sugar.
I weighed the flour, as that is the most accurate way to measure it.
Lastly, in went the yeast.
I selected the basic dough course and pressed start.
This is an extra step, but do it if you have time. After the dough was kneading for 5-10 minutes I checked it. It was looking a bit slack. There was still dough that wasn’t incorporating into the dough ball. This can happen even with careful measuring for a variety of reasons ranging from humidity, to variations in the brand of flour, to the size of the egg. If I did nothing the dough would probably be OK, but fixing it is easy.
I added about one tablespoon of flour and waited about 30 seconds to see if I needed to add more. That one tablespoon was enough, all was good.
Now the machine was on its own. I would come back when it beeped that it was done making the dough.
Here is the dough all puffy and beautiful.
I placed the dough on a lightly floured surface and allowed it to rest for around 10 minutes. This makes it more “cooperative” with shaping.
The next step involved a pastry scraper. This is a very inexpensive gadget with many uses. If you don’t have one you can just use a knife.
The dough was divided into 12 pieces. You can use a scale to be precises, but I just eyeballed it.
The edges of each piece was pinched together, and then I rolled the dough in my hand to form a nice ball.
The dough balls were placed in a 9 x 13 pan that I had sprayed with some cooking spray. Yes, not professionally shaped, but good enough. Don’t let perfectionism prevent you from bread making!
I covered the pan and placed it in a draft-free location and allowed the buns to double in size. I think it took between 30-40 minutes (I lost track of time).
I then baked them at 350F (175C) for 20-25 minutes. My oven may vary from yours so keep an eye on your rolls.
The rolls were a hit at dinner. The amount of work was more than making a bread maker loaf, but it was still very easy. The biggest drawback was that I had to be around when the dough was rising and then baking. Neither was a big deal.
One of my favorite things to do is to dive deeply into a topic to gain a broader understanding of it. My fascination may last a day, a week, or sometimes decades. Eventually, I’ll feel that I have learned enough, and I’ll move on to another topic. However, it is not uncommon for me to return to an area of former interest years later, and so it is with bread makers.
I became interested in bread makers sometime in the 1990s, and that interest lasted for quite a few years. I was fascinated that someone had developed a home appliance that could automate the laborious process of bread-making using a simple, consumer-oriented machine. I was intrigued not only by the process of making the bread, but also by the mechanics of the bread makers, as well as how they differed from each other. As a result, I had an extensive collection, most of which I purchased used or on closeout. I also requested and received some premium machines as Christmas and birthday gifts. Over time, I gave away most of the bread makers, but saved a few on a basement shelf where they sat for over a decade, only to be rediscovered about a year ago.
During that interim, I continued to make bread but did so using a high-end mixer, often baking six loaves at a time. Now retired, with most of my kids out of the house, that industrial-level operation is no longer needed, and the single-loaf abilities of a bread machine once again are interesting to me.
I was pleased that my old machines worked, and so I am back on a bread machine baking journey. Along the way, I have had to rely on my old knowledge as well as new skills to optimize my loaves. This post is to share some of that knowledge with you.
Are some brands of machines better than others?
The top 4 high-end brands, in my opinion, are Panasonic, Breadman (now discontinued?), Brevelle, and Zijurushi. I have extensively used all but the Brevelle brand, and I am very familiar with them. I have also used more cost-friendly machines from Oster, Toastmaster, and Regal, among others.
This Zojirushi bread maker is a well loved classic.
The expensive brands are first to innovate features and may offer a better build. I have examined the bread made from both high-end and cost-friendly machines, and the costly machines produce a better loaf, but the difference is minor. However, their overall build quality and innovative features may be enough to sway you to pay a higher price. Note that premium features often migrate to cost-friendly brands over time. For instance, you can now find fruit and nut dispensers, end-user programming, and twin paddle loaf pans on a number of breadmakers in the $100 range.
The bottom line is, if you have a cost-friendly brand, fear not, you can still get it to produce a very nice loaf of bread.
Does the shape of the loaf pan matter?
Early bread machines had a vertical “skyscraper” pan that produced a rectangular loaf with slices similar to sandwich bread or a Pullman loaf. They kneaded the dough well, as the shape of the pan kept the dough in contact with the kneading paddle. These machines yielded bread with uniform slices, but the bread, being square, had more of an industrial look.
This thrifted Regal bread maker cost $14 and is still in excellent condition. It makes a perfectly fine vertical-style loaf. All of the early bread makers had vertical pans, including this Regal machine, and you can still find some newer machines with this style of pan. It makes a squarish slice that cuts nicely, but looks a bit industrial. However, this style of loaf pan possibly does the best job when it comes to kneading and making a loaf with consistently sized slices. However, its bread’s poor aesthetics were likely its downfall in popularity.
Single paddle horizontal loaves were then introduced and are the most popular form factor today. The bread from these machines resembled a traditional loaf, which made it more appealing. However, the loaves were often very tall, necessitating the end-user to cut the bread in half so it could fit in a toaster.
I first saw a twin paddle horizontal loaf pan on a Zojirushi machine. This design produces a loaf that most closely approximates the standard loaf that you would buy at a bakery, as it is both horizontal and the correct height. The downside of this machine is that it creates two holes in the bottom of your bread instead of one due to its twin paddles. Also, it is more likely to make bread with an uneven top (in my opinion).
The twin paddles on this Zojirushi pan allow it to be a bit longer, making its bread resemble a traditional bakery loaf the most.
None of the above problems impacts the deliciousness of the final product. Your choice of pan is strictly a matter of preference.
How many programs do you need on your machine?
Breadmakers have gained an ever-expanding number of programs, some for specialty breads and others that do tasks ranging from making jam to cooking rice. Most specialty bread programs are not significantly different from standard programs and may be unnecessary. Additionally, I have no plans to stir-fry or make jam in my breadmaker. The three essential programs that every machine should have are basic (white bread), whole grain/multi-grain, and dough. Some may want a program for gluten-free bread, if that is the reason they are buying a machine. I have made many different bread types using the standard settings on multiple bread makers with success. Some of the extra programs seem more gimmicky than anything else to me.
You can do all sorts of things using the dough program. Here I made the dough in the bread maker and then formed it into hamburger buns that I baked in the oven.
Additional stuff
Bread makers sometimes have convenience features that you may want. Some Breadman, Panasonic, and other brands feature an automatic seed and fruit bin that drops these ingredients into the bread dough at just the right time. Other bread makers, like many of the Zojirushi units, can be programmed to the user’s baking specifications. Many machines have crust darkness controls, delay timers, warming features, fast bread cycles, and other options that some may find desirable.
My problem
When I returned to bread maker bread making, I had a few clinkers, but most of my loaves were delicious. However, they often seemed much shorter than the ones I saw on YouTube. This led me to dig deeper into the topic once again, and I have come up with some solutions.
But first acceptance!
Realize that a bread made from freshly ground whole wheat will never rise as high as a bread made from commercially milled white bread flour. The same can be said of bread loaded with seeds, cheese, or other weighty additions. Yeast can only do so much heavy lifting. However, it is possible to optimize these breads so that they can be the best that they can be.
Use the right recipe source
Your machine will come with a variety of recipes that have been tested with that machine. Start there, as you are likely to have the greatest success, and you will gain an understanding of how dough performs in your bread maker. I have used recipes submitted by others on the internet with good results, as well as recipes from known sources, like Better Homes and Gardens or a flour or yeast company’s website. Remember, you can download instruction/recipe manuals for many bread makers by searching for them online.
Recent cookbooks (published in 2024 and 2025) on Amazon from unknown sources may be problematic, as some are now created with AI, and the recipes may not have been thoroughly tested. Make sure that you read the book’s reviews carefully when buying a newly published book. Likewise, you may have to do some trial and error, adapting Grandma’s famous bread recipe.
Using a recipe from a bread maker’s cookbook is a great way to start your bread-making journey, as it is designed to be as foolproof as possible. This recipe makes a wonderful light wheat bread. I leave out the basil for general-purpose sandwich and toast making.
About flour
Flour is simply a vegetable product made from milling a vegetable down into a fine powder. Most often, the vegetable is a grain of some sort. There are many different types of flour, with common ones being wheat (of various kinds), buckwheat, and rye. However, flours can be made from other grains, like spelt, and even nuts, like almonds. Each of these flours will have its own unique characteristics.
Wheat flour is often categorized by the amount of gluten that it has. Bread flour contains around 13% gluten, AP flour has around 11% gluten, and cake flour has around 8% gluten. Gluten is what gives bread its remarkable chewy tenderness. This characteristic is excellent for bread; not so good for cake, as no one wants a chewy cake. Hence, less gluten in cake flour.
Some folks have gluten allergies and can’t eat breads made from flours that contain gluten. They eat breads made using more complicated gluten-free recipes, which are a compromise as they don’t have the same bready characteristics as gluten-containing breads.
You can make gluten-free bread using a bread maker’s basic cycle, but because the bread doesn’t contain gluten, it doesn’t require all the kneading that develops the gluten in traditional bread. A gluten-free bread program reduces the kneading times, which may result in a better gluten-free loaf. If you have Celiac disease and are primarily making bread to produce gluten-free bread, you may want a machine with a gluten-free bread program.
The chemistry
Bread making has existed for thousands of years and has been the staff of life and main calorie source for many different cultures. Flour is mixed with water and yeast and kneaded. The kneading process alters several proteins in the bread, specifically gluten and gliadin. This results in an elastic dough and a deliciously chewy and spongy baked bread.
The yeast, being a live organism, utilizes the sugars and starches in the dough and produces carbon dioxide, a harmless gas. This gas causes bubbles in the dough, making the bread rise and expand. Baking the bread kills the yeast, leaving us with a delicious, light loaf of bread.
Other ingredients can be added to the bread to modify it. Salt adds flavor and controls yeast growth, while sugar adds sweetness and helps fuel the yeast. Eggs and milk add richness and can alter the texture of the bread. Butter and oils add richness, flavor, and tenderness. Spices add flavor, and seeds and nuts contribute texture.
If you understand how yeast grows and how ingredients impact yeast, you can solve most of your bread maker problems.
Common bread machine bread issues
-The clinker. In this example, the bread never seemed to rise and is a hard, horrible baked mess. Causes: This is often caused by using bad yeast, forgetting to add yeast, improper mixing, leaving the paddle out of the machine, or insufficient liquid.
-The collapse. In this example, the bread seems to rise rapidly, but then collapses during the baking process. Causes: This is often caused by excessive yeast, or too warm a proofing temperature, overproofing, or dough that is too slack.
-The shorty. In this example, the bread does rise, but not to an expected level. Causes: Insufficient or poor-quality yeast, inadequate liquid in the dough, insufficient proofing time, inadequate gluten development, insufficient kneading time, or unfavorable baking conditions.
This bread was still delicious, but it should have been at least 50% taller.
-The uneven top. In this example, the bread’s top is uneven or bumpy. Causes: This is common in bread machine bread, especially bread from those machines with two paddles. You can smooth out the dough before the final rise, or do what I do, which is nothing. On dual paddle machines, some say that pointing the paddles in the same direction at the start of baking solves this problem, but Zojirushi says it doesn’t make a difference.
-The paddle holes. Causes: The kneading paddles create holes in the bottom of the bread. You can remove the paddles at the start of the last rise to minimize the holes, or do nothing. I do nothing; it is not a big deal.
-The yuck. In this example, something went terribly wrong. The bread is too salty, bland, or otherwise disgusting. Causes: Bad ingredients, spoiled ingredients, or user error.
The good news is that we know that the machine is doing what it does correctly, so the above problems are most likely due to user error or, rarely, environmental issues.
Yeast issues
Yeast is a living microscoping organism. The dried yeast that we buy is a cultivated strain of yeast known to produce a flavorful bread product. Yeast manufacturers carefully grow yeast in a solution and then remove the water by dehydration. The yeast is ground into a fine powder. Dried yeast is still alive, but in a suspended state. Adding water will hydrate the yeast and revive it. Provide a bit of sugar in the water, and the yeast will start to metabolize the sugar and produce carbon dioxide bubbles.
Yeast will eventually die in a suspended state, but you can lengthen the time before its demise by refrigerating the yeast or, better yet, freezing it. You can take it directly out of the freezer and use it in your recipe.
Yeast exists everywhere, and it is floating around the room that you are sitting in right now. Sourdough is bread made from this natural yeast that is allowed to grow in a solution of flour and water. Making sourdough is an art, but the result is a delicious, crusty, slightly sour bread.
You can buy commercial yeast in soft “cakes,” but these are now hard to find. Dried yeast is readily available in packets, jars, and “bricks.” The bricks are substantially less expensive than individual packets. Yeast comes in two forms: Active and Instant. Instant yeast is sometimes rebranded as Rapid-Rise or Bread Maker Yeast.
Bread-making machines will specify which type (Active or Instant) to use. Typically, active yeast must be activated in water before use, but it can be added without activation in a bread maker. Instant Yeast does not have to be activated to be used in baking. The main difference between the two yeasts is that Instant yeast is pulverized into smaller granules.
These two forms of yeast products have become more similar over the years, and some home bread makers directly substitute one for the other. However, others are more strict and use different amounts when switching from one type to the other, and some avoid substituting altogether.
Dead yeast is the most common reason why your bread will not rise properly, and this is easily testable. Add a small amount of yeast to warm (not hot) water that has a pinch of sugar in it. Wait a bit, if your mixture starts to have bubbles, it is good. No bubbles, and the yeast is dead and useless. Yeast within its expiration date can still be bad if stored in a hot place in your home, a store, or in a warehouse.
I buy yeast in bulk as it is significantly less expensive. I store it in the freezer to increase its freshness.
The measurement issue
Another widespread end-user problem when bread-making is measurement error.
In the US, it is common to measure by the volume of ingredients using a measuring cup. This is especially error-prone when measuring flour, which can be packed fluffy or solid in a cup, significantly changing the amount of flour added to a recipe. Additionally, flour can attract water in a humid environment or lose water in a dry climate, which impacts its volume. Add other errors, such as not leveling the cup, and it is easy to understand why this method is less than ideal.
A much better way to measure is by weight, in grams. This is also a more straightforward method, as you can place your baking pan on a digital kitchen scale and then tare the scale, which sets the display at zero. Add the amount of flour in grams for a more accurate measurement.
I now weigh almost all my ingredients, including liquids. Not only is it more accurate, but there is less cleanup. I simply tare the scale and add ingredient one, then tare the scale back to zero and weigh the next ingredient, and so forth.
I have an older scale that can bounce back and forth a few grams, so I still use volume measurements when weighing anything less than 20 grams. Therefore, when measuring my salt and yeast, I still use measuring spoons. For everything else, I use the scale, and it has definitely resulted in better bakes in my bread machine.
You can find many volume-to-weight conversion tables on the internet. Here are some common ones:
Bread flour 1 cup = 120 grams
AP flour 1 cup = 120 grams
Water 1 cup = 227 grams
Milk 1 cup = 227 grams
Butter ½ cup = 113 grams
Sugar 1 cup = 198 grams
Yeast 2 ¼ tsp = 7 grams
Salt 1 T = 8-18 grams, depending on the salt type
Place your pan on a kitchen scale and press tare, and the scale will zero out. You can then weigh your ingredient. Press tare again for the next ingredient. The weight for this flour was supposed to be 340 grams, and I have 342 grams. Such a small difference will not harm the bread. My scale is old, and I don’t trust it to properly weigh tiny amounts. If the item is less than 20 grams, I use measuring spoons.
Ingredient temperature issues
Only a few bread makers have an ingredient warming feature. Yeast, being a living organism, is sensitive to temperature fluctuations. Too hot, and you kill the yeast. Too cold, and you slow its growth. The ideal temperature range for yeast is between 80° F and 90° F (27° C and 32° C); however, going up to 110 ° F (43 ° C) is typically OK, and some dry yeasts may prefer this slightly warmer environment. If the temperature is too hot for you to put your finger in a liquid, it is too hot for the yeast. Conversely, if you are adding cold milk and butter to your mix, don’t expect the yeast to be happy. Try to have ingredients at room temperature or a bit warmer when making bread.
Environmental issue
If your environment is too hot or too cold, or if your machine is placed next to something too hot or cold, it will impact your rise. This is usually an easy problem to solve using common sense.
An additional measuring issue
You can measure everything correctly and still be off. Many bread machine bakers will check their machine after 5-10 minutes of initial kneading. If the dough ball looks too liquidy, with the dough not completely incorporated into a ball, or too dry, with a ratty-looking ball or a lot of raw flour present, this is the time to fix it. For liquidy dough, add a tablespoon of flour and wait 30 seconds; if the dough doesn’t all form into a ball, repeat until it does. Do the same if the dough is too dry, but add a tablespoon of water in place of the flour every 30 seconds until the ball is smooth and roundish. Once you achieve a smooth ball, you can close the lid and go about your business. The machine will do the rest of the work on its own.
Your dough should look like the above. Add flour slowly in small amounts; if it is too slack, add water in small amounts; if too dry.
If you see a lot of flour stuck to the sides of the pan, you can use a silicone spatula to knock it down into the pan at the same time.
Wrong setting issues
I already stated that most of us only need a few program settings on our machines. However, you still need to use the right setting. Whole wheat bread needs different kneading and rising times compared to white bread. If you try to make whole wheat bread using the “basic” setting, you will likely be disappointed with your results.
Bread flour vs. All Purpose (AP) flour
Bread flour has a bit more gluten, and this will give you a better product and a better rise. Many recipes will ask you to use bread flour for this reason. However, I have often used regular AP flour even when the recipe calls for bread flour. Would my bread have been better with bread flour? Probably, but it was still excellent with AP flour.
Ingredient concerns
We already talked about bad yeast, but it is possible that another ingredient that you are using is not up to standard. This is most common with flour. It is easy to try a different brand or batch of flour if you are concerned about this.
I have a problem with my city water, and I’m guessing that the water treatment chemicals inhibit yeast growth. To compensate, I very slightly increase my yeast and very slightly reduce my salt, which is yeast-inhibiting, in my recipes. If a recipe calls for two teaspoons of yeast and 2.5 teaspoons of salt, I may change that to 2.25 teaspoons of yeast and 2.25 teaspoons of salt. Another option that I could try would be to use distilled or filtered water.
Salt issues
Salt adds flavor, but it also inhibits yeast growth. Because it can inhibit yeast, it is also used to modulate yeast growth. Too little and the yeast will overgrow, too much and the yeast is inhibited or dies. All salts (table, Kosher, sea salt, etc) are the same chemical, sodium chloride. However, the granular sizes of different salts vary significantly. A tablespoon of one type of salt may have more or less actual salt than another. For instance, table salt is finer and therefore more concentrated than Kosher salt. If a recipe calls for one teaspoon of Kosher salt, the conversion is to use around ½ of a teaspoon of table salt. Doing a one-to-one conversion will lead to too much salt, and this could inhibit the bread from rising. Conversely, going in the opposite direction can lead to overproofing and having a loaf collapse.
It is essential to separate the dry salt and yeast when loading your bread maker. I put the salt on one edge of the pan and place the yeast in a little depression in the middle of the pan. If they touch when they start mixing, the strong initial concentration of the salt could kill the yeast. Separating the two dry ingredients prevents that from happening.
To protect the yeast, I place the salt along one edge of the pan and the yeast in a little hole in the middle of the flour.
Order ingredient concerns
Bread makers require that you add ingredients in the order listed. Some of this is because some delayed recipes can sit for hours before baking. You don’t want your yeast bubbling away or your powdered milk going sour. Develop good baking habits and add the ingredients in the order listed.
Adding extras
There are products called dough enhancers designed to improve your bake. These are a combination of ingredients that may contain several ingredients like Vital Wheat Gluten, Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid), lecithin, yeast nutrients, and diastatic malt. However, you can use these additions separately if you wish. I sometimes add a tiny bit (less than 1/8th of a teaspoon) of ascorbic acid, which helps my rise. Additionally, Vital Wheat Gluten (VWG) added at 1 tablespoon/2 cups AP flour can turn AP flour into bread flour. VWG can also help with the rise of breads made with 100% whole wheat flour. Diastatic malt can aid in rise and texture. Lecithin can assist in the texture and tenderness of the bread. All of these are optional, but one or several may help if you have tried more conservative options and you are still not getting the results that you want.
Adding fruits and nuts
If you add fruits and nuts at the beginning of your baking, the paddle will chop them up too much. Some machines can drop them in at the right time, and others will beep to tell you that it is time to add them. This is usually towards the end of kneading.
If your fruits and nuts are clumping towards the bottom of your finished loaves, toss them in a bit of flour before adding them to your dough. This is especially useful for sticky ingredients like raisins.
Dealing with an uneven top
This can happen with any machine, but the dual paddle ones are more susceptible. Honestly, an uneven top doesn’t bother me a bit. However, if it bothers you, you can smooth the top of the bread at the start of the final rise.
Bread machines are more likely to make a loaf with an uneven top. This doesn’t bother me at all. If it bothers you you can redistribute the dough before the machine’s final rise.
Soggy bread issues
Leaving your bread in the machine after it is baked or immediately sticking hot bread in a plastic wrapper will result in a soggy loaf. It is best to cool it out of the pan on a rack if you want a crisp crust. I often leave it in the pan for 5-10 minutes first, which causes less tearing at the paddle site. If you like a softer crust, wrap the bread in a clean dish towel to cool.
Mold and stale bread issues
I have found 3-week-old store-bought bread at the bottom of our bread basket that was perfectly edible. That is scary. Homemade bread is fresh and natural and doesn’t have preservatives. When stored properly, expect 3-4 days before you need to turn the bread into bread crumbs, French toast, or bread pudding.
The best way to store bread is in a cool, dry place in a container with some ventilation to prevent mold growth. There are many options, including a bread box, a bread bag, or wrapping the bread in a clean kitchen towel. I use a cake cover that has a vent hole on its top. If the bread looks good at the 5-day mark, I may still eat it, but I’ll toast it first to make it more palatable.
I store my bread under a cake dome that his an air hole.
If the bread is thoroughly cooled, you can store it in a plastic bag or Tupperware container; however, this will soften the crust, and your chances of getting moldy bread will increase.
Storing bread in plastic will keep it fresher for longer, but it will also increase the likelihood of mold growth.
Another way to preserve bread is to freeze it or freeze half of it. Thawing on the counter will give you bread nearly as fresh as when it was baked.
Cutting the entire loaf into slices will hasten its demise as you have more surface area to dry out. However, I do that as my family won’t eat it unless it is convenient. It is a compromise that I have to make.
My family won’t use my bread if they have to slice it themselves. Although not ideal, I pre-slice my bread. I use a slicing guide as I tend to cut on a slant. Slicing as needed will keep your bread fresh longer, but “ya gatta do what ya gatta do!”
There you have it – a collection of tips to turn you into bread machine experts.
It amazes me how inexpensive bread is when you make it yourself. Yes, you can buy a loaf of bread for a couple of bucks at the supermarket, but that bread is awful and has almost no substance.
To buy bread that has bread like qualities expect to pay anywhere from $4-$10 a loaf.
You can make homemade bread for a fraction of those costs, and customize it to suite your tastes and needs. However, making bread can be a labor intensive process. You can circumvent the labor by using a bread machine.
I have been rediscovering my bread maker, which is over 20 years old. Additionally, I found another used bread maker at a thrift store for only $14 which works well. As you know, I like to play around with machines.
My bread maker has to be at least 20 years old.
I picked up this bread maker at a second hand store for $14 and it works surprisingly well. It even came with its original guide and recipe book. In fact, today’s recipe is from that book!
The wonderful thing about a bread maker is that you add the ingredients, which takes a few minutes, and press a button. Everything is then done automatically. Imagine having your house filled with the aroma of freshly baked bread. It is quite intoxicating.
I have been experimenting with a lot of different loaves from simple white to pesto bread. I made an excellent 7 grain bread that was considerably less expensive than its store bought counterpart. However, I wondered if I could reduce the cost further by using oatmeal as my multi-grain component. I followed a recipe in the Regal bread maker manual/cookbook and it turned out with great success. The cost of the loaf? Only $1.02!
Here is the recipe:
9-11 ounces water
1.5 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons honey
1.5 tablespoons butter or margarine
2/3 cup quick oats
3 and 1/4 cups bread or AP flour (I used AP flour)
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
Add ingredients in the order listed and use the white bread or “basic” cycle. This recipe is suitable for a bread maker that can make a 1.5 or 2 pound loaf.
Start with 10 ounces of water. If you want to do things right, check the dough after it has been kneaded for around 5 minutes. If the dough looks ratty and not in a smooth ball add more water, about 1 tablespoon and wait 30 seconds before you add the next tablespoon. Stop when the the dough forms a ball. If the dough looks too wet, add a tablespoon of flour in the same manner that you would add the water. You are looking for a smooth ball similar to the photo below.
Let the bread cool for around 20 minutes before attempting to slice it. A serrated knife makes slicing easy. If the paddle is stuck in the bread carefully remove it using something like a plastic spoon as you don’t want to scratch the non-stick coating on the paddle. I take the pan out of the machine as soon as the bread is done. Then, I usually leave the bread in the pan for 5-10 minutes before trying to remove it. This results in less tearing of the bread at the paddle site.
The bread was really delicious. It is best to slice as you go as homemade bread lacks the preservatives that store-bought breads have. However, my family is more likely to use the bread if it is pre-sliced. I like to store it in a container that protects it while having a bit of air circulation. This keeps it the freshest and minimizes mold. The bread is best on day one and two, and usable as excellent toast on day 3 and possibly 4. After that save remains for croutons, bread pudding, stuffing, bread crumbs, and French toast. Remember, you can always freeze part of the loaf if you can’t consume it all in a couple of days.
I’m keeping mine fresh using a cake dome that has a little air hole in the top. Others use a bread box that has ventilation holes, while others use a bread bag. Plastic bags will keep it the softest the longest, but plastic traps moisture and promotes mold. However, I have stored my bread that way too.
Parents, please read this if you have kids who are in or plan to go to college. It could make the difference between them having a good life vs. a life of despair.
My parents impressed on me the need for a higher education. I remember my mother telling me, “You can lose a fortune, but no one can take away your degree.”
She was singing to the choir; I knew I had limited talents, and I also knew I needed to utilize those skills if I were to have a successful life. I wasn’t athletic, I am too truthful to be a salesperson, and I’m an introvert. The things that interested me were uncommon. However, school came easily for me. I seemed to understand things that others didn’t, and I had a knack for doing well on standardized tests.
Understanding how stuff worked and how seemingly unrelated things connected was as exciting to me as watching the Super Bowl was to someone else. I have always become wholly absorbed in learning the most trivial things and becoming an expert on a topic.
I grew up in an era where science was king and America was at the forefront of science. A time when it was thought that anyone could do anything. When it came time to go to college, my attendance was not in question. However, my resources were. Those resources were limited not only financially but also informationally. I had little understanding of where to go or how to pay for it. My father made that decision easy. “You are going to a community college,” he said. And so it was written. The community college was nearly free in terms of tuition costs. I had been working as a janitor during the summers and had enough money to buy a new 1972 Pinto for $2,700. College plus a car? Life was good.
To be honest, I enjoyed my 2 years at a community college. I made good friends, had a lot of fun, and did well. But what next? I still didn’t understand how the higher education system was wired. I knew that I would need to go to a state school to complete my degree, as tuition was lower. I applied to exactly one school, and to be honest, I’m unclear why I chose that school. I thought it was because my best friend, John, was going there. John now tells me that I was the one to convince him to continue his education. Perhaps it was just fate.
The 1974 tuition for that school was roughly $500/year ($3,270 in today’s money). My parents agreed to cover that, but I was responsible for my personal expenses, from clothing to shampoo. Naturally, I was expected to finish in 2 years, which I did. Just like the community college, I did very well in school. What next?
I was a Biology/Chemistry student, and I knew graduate school was needed to go further. I planned to become a university professor, and the graduate school I had my sights on would pay me to attend and even provide a stipend. I worked hard in grad school and did well, but felt that I was being called in a different direction. I left with a Master’s degree and didn’t pursue the PhD that I had initially intended. I applied and got accepted into medical school, which was roughly $14,000 a year. I actually debated going to that school, as other schools that I considered were in the $10,000/year range. However, I believe that my career as a doctor would allow me to repay a reasonable student loan. It turned out that my school made this burden even easier.
Due to circumstances, parental pressure, and self-luck, I made a lot of good financial decisions when it came to my educational choices. I entered medical school debt-free. I knew that I would have medical school loans, but taking them out was a reasonable decision.
During my decades of psychiatric practice, I have worked with every age range, from teens to seniors. My career has allowed me to gain insight into what teens think, their emotional maturity, and their understanding of the real world. I’m here to report that their knowledge of the real world was not that different from mine at their age. In other words, not very good. Almost all had a feeble concept of finances and how student loans would impact them or their parents.
Universities have steadily increased their tuition, far exceeding inflation and, in fact, surpassing many other costs, including those for housing and health. Part of this was due to the readily available and ever-expanding student loan machine, which eventually included parent PLUS loans. Student loans were originally a government program, but have long become privatized. The government guarantees the loans, and they are unforgivable by bankruptcy.
Colleges and universities saw this windfall, and tuition has reached astronomical proportions. Students are enticed by the promotion of the “college experience,” which often seems marketed more like a vacation than an education. Colleges promote their fancy dorms, deluxe gyms, and football teams more than their libraries.
The US News and World Report became an artificial college rating benchmark, and schools saw ways to manipulate their rankings to allow even higher tuitions for those places deemed highly competitive.
The old dogma that a college degree was necessary to have a good life was not countered by the realities of astronomical tuition prices or the fact that many degrees didn’t justify their high cost in the real world. Yes, if you were wealthy, a degree in Art History might be a fine option, but does it make sense to incur tremendous debt for a potentially low-paying job? That’s assuming that you could find a job in your field of expertise. No one seems to be talking about that reality.
There have always been professions that fluctuate in demand, such as teaching, engineering, healthcare, computer science, and the like. However, many of these graduates are now facing difficulties in finding employment, yet they still have to repay their student loans, which begin six months after graduation.
We have been charmed by colleges that showcase their beautiful campuses, fun parties, and happy student life. The reality is that any college can provide a great experience, or not; it depends on the student. I was treating a college student who was attending the same university that my daughter was going to. That student said that the place was terrible and unfriendly. My daughter had the opposite experience and still sees friends from that school regularly. She thought it was a wonderful place. It is what you do in college that makes it a good experience, not where it is.
You may think that I’m a super-frugal guy. That isn’t the case. However, I was fortunate to be raised in a family of limited means. We delayed our gratification for things we wanted, my mother cooked most meals from scratch, and we repaired things or did without. Life went on, and I knew that happiness wasn’t equated to my latest credit card purchase. Having stuff is excellent as long as it doesn’t become a means to an end or a financial burden.
I live in a nice town, and in a nice house. My kids attended good schools. We go on vacations. I use a credit card. However, I never have a balance on a credit card, and we now consider foods like steak as a special occasion food. Trust me, there are many delicious foods that aren’t $15 a pound! We are not deprived.
However, it would have been easy to have changed my life situation. If I ran up my credit cards, went on trips via loans, or got into BNPL in the past, my current life would be significantly different. Society says we must buy, buy, buy, buy, and experience the exotic. Why is that? It’s not to make you happy, it makes the rich richer and you poorer. More importantly, it leads to tremendous stress. That trinket you bought on Amazon, the one you lost interest in five minutes after receiving it, well, now you have to pay for it.
Our lack of financial knowledge starts early, and opportunities to increase our knowledge are often ignored. One of the greatest failures that can destroy a life is poor college financial decisions. We want our kids to succeed and be happy. We want them to have a good life, but our efforts can sometimes have the opposite effect.
College is not an experience; it is a place to gain a higher education that can be applied to help create a better life and hopefully benefit society. There are many other options that can achieve this. Learning a trade, going to a community college to obtain a certificate, attending a technical school, being self-taught, and so much more.
Now, you may be thinking that I’m saying you shouldn’t go to college. No, not at all. I’m saying that other options may be suitable for some individuals. Options that will cost less and produce a better outcome. So many kids are forced into college only to waste money and never get a degree. Why is that?
My kids were academically gifted, and I knew that they would have merit opportunities when it came to college choices. I began to discuss higher education with them when they were in middle school.
My wife is a professional, but she took 12 years off to raise our kids. That was a mutual decision that we will never regret. However, this meant that I not only had to work harder, but it also meant that our overall income was much less than what it could have been. When she did return to work, she initially did so part-time. I continued to wholly support our family, and every penny that she made for several years went into a college fund for our kids. Although substantial, it was small compared to the potential costs of sending three students to college.
When my kids were approaching college, we did more research. It was clear that they would be going beyond bachelor’s degrees, and we discovered that getting into a good post-graduate school depended more on their grades, test scores, and activities rather than the university that they attended.
Because of their academic excellence, they got into top-tier undergraduate schools; however, any scholarships offered by these schools would only cover a portion of their overall tuition expenses. However, great but less nationally known schools wanted them and were willing to give them free rides, as my kids’ academic credentials would help the schools’ admission statistics (I know, this sounds crazy, but it’s true).
It’s tough for an 18-year-old who could attend a school with bragging rights to decide between that school and another. They lack the mature financial understanding of a seasoned adult, and signing a loan for tuition doesn’t carry the same significance as if they had to withdraw that cash from their savings account. Likewise, high schools want their students to attend the most prestigious colleges, as it enhances the school’s reputation, and colleges are more concerned about collecting tuition rather than loan repayments.
Loan companies make a substantial profit on student loans, some of which have loan terms similar to those of payday loans. I read about one woman who paid $1000 a month for 10 years and actually owed more money than she borrowed after that period. There are many stories of people who are in 100K debt, or much more, with degrees that only offer low-paying jobs.
A line among student loan companies is “forbearance, forbearance, forbearance!” If someone can’t afford to pay back their loan, reduce the installment. Of course, the company makes more money on interest in the process.
My kids graduated from college debt-free and all went on to higher levels of education. However, now they had the tools to make informed decisions. One went on to a professional school which did have a sizeable tuition. She was accepted at multiple schools and chose the one that was the best balance between excellence and affordability. She does owe a considerable amount, but she has already crafted a plan to pay off her debt as quickly as possible. This plan was not made easy by the loan companies. She wanted to set up automatic payments, but they said they could only do this for the minimum amount, and not any other amount. This would mean she would accrue an astronomical amount of interest. She found a way to subvert that plan, but it was not with the lender’s help.
Here are some tips:
-Please look at college like any other investment and discuss this frankly with your pre-college and college-age kids.
-Explore the benefits of a particular degree. A student may want to study medieval languages, but is there a job available for them upon graduation?
-Run the loan numbers with your kids. There are calculators on the internet that can do this for you at the touch of a button.
-Start talking to them early about college and money; add information as they can handle it.
-I never told our kids that they couldn’t go to a particular school. What I did was to show them how much money we could contribute and then examine the financial burden that they would have to bear, depending on the school. For instance, school “A” might cost them 70,000 in student loans even with that school’s scholarship, while school “B” would essentially be free.
-I let them know that I would help them in any rational way that I could, but I would not sign parent PLUS loans, as I was getting close to retirement, and it didn’t make any fiscal sense for me.
In the end, they not only made good college choices, but also good financial choices. But what if they weren’t academically gifted and couldn’t get merit scholarships?
-Does your child have a clear idea of what they want to do with a college degree? If not, other alternatives, such as a gap year, may be a reasonable option.
-Consider a community college that can offer two years of general education classes at a fraction of the cost of a university. They can transfer to a 4-year college afterwards.
-Consider a local college to save on room and board costs.
-Consider the school that offers the best financial aid and quality of education combination rather than the highest-ranked school to which your child was accepted.
-Consider a trade school or certificate program. Many do very well with these options. I know of people in the trades who have a better lifestyle than mine. That is especially true for those who have some business skills and start their own companies.
-Avoid parental narcissism. “My kid has to go to the best school, as it gives me bragging rights!”
-Explore all of the many college scholarships offered. Those small scholarships can add up to big money, and many go unclaimed.
-Does your kid have special talents? I have known several kids who received free rides, including room and board, due to their athletic abilities. I have a friend with a very musically talented son who will certainly receive a scholarship.
-Be practical about a degree. My friend’s musically talented son could make it big, or not. For him, it would be beneficial to also have a degree in music education as a backup.
I could provide you with more options and statistics on the topic, but the movie linked below does a much better job than I could. Please watch it with your college-bound and college-attending students and discuss its content.
I believe that a successfully raised child becomes a kind, empathic adult who can support themselves. Expecting an 18-year-old to make a decision that will result in over $100,000 in debt is not reasonable.
We have a whole generation of recent college graduates who, because of student-loan debt, can’t get married, buy a house, or have kids. Is that what we want for our children?
Please watch this video with you kids and discuss it afterwards. It may save you and your children a lot of future grief!
Peace
Mike
Me graduating from medical school. So young and with hair!
I have now written several post on making bread using a bread maker. I’m a gadget guy who has a couple of bread makers as I like to compare how different machines work. Along these lines my $14 thrifted bread maker works well as does my Zojirushi Virtuoso, which is considered a top of the line machine.
Today, I’ll make some bread in the Zojirushi machine and explore the differences between it and my $14 thrifted bargain.
Here is the recipe that I’m using today.
Remember to add the ingredients in the order listed. I’m using the whole wheat setting on the Zojirushi. The Zojirushi frequently wins top awards for the quality of the bread that it produces. It has a unique twin paddle system that makes a loaf shaped similar to the bread that you would buy at a bakery. It also has a second heating element in the lid to help with browning of the bread. You can create your own bread programs on the Zojirushi. Lastly, it has a pre-warm cycle that heats up all of the ingredients before it starts the kneading process. How important are these features? Let’s make some bread and find out.
I like to weigh my flour to get a more accurate measurement. You can weight all of your ingredients, but many of my recipes are in standard volume measurements and I’m usually too lazy to convert every single ingredient.
To 9 ounces of water I added 1.5 teaspoons of salt.
And 1.5 tablespoons of oil. I’m using olive oil here.
The recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of molasses, but I’m using honey. If you use the same measuring spoon that you used for the oil, the honey will easily slide out.
I thought I would try adding 1/8 teaspoon of ascorbic acid as this can help with rise and has some some mold fighting qualities. This step is completely optional.
Now its time to add the flour, which I did by weight. Half whole wheat and half bread flour, two cups each.
In went the two teaspoons of active dry yeast.
A bread maker is a set it and forget it gadget. However, since I’m using this recipe for the first time I wanted to make sure that the dough looks good. If there was a lot of flour remaining or if the dough ball looked “ratty” I would have added a tablespoon of water and repeat this step until I had a nice smooth ball like the one above. If the dough looked too wet and was not forming a clean ball I would add a tablespoon of flour and repeat after 30 seconds until it looked like the above.
Into the bread maker it went on the whole wheat setting.
The bread turned out well, it was soft with a good crumb.
Here are my conclusions on my $14 thrifted Regal machine versus my top of the line Zojirushi Virtuoso.
-Both can make a decent loaf of bread.
-The $14 thrifted machine has a vertical pan, so when you slice the bread you get a square slice that reminds me of square sandwich bread. The Zojirushi machine makes a long loaf that resembles bakery bread. Its somewhat unique double paddle pan creates a more traditional loaf than most other horizontal pan machines with a single paddle. Those slices can be quite tall. Note, if you cut those tall slices in half they fit just fine in a toaster.
-Both machines bake the bread well, but the Zojirushi has a finer and more even crumb.
-Some say that the double paddles on the Zojirushi kneads a better dough. However, I don’t see much of a difference.
-The top heating element on the Zojirushi does brown the top of the bread a bit better, but not enough to make it an important feature in my opinion. I have also used the Zojirushi Supreme which doesn’t have a top heater and it seems to brown the top of the bread well too.
-The Zojirushi allows you to program three additions “courses” (programs) where you can determine all aspects of the kneading, raising, and baking process. This is pretty cool if you are a baking nerd.
-The Zojirushi machines is much heavier and robust than my thrifted machine. It will likely last longer.
-Usually the paddles followed by the bread pan are the first things that need to be replaced on a bread maker. Zoljirushi will sell you these replacement parts, while most other companies won’t. However, they are quite expensive, close to the cost of a new off-brand bread maker.
-The Zojirushi sometimes makes a lopsided loaf. This doesn’t happen with the thrifted machine as the pan is vertical.
In conclusion: Yes, the Zojirushi Virtuosos makes the best loaf, but my $14 thrifted machine also does a fine job. If you are into making bread machine bread get the Zojirushi. However, it is quite expensive. I picked up mine used for much less than the retail price. If you want to save some money but still want a Zojirushi consider the Zojirushi Supreme which is basically the same machine as the Virtuoso, but without the top heater. Additionally, it has a few less “courses” (programs). However, the only additional program that is worth considering on the Virtuoso is the gluten free program. But you can program one of the memories in the Supreme to do the same thing.
With all of my praise for the Zojirushi I have to say that my thrifted machine makes fine bread and great dough. Unless you are a nerd like me it is hard to justify the additional expense of the Zojirushi machines. However, you do you.
I recently wrote a post encouraging the consideration of home baking using a bread maker. A big part of this effort is to offer people options as they feel ever pushed by inflation and the Trump tariff taxes.
Being raised in a one-income family of seven, I learned ways to stretch a dollar without feeling like I was being punished. With a bit of ingenuity, it is possible to have a good life without spending a lot of money. What could be a better mood lifter than homemade bread, pizza, and rolls?
If you have read my other posts, you know I love machines, especially kitchen gadgets. OK, I love power tools too. My rediscovered bread makers were high-end in their time, and I am accustomed to high bread standards. At the same time, it makes little sense to encourage potentially struggling readers to drop hundreds of dollars on a bread machine to “save money.” That is why it was interesting for me to see all of the used machines on the market for less than the cost of breakfast for two at a dive restaurant.
Taking a few precautionary steps can help you obtain a decent machine for next to nothing. I wanted to prove this to myself using my own hard-earned cash. I stopped by a local second-hand store and spied a Regal bread maker, likely from the 1990s. I checked it out in the store and decided that it was worth my $14. Today I’ll walk you through the process so you can also make an informed decision if you decide to take the used bread maker plunge.
First, do a visual inspection. Normal wear and tear is OK, but avoid machines that look dented or abused. This Regal machine was dusty, but it cleaned up nicely with a little TLC. The bread maker came with its original box and recipe guide, another plus! This suggests that the former owner treated the machine with care.
Check out the inside. Make sure that the machine has both its bread pan and its kneading paddle. Make sure that the bread pan can lock in place. This model’s pan had to be twisted in. Remove the bread pan and examine the baking chamber. Crumbs are normal, but avoid machines where the interior looks burnt or smells burnt. This machine was pretty clean.
This machine was made in Japan, so it is likely a quality build.
Check to see if the machine does what you need it to do. You mostly need a standard white bread program, a whole wheat program, and a dough program. This unit has a few other options too. I was able to plug in the machine at the store and test the display and buttons. Everything seemed to work.
Examine the unit for any hidden damage. In this machine the plastic pins that held the cover in place were broken. However, this did not impact the functioning of the machine.
Bread pans are expensive to replace and it is likely that an old model like this one wouldn’t have replacement parts anyway. Make sure that the non-stick coating on the pan looks good and that the paddle rotates freely.
I decided to make a small loaf just to see if the machine worked. The loaf baked properly, but it was a bit smaller than expected. However, that can be corrected with a little ingredient tweaking.
The texture was not quite as good as my expensive bread makers, but the crust was good, the bread was fully cooked, and it was delicious. This bread maker makes the older style vertical loaf, but that works if you cut the bread perpendicular to the pan (as above). It makes up to a 2 pound loaf, which is another plus at this price.
All in all, an amazing value for $14. This small purchase opens up a world of fantastic homemade breads of all types as well as dough perfect for rolls, pizza, and baguettes. It also features a few extra cycles for foods like quick breads, and sweet breads. A great purchase!
Check out your local thrift store or Facebook Marketplace to find your bread maker today! You could get stuck with a broken machine, but at this price… well, you have to sometimes take a few risks in life.
Let’s face it, not all of the meals that you make have to be cross-checked with the Department of Agriculture’s nutritional guidelines or some TikTok influencer’s biased opinion. Sometimes you just need to eat something that fills your stomach, or you need to use up the food in your fridge. That’s okay, life isn’t about being perfect.
I’m close to my kids, and they are close to me. All but one have launched into their own apartments, and it is clear that we miss each other. We have had plenty of times to get together, but my one daughter wanted to formalize another activity where we all could participate. She suggested that we have regularly scheduled rotating Sunday brunches. I was immediately on board. Naturally, all were welcome, including their significant dates (I’m not sure what the proper term is for a boyfriend or girlfriend in 2025).
The family brunch rotated to our house a week ago, and we made sure that there was plenty of food. We had freshly baked cinnamon rolls made by my daughter, an egg dish casserole, fresh fruit, juice, and all sorts of other goodies. When I was at the store, I spotted some precooked turkey sausage patties on sale, and so I picked those up too. However, I forgot about them in the fridge. The other day, my wife asked me, “So, what are we going to do with those sausage patties?” Hmm, sounds like an easy weekday dinner idea.
It was great to have the kids and their friends over for brunch, but I forgot to make the sausages!
I love having traditional breakfast meals for dinner. Heck, sometimes I eat dinner leftovers for breakfast. I have no shame. My kids are used to this flexibility and are fine with it. It was a Wednesday night, and it was my turn to make dinner. What to do? Hmm, I’ll make some biscuits and gravy for dinner! Being a weekday, I lazily used some tube biscuits, and I had to be somewhat creative with making the gravy, as precooked sausages don’t render a lot of fat. However, all worked out.
My son was afraid that he would still be hungry, so he took on the task of adding some scrambled eggs. Honestly, they were not needed, but it made him happy, and he even washed his pan, so I can’t complain.
Biscuits and gravy are a soul-satisfying dish. I probably had it for the first time at a Shoney’s on a trip down South. I instantly loved it as it was strangely familiar. It dawned on me that it was very similar to a no-meat Friday dish my mom used to make, called creamed eggs on toast. In that dish, the biscuit were replaced with toast, and the sausage was replaced with slices of hard-boiled eggs. Don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it!
The recipe is super simple and very inexpensive. It easily fed three of us, and both Will and I had the leftovers for lunch. The leftovers reheat in the microwave.
I suppose this would be called a struggle meal, but it doesn’t feel like one when you eat it. Refer to the photos for my step-by-step recipe.
Traditionally, fresh pork sausage is used. However, these were precooked, and when I browned them, they didn’t release much fat.After I browned them, I chopped them up. If these were traditional sausages, I would have just broken them apart in the pan. Oh, take off the skin if you are using links.Usually, there would be enough grease from the sausage, but these pre-cooked ones were pretty lean. I added a couple of tablespoons of butter to make up the difference.I mixed everything up and sprinkled 1/4 cup of AP flour over the sausage. I slowly poured in 2.5 cups of milk (whole milk is the best), constantly stirring, over medium heat. It will take a couple of minutes for the white sauce to thicken. Then I tested for salt, but it didn’t need any as the sausage was salty. The secret to good biscuits and gravy is having enough pepper. Start with around 1/2 of a teaspoon and add more until it tastes right. The white sauce should be peppery, but not excessively so.This is what the gravy should look like when it is ready to serve. Here it is served up on some tube refrigerated biscuits. Naturally, homemade biscuits would have elevated the dish even more. My son made the eggs, but they weren’t really needed. The overall results? Delicious! Yes, I’m expecting “heart attack on a plate” comments, but “ya gatta do what ya gatta do!”
Throughout human history, individuals and groups have exerted control over others, a practice that persists to this very day. The level of control and ownership has varied. Still, it typically involves some form of power over another’s life, with the expressed purpose of using that individual to serve the needs of the individual who owns them. Often, the individual providing the services is not compensated financially, or if they are compensated, the money is used as a means of control.
Enslaved people are individuals who are “owned” by their masters. Slavery predates written history, and there are indications that individuals were enslaved by others as early as 11,000 years ago.
Slavery exists in several forms:
-Chattel Slavery is where another human being is considered property that can be bought, sold, and inherited just like any other piece of property.
-Bonded Slavery is where a person agrees to provide labor to pay off their own or a relative’s debt. However, the agreement is structured in such a way that they are never able to pay off the debt and become enslaved.
-Forced Labor is another form of slavery, where someone is forced to work against their will using the threat of imprisonment, destitution, or punishment.
A particularly horrific form of slavery was the transatlantic slave trade to America that started in the 15th century and continued for hundreds of years. Africans were forcibly transported, often under horrific conditions, to the Americas to provide labor. These human beings were considered property, and many suffered a heinous life of brutality.
Some churches supported slavery, using Bible passages as justification. Slave owners did what they could to control their enslaved people. Many southern states passed anti-literacy laws, which made it a crime to teach an enslaved person to read or write. Their justification was to prevent an enslaved person from forging documents that would claim their freedom. However, knowledge is power, and such laws also prevented an enslaved person from gaining knowledge.
At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, slavery was heavily debated. In 1800, Congress created an Act that made the slave trade illegal between countries. However, slavery continued in the US. There are reports of some slave owners creating breeding farms, similar to the way that animals are bred. Enslaved women would be forced to become pregnant to produce offspring who were then taken away and sold. Just writing this paragraph makes me shudder.
Slavery officially ended with the Civil War, but that doesn’t mean that controlling others came to an end. Movies like D.W. Griffith’s 1915 “The Birth of a Nation” portrayed blacks as violent, sex crazed monsters and served as a way to promote race distinctions.
Despite the modern belief that the ownership of another is morally wrong, slavery continues in this country and other countries. The BBC estimates that 45 million human beings live in enslaved conditions, with about 2/3rds of them residing in Asia. However, forms of slavery exist in Western countries, and I recently read about Poles brought to England with the promise of work, who were functionally enslaved there. Modern-day enslavement involves forced labor, forced child marriages, bonded labor, child exploitation of many types, and criminal exploitation. It is believed that over 1 million individuals in the United States are in some form of slavery. This number included the forced labor of prisoners, forced agricultural labor, and other forms of forced labor. Forced sexual exploitation of both adults and children is another form of slavery. I was shocked that eight states support the marriage of girls to adult men. Most of these girls are between 16 and 17, but there are reports of children as young as 10 being married.
An indentured servant is an individual who agrees to work without monetary reward to repay a debt. An example that I remember from my 5th-grade history class was those individuals who secured passage to the Americas and who repaid that passage with 4-7 years of labor. During that time, they had limited freedoms, and their benefactor owned their labor. In an ideal situation, these individuals were eventually granted rights and often received additional compensation at the end of their indenture. However, that was not always the case, as it was possible to use loopholes to enslave the indentured individual.
Company towns were established in the United States in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Company towns helped companies develop a workforce and included the necessary amenities for daily life, such as housing, a company store, and healthcare facilities. On the surface, such an investment is beneficial as a company town offers a better life in a highly structured and planned community. However, there is a dark side to this social experiment. Companies had total control of their towns, giving them the ability to exploit their workers. For instance, a company could create an imbalance between earnings vs. living expenses. This could push a worker into debt owed to the town’s services and indirectly to the company, preventing the worker from seeking better opportunities and essentially turning them into indentured servants. The company town eventually lost favor with the collapse of the economy during the Great Depression. An additional factor that contributed to the decline of company towns was the automobile, as it opened up possibilities for workers to shop for better prices and to travel to more desirable jobs.
It is universally agreed that the ownership of another human being is morally and legally wrong. However, the above examples should make it clear that some form of slavery has existed in this country long after the Civil War. I wonder if we are moving towards a new type of slavery in 2025.
We live in a society that runs on money. If you have it, your life can be good. Without it, your life will likely be terrible. Our country’s economy is fueled by consumer spending, and we are constantly being encouraged to spend more money. This is traditionally done by creating a problem that is solved by a product. We are told that our lives will be better if we purchase a nicer car, a bigger house, or if our teeth are whiter. We are constantly pushed to spend more money with advanced psychological tricks. When I was young, I was influenced by radio, TV, and print ads, but it wasn’t a constant barrage of advertisements. Today, sophisticated algorithms monitor our every action and interest. Every time you do a Google search, buy an item at the grocery store, pick up a prescription, or buy a ticket for an event, it is being recorded. That information can be compiled to form a very accurate picture of your purchasing vulnerabilities.
Influencers and para-friends.
Shopping channel hosts form para-social relationships with their viewers to encourage them to purchase unnecessary items under the guise of these fake friendships. Websites, like YouTube and TikTok, have become massive selling platforms where influencers gush with orgasmic excitement about a new face cream or piece of luggage. They showcase their fabricated lifestyles, featuring huge mansions, private jets, and luxury cars, implying that we can emulate them if we purchase their products or enroll in their mentoring program.
Others tell us that we are too fat, too thin, not muscular enough, too old, or not old enough, as they offer the cure with their proprietary supplement or plan.
Obtaining all of these wants costs money. Often, substantially more money than an individual has at their disposal.
No Safety Net.
According to Bankrate.com, in a 2025 survey, 59% of American adults don’t have $1000 to cover an emergency expense. Many emergencies now cost well over $1000, including car repairs. A 59% rate means that we are talking about many levels of earning, not just those who are poor or underemployed. This means that most Americans have to rely on credit to cover a basic emergency.
Easy Credit.
Credit cards have been around for a long time, but they gained significant popularity with the introduction of bank cards, such as MasterCard and Visa, during the mid-20th century. To attract more users, banks would visit college campuses and register naive young college students, many of whom would start their debt lives uninformed. Approximately 50% of U.S. adults or households have credit card debt, with some surveys indicating that the actual number is closer to 60%. The average interest rate on a credit card is between 20% and 23% with some high-interest cards having an interest rate of around 36%. One former card offered by First Premier Bank had an astounding interest rate of almost 80%! If you are poor and don’t have a high credit score, you may have to settle for a high-interest-rate card.
Let’s say you have an average APR on your credit card of 21.5% and you owe $10,000. Money is tight, and all you can pay is the minimum monthly payment of $200. However, you are responsible and pay your $200 every single month. How long will it take to pay off that $10,000 debt? One hundred and twenty-seven months or ten and a half years! Wait, it doesn’t stop there, as you will be paying the bank $25,374, which is $15,374 more than the amount that you borrowed. However, most people living paycheck to paycheck, borrow more and more, creating an increasingly impossible financial situation. All it takes is a car repair, an ER visit, or another unexpected bill. By the way, 65% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.
There are other predatory lending practices.
In my state, you can get cash via a “payday loan.” If you are very cash-strapped, you can borrow up to $500, and you are required to repay your loan plus interest within 31 days. The interest rate is exorbitant, often over 390%. These loans are used by low-income individuals who lack other financial options.
A similar scheme is called a cash advance app. These apps offer short-term loans that withdraw the money directly from your bank account when you receive your next paycheck. They use a loophole to avoid being classified as a loan, but they are, in fact, loans. They charge a fee that they deduct, and their calculated APR can sometimes exceed 1000%. The use of these apps can be a chronic and severe problem. Let’s say you need $200. When you get your paycheck, the app immediately deducts that $200, plus a fee. Now you are “short” for the next month, requiring you to use the app again. This further reduces your next check. The user ends up chronically short of money, and the lender makes a fortune with constant loan fees.
‘Buy now, pay later’ services.
Another way to increase consumer spending is to encourage “buy now, pay later.” This concept has been around for a long time, but it has gained significant traction with programs like Klarna. That $100 shirt you can’t afford is now only four payments of $25, so why not buy it? Retailers have discovered that people are likely to spend more if they use buy now, pay later plans. Even Walmart offers a BNPL program. The consumer is obligated to repay the loan with interest. How much is that interest? On the Klarna webpage, it says, “Pay as little as 0% interest.” Sounds great, what they don’t tell you is that interest can go as high as 35%. NBC News reports that 41% of Klarna users have had late payments. This subjects them to additional late fees.
Additionally, the retailer pays Klarna for the service, so this has the potential to increase prices for everyone, as the retailer must recoup that cost. All of these things lead to debt and financial insecurity.
Once again, we are dealing with predatory practices that make the poor poorer and the rich richer. I know some of you are probably saying, “No one forces them to use the app.” I would say that desperate people do desperate things, and super-easy credit can be pretty addictive in a world where everyone seems to be going for that next dopamine hit. Don’t judge, unless you want to be judged.
The insanity of escalating car prices.
Car prices have skyrocketed, with the average car costing nearly $50,000. When I was on vacation, someone broke off my sideview mirror, and I had to go to a local dealership to get it fixed. While I was there, I wandered around the dealer’s showroom. Only one car was $48,000. The rest were between $60,000 and $100,000. It used to be that you would take out a car loan for 3 years. Now, 7-year loans are common, and 8-year loans are becoming increasingly popular. In 2025, the average length of a car loan is approximately 6 years, and the average monthly payment is around $750, both of which are on the rise.
Dealerships have convinced us that it isn’t what you pay for a car, but its the monthly payment that counts. In the last 5 years, the average car price has increased by 30%. That is a massive number, as cars are expensive to begin with. As loans get longer and longer, the owner now has to deal with continued payments, as well as mechanical repairs. Some owners can’t deal with an unreliable older car, so they trade it in with negative equity. In other words, they owe more on the car than it is worth. That balance gets added to the new car payment. This cycle repeats, spiraling the consumer into increasingly debt.
Let’s say you have a bad credit score (500), but you need a car for work, and you find a vehicle and a lender. Because of your poor credit, the interest rate is 21.58% (per Bankrate.com), and you take a 7-year loan for $50,000. Heck, you deserve a nice car. That is what the salesperson tells you. You agree. The salesperson is happy as he makes a bigger commission. Your monthly payment for the next 7 years will be $1158, and you will pay the bank a total of $97,302. That’s $50,000 for the car and $47,000 in interest. Just pray that you can continue to repay your loan; otherwise, the vehicle will be repossessed, and you will still be responsible for any negative equity on it. Holy cow!
Housing costs are insane.
Want to buy your own home? For many, that is now a pipedream. How about renting an apartment? The “Washington Post” says rents have risen by 19% since 2019. A huge increase.
Gone are the days when each kid “needed” their own bedroom. Now some families share apartments.
When I retired, I got into van life as a hobby. Van life is where people live out of a converted van. It is similar to RV life. I also have a home and have the resources to make this experience an adventure. That is not the case for many van dwellers who live in their vans and cars because they can’t afford to rent an apartment. This group includes individuals who have a job, and retirees who struggle to make ends meet on their Social Security checks and limited savings.
Higher education costs are insane.
Society informs us that we need a college education, citing outdated statistics. When I attended college, the overall tuition costs were quite reasonable; in fact, it was possible to pay tuition costs by working a job. However, tuition costs have skyrocketed well past inflation. Colleges will cite a variety of reasons ranging from expanded student services to a greater commitment to research. However, those reasons are only part of the story. As student loans became more readily available, colleges saw an opportunity to increase tuition. This also spawned the online for-profit college movement of the late 1990s, where predatory schools encouraged unqualified students to take out loans and enroll despite a very low likelihood of degree completion.
Regular universities also saw an opportunity to increase tuition. Here are just a few examples based on a Google search of yearly costs for some university undergraduate programs:
University of Chicago: $85,446-$98,301/year
Northwestern University $76,674-$93,333/year
University of Illinois Urbana $36,930-$65,722/year (resident/non-resident)
Vanderbilt University $91,299/year
Indiana University $30,920-60,072/year (resident/non-resident)
University of Michigan $38,548-$84,164/year (resident/non-resident)
Of course, a savvy consumer can reduce their college expenses by seeking scholarships and grants, as well as attending less expensive schools. But even lower-cost colleges have become prohibitively expensive. I attempted to look up the yearly costs of a smaller local college, but I faced confusing data pages that listed endless columns of fees and often cited tuition per class hour instead of a yearly rate. They did not list a summarized range of expenses. I was not willing to spend an extended amount of time trying to decipher all of that mambo-jumbo, and I’m sure many 18-year-old candidates would not either.
There are reports of entry-level jobs, including retail jobs, that require a college degree as well as years of experience. You have got to be kidding.
Being a social worker is a noble and essential profession that often requires not only a Bachelor’s degree, but also a Master’s degree. That is a costly proposition. The average starting salary for a social worker was challenging for me to determine, as there were numerous different average salaries listed on various financial websites. Let’s assume the average is around $60,000. However, I am aware of many social workers who began their careers in the $35,000 to $45,000 range. There are jobs for social workers, but after six years of schooling, will they earn enough to live comfortably and pay off their loans? What if you have a degree in Art History, Archaeology, or Poetry? How many of those expensive degrees have available jobs?
In the past, monthly school loan repayment was based on income and family size; however, recent changes in the government have removed this option, sometimes doubling or tripling a monthly obligation, making it impossible for people to meet their other financial obligations. YouTube is filled with videos of college graduates with absolutely enormous monthly student loan payments. It isn’t uncommon to see debts of $75,000, and some folks owe in the $200,000-$300,000 range. I just saw a Dave Ramsey video of a married couple whose combined student loans were nearly $ 1 million, as they included loans for professional schools. One woman on YouTube had obtained predatory school loans at very high interest rates. She said she had been paying over $ 1,000 per month for years, only to discover that her loan had not been reduced; instead, she owed substantially more.
Some of you may be saying, “They knew what they were getting into!” Did they? How financially savvy is an 18-year-old? Kids are fed the “college experience” line. High schools often promote prestigious/expensive schools, as it makes their high school’s statistics look good. It is easy to sign on a loan without fully understanding what you are doing or what the costs will ultimately be. This happens to seasoned adults too. Know anyone who has a time share?
Here are some yearly costs for medical school. These costs include fees and living expenses; it is almost impossible to work while attending medical school. Also, note that this is for a first-year medical student, and costs will increase in subsequent years. A 4th-year student has more expenses than a first-year student. Lastly, tuition will always increase every year. Here are some yearly costs:
Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine MD program $115,930/year
Midwestern University DO program $126,357/year
Granted, most doctors are guaranteed a job and a good living. But imagine having undergraduate plus medical school debt of $500,000 or more!
Many undergraduate students take more than four years to complete their degrees, increasing their loan debt. According to NBC News, only 45% of college students complete their degree within four years, and fewer than two-thirds finish within six years. Educationdata.com reports that 39% of those who start college never finish (based on an 8-year timeline). They have to replay their loan debt, but have nothing to show for it.
Many students extend their education with a graduate or other degree. Unlike medical school, there are no guarantees of employment for law school graduates. Job prospects depend on where you went to school, how you did at that school, what extracurricular activities you participated in, and, most importantly, your connections. I treated a number of lawyers during my years of practice, and many new graduates were unemployed, underemployed, or in very abusive jobs. Who seems to do the best (based on my samples)? Those who had connections. For instance, if a parent were already a lawyer, their child could join that practice. Law school is typically a 3-year commitment. Below is the yearly cost for one of our local law schools:
Loyola University School of Law $92,324/year
Childcare costs.
Per Care.com, the average monthly cost for one child in day care is $1370. They note that parents report spending 22% of their income on childcare, with the average parent depleting one-third of their savings on childcare.
According to The New York Times, the US is an outlier among developed countries in terms of child care. For instance, Norway contributes almost $30,000 annually for early child care compared to the US, which contributes around $500. Even tiny Lithuania contributes over $8,000 per year for childcare.
Of course, child care workers deserve a living wage. However, most advanced countries heavily subsidize this need. Do you want to argue that parents are aware of what they are getting into when they have children? As a parent, I would say that you don’t fully know until you do it. However, people are now opting not to have kids as they simply can’t afford them. This is detrimental to our country, which requires a certain number of births each year to avoid economic collapse. The federal government is proposing to award mothers with the most births, as well as grant new moms a few thousand dollars. Hardly a compelling solution to this problem.
No longer owning, now renting.
We are becoming a nation that has to rent everything on a monthly basis. This applies to streaming services like Netflix and Spotify, software programs, and even subscriptions that enable features to work on our cars. Those payments add up, and we have nothing to show for them
Utility costs.
Have you noticed that your utility bills are going up? I have seen increases in just about everything, from internet costs to electricity. NPR reports that Electricity prices are climbing at a rate over 2 times that of inflation.
Repair costs.
All repairs are up. I needed a sump pump replaced. This is a standard and straightforward (easy) procedure. I went on a local Facebook page and asked for recommendations. I called a number of plumbers, none of whom would give me a rough estimation of the installation costs. They all said that they would have to come out and charge me a substantial evaluation fee. That fee would be deducted from the repair fee, but what if I didn’t want to use them? This move basically blocks the homeowner from doing comparative price shopping. I have lived in my house for over 30 years and have never had anyone ask for an evaluation fee before. In the past, a tradesman would say something like, “The cost is typically XXX, but could be more if we encounter problems.” Often, they would come to my house and give me a free estimate for larger jobs.
I had a similar experience with a car repair, but with an additional twist. Not only do they charge an evaluation fee, but they also add a “service fee” to all the other repair costs. Again, new for me. However, it got me to leave the dealership and find less expensive alternatives.
Here again, I understand that workers need to be paid for their work. However, this is one more expense that is growing for US consumers.
Health costs.
We are the only advanced country that doesn’t have universal health care. Everyone hears about the person who had to wait for a knee surgery in another country. However, many people in those countries are grateful that they don’t have to worry about their health coverage or whether they will go bankrupt due to medical bills.
We are very grateful for the Affordable Care Act, as my wife has an individual policy. I knew of people who were denied health coverage due to pre-existing conditions before the ACA. We pay a very high premium, and that doesn’t include deductibles and other charges. She has a medical condition that requires tests and scans every year, and I estimate we pay out-of-pocket around $30,000 a year just for her healthcare costs. That does not include my Medicare/supplemental payments, which are thousands more.
The current administration is eliminating subsidies for the ACA, which benefited lower-income earners. We currently pay “full freight,” but we will also be impacted as those healthy, younger individuals drop out of insurance plans; costs will increase for everyone else. I’m fortunate that I can afford health insurance, but how many typical, hard-working individuals can’t?
Expect hospital costs to increase. People without insurance often go to the hospital instead of the doctor’s office when they are sick, and they usually delay their visit until they are severely ill, which results in more tests and hospitalizations.
Some hospitals, particularly those in rural areas, rely heavily on federal programs, such as Medicaid, to sustain their operations. Reduced Medicaid reimbursements, and hospitals close. Even if you have regular health insurance, you may have to drive to an open distant hospital, which could be hours away. Not great if you’re having a heart attack.
Inflation.
If you are alive, you know that prices for many things have become insane. Bankrate.com notes that overall prices have increased by over 24% since the year 2000. That is incredible.
Between 2000 and 2024, grocery costs increased by 24%. Anyone who has visited the grocery store in 2025 knows that costs are now significantly higher than they were in 2024. Add to increased grocery prices, shrinkflation, and skimpflation, and over 80% of grocery shoppers now experience stress when grocery shopping (according to AP News). Grocery shopping should not be a life stress. We don’t live in a third-world country.
The Trump tariff taxes.
I don’t get this. Yes, I understand the “purpose” of these taxes, but they hit the most vulnerable of our society. Their impact on prices is starting to take hold and will intensify as stockpiles of goods are depleted. Companies’ loyalties are to their shareholders; they will not absorb the increased costs. If you think that other countries will pay these costs, please go beyond your biased news source and use your critical thinking skills.
The end consumer ultimately pays tariffs as a form of tax. That is economics 101. Tariffs have been tried in the past, and they have been shown to slow the economy and increase inflation. In fact, they lengthened the Great Depression.
We are in a global economy, and it could take decades for the US to retool, which would then place us at an economic disadvantage compared to other countries that have lower labor costs. The Trump tariff taxes have the potential to make our lives impossible, especially for those with lower incomes. Thousands of dollars more for a home or car are certainly possible. You may even have to forgo simple pleasures, like a cup of coffee. I have no words. The US is no longer the power player it once was. There are billions of consumers in countries like China and India who are eager to make purchases. Will the US be left out? What are we thinking? We are no longer in the 1980s when China and India were backward, poverty stricken countries. They have arrived..
The bottom line.
I know that this is a long post, but I wanted to be clear about the level of devastation that all of the above is having on ordinary Americans. It is becoming a perfect storm of economic disaster where class division is ever more delineated. The rich and the super-rich will always be able to ride out the storm. They have the inside information to keep their money safe, and an extra thousand spent here or there means little to a billionaire.
If you are feeling the sting of cost increases, you are not alone. Individuals in the 25-34 age range are typically starting a family, buying a home, and going on vacations. They are reaping the benefits of their hard work and education. According to Forbes, the average salary for someone aged 25-34 is $58,500. Now, subtract state and federal taxes from that number. According to Talent.com, the state and federal income tax burden in Illinois (where I live) would be $13,009, leaving the consumer $45,491/year, or $3,790/month. I understand that there are many variables, such as being single, married, and other deductions. So this is just an estimate. If you have less than $4,000 a month and need to repay student loans, credit card debt, other loans, a car payment, and other expenses, do you have enough money to get married, buy a house, or start a family? Can you even afford an apartment and food? Now add an unexpected bill, or an emergency trip to the ER. Life can become impossible quickly.
It is easy to blame the consumer, but that is like blaming a smoker for smoking. Yes, they are responsible. But many smokers were encouraged by tobacco companies to start smoking in their early teens (I started to smoke at 13. Thankfully, I quit by my early 20s). Once hooked, stopping an addictive behavior is extremely difficult.
When it comes to spending, consumers are constantly encouraged to do so. It is implied that they are not as good as the next person if they don’t go on luxury trips or drive a new car.
Children are encouraged to attend expensive colleges. All they have to do is sign for loans. However, they have a limited understanding of how those loans will affect their lives.
Cars don’t represent a mode of transportation in our society; they are a symbol of sex appeal and demonstrate our success and social status. Why not spend a little more every month and extend your repayment for a few more years to gain recognition? The salesperson implies.
Influencers on TikTok often appear to be cool and affluent. They convince vulnerable individuals that they need a $1,200 purse or a $300 monthly skincare regimen. Can’t pay for it? Use your credit card, silly!
Some really want a new phone, as theirs is two years old and out of style. Just use Klarna, and now that $1000 phone is only $250, at least for a little while.
The pressure is on to buy. You can always borrow that sweet, sweet cash. It is so easy until you have to pay it back. Then life becomes hell. Don’t pay it back? Expect a poor credit score, debt collector calls, and the inability to perform normal adult activities, like renting an apartment.
Are we becoming the new indentured servants?
In many ways, yes. Not having enough money leads to debt, and debt means you are beholden to someone or something. You don’t have the freedom to get married or have a child. You are stuck working in a job that you hate because you need the cash and the company’s health insurance plan. You can’t rent an apartment due to a low credit score, so you have to live with your parents. Every aspect of your life is negatively impacted. You are being enslaved by debt.
So what can you do?
Times are rough, and for some of the above, you may need to ride out the storm. However, it is critical to make changes in your life if you hope to survive. Here are some suggestions.
-Are you already in financial trouble? I have had several of my patients achieve economic stability by enrolling in Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. It is a simple-minded (a good thing) and logical approach to overcoming debt and building financial security.
-Approach all spending thoughtfully. Most of the things that we buy, we don’t need. Further, they give us little pleasure in the long run.
-Are you an online shopper? Wait at least 24 hours before clicking the ‘Buy’ button. In many cases, that thing that you really needed the day before is no longer desired.
-Avoid influencers, home shopping shows, and even emailed “sales” ads.
-Use what you already have, adapt it if needed. Do you really need to buy new furniture, or can your ratty couch be made anew with a slipcover? Heck, can you just live with what you have? Can you borrow a needed tool from a friend, or barter services to get a job done?
-Stop using easy credit programs like Klarna, and consider cutting up all of our credit cards except one. Place that credit card somewhere other than your person so you can’t easily use it.
-Create a budget and try to stick to it. Use cash whenever possible. If you take $100 to the grocery store, you will spend that, not $150, with a credit card. You will make better choices, put impulse purchases aside, and really think about what you need instead of what you want.
-Be thoughtful about your grocery purchases. Why buy crappy Captain Crunh cereal for $6.50 for a 16.8-oz box (around 13 servings) when you can buy 42 ounces of nutritious oatmeal for $7.99 (over 30 servings)?
-Buy the groceries that you need, and use up what you have. Plan your menus around what is in the fridge and pantry, not what you have a taste for.
-Reduce or eliminate going out to eat, including fast food.
-Develop cost-effective shopping habits. This goes for everything. I knew someone who told me that his wife found a great sale, so she bought four dresses instead of the one that she needed. She wasn’t saving money; she was spending money.
-Think about limiting your wardrobe. Honestly, most folks don’t even remember what you wore the day before.
-One effective way to save money is to develop healthy shopping habits for groceries. In brief: use a shopping list, eat before you go shopping, shop the house brands, choose a less expensive store like Aldi, shop sales, and use coupons if possible. You get the picture.
-Cook your food from scratch. Yes, this is cheaper. I’m planning on doing an entire series on this topic.
-Change your eating habits. Beef is too expensive, try a different meat or have a meatless meal. I’m exploring various ways to reduce food costs. Use your imagination.
-Review your monthly expenses. You may have recurring payments for streaming services or other things. Reduce or eliminate them. Small savings over time amount to big money. In our area, we can access over 100 over-the-air TV stations with a simple antenna, and our library offers many popular TV series and movies that we can borrow.
-Do a pro and con list for any significant purchase. You may want a new fridge, but perhaps you can fix the old one. The same could be said of a car, or many other major purchases.
-Stop trying to keep up with the Joneses. Their observed affluence may be hiding their debt. No one cares, live your own life. That little dopamine hit that you may feel from a trip will be offset by the pain of months of repayment.
-Find alternate activities. There are numerous free and low-cost activities available in almost any community. Our local high schools and community colleges offer great performances at very low cost. Our town has free movie nights in the park and free concerts at our bandshell. See what your community offers.
-Have friends over for a game or movie night. Organize a potluck supper. The options are endless.
-Talk to your kids about money. This is so important. Children need to understand money and credit from a young age. I began discussing college costs when my kids were in middle school. They all graduated college debt-free because of these conversations. Children need to be aware of the dangers associated with Klarna, credit cards, and similar services.
-Consider college options and alternatives. I have bright kids who were able to get merit scholarships. If that were not the case, we would have taken a long, hard look at other options, like attending a community college for their first two years.
-Consider non-college options if indicated. I remain a believer in the value of college, and my degrees have certainly had a profound impact on my life. However, not everyone is college material, and some who are just don’t want to go. There are other options, from certificate programs at community colleges to trade schools. I think it is essential to have a skill that makes a person marketable, but that option doesn’t always require a 4-year college degree.
-Get estimates for work. I used to be lazy and didn’t do this. Now, I get estimates for car repairs and home repairs. Yes, there are now complications as some want to charge a large fee for their opinion. I move on and eventually find folks who are willing to give me a general price that I can compare with others.
-Watch YouTube to learn. YouTube can teach you just about anything, including finances. However, watch out for those hucksters who claim to make thousands with little effort, want you to invest in their cryptocurrency, or want ot sell you a course. Use YouTube for financial 101 training from reliable sources.
-Use YouTube to learn how to repair things. Just last month, I fixed a crack in our fridge’s plastic housing using tips I found on YouTube.
-Simplify your life. Does your kid really need to be in 6 different activities? Do you have to be involved in multiple clubs? Probably not. Do only those things that really benefit you. Be selective and intentional.
-Simplify your personal routines. My sister tells me about the extraordinarily high cost of makeup, which manufacturers make for pennies. There seem to be products for every part of your body. Do you really need multiple products to wash your face? Yes, use a gentle cleaner if needed, but do you really need numerous products? I used to buy an expensive after-shave skin cream, but I realized it was just a diluted version of the product I was already using on my body. I was paying 6 times as much for some added water. I now use a tiny amount of my body cream with some water to achieve the same results. I’m a pretty bald guy, and it is simple for me to cut my hair. That is a lot better than the $50 my friend pays to have his cut.
-Try to put money away every pay period, even if it is a tiny amount. Eventually, it will grow.
-Work towards savings and an emergency fund.
-I guarantee that you have expenses that you can reduce without a significant impact on your lifestyle.
-If you can’t afford it, don’t do it. Want that exotic trip but can only afford a day at your local water park? Be grateful for that.
-Live your life as half-full, not half-empty. I know so many people who focus on what they don’t have, what they can’t get, and how deprived they are. Actually, they have a lot, but they ignore their blessings. Consider a gratitude list that you write or read every day. Focus on the positive.
-Lastly, use the power of your vote to elect people who want to improve the life of all citizens. It will benefit you in the long run. Evaluate if their election claims have merit or if they are just hollow slogans to get your vote. You have more power than you think.
This is another in my series on saving money on groceries while improving your dining experience.
As inflation and the Trump tariff taxes continue to push up prices, it makes sense to find ways to stretch your food dollars. Making your own bread is not only less expensive than store-bought bread, but it also tastes better and can be customized to your needs. Like thicker or thinner slices? No problem., Sick of the outrageous prices of gluten-free bread? Make your own. Desire a specialty bread for a special meal? Absolutely!
My wife made a run to the grocery store and was happy that Ezekiel Bread had been restocked. However, she wasn’t pleased when she realized that a small loaf was now ten dollars. She didn’t buy the loaf.
Bread is the staple of life, and just about every culture has some form of bread. Bread is considered a subsistence food that provides the calories, vitamins, minerals, protein, and fiber necessary for life.
When I was growing up, my mother bought “Silvercup” bread, which was one step above “Wonder Bread.” It was good for sandwiches, but likely not the best in terms of nutrition. We also bought bread from our neighborhood bakery. What a difference that bread was. I have fond memories of walking into that place and being welcomed by the scent of freshly baked bread. I remember, with fascination, the clerk taking a fresh loaf, pushing it through a slicing machine, and then deftly shoving it into a waxed bag. That bread was the best.
My grandmother made most of her family’s bread, and it was delicious. She made a light rye bread that was baked into a large, round loaf. She didn’t buy yeast; instead, she would seed a new batch of dough with a portion of the dough she had saved from the week before. I can’t imagine that she measured anything; she just knew what to do after baking thousands of loaves of bread by hand. Making bread was part of her life, and I’m sure it occupied at least one whole day of her week.
My mom would make yeasted bakery, but I don’t recall her making bread. Most of her yeast bakes consisted of various filled coffee cakes, which we called kolaches, not to be confused with those delicious fruit-filled cookies called Kolacky.
I’m not sure exactly when I made my first loaf of bread, but I started to make it regularly during my residency. I was divorced at that time, and one of the few things that I took from that marriage was a large Cuisinart food processor, as my ex had no use for it.
I love machines, and the Cuisinart is one of them. I was determined to learn how to utilize every aspect of its capabilities, including its ability to knead bread dough. I read somewhere that a flour company had a recipe book for “cool rise bread,” and I tracked down their address, which was in another state. This was before the internet, so that task was more complicated than typing in a query in Google. I wrote them a letter..
A few weeks later, I received a nice note from the flour company, saying that they were surprised to hear from me, as their flour was not sold in the Chicago market. However, they sent me the booklet and wished me well. I adapted their recipes for my food processor.
Cool-rise recipes were ideal for me at that time, as I could quickly mix and knead the dough in the food processor, then drop the dough into a couple of bread pans that I placed in the refrigerator, where they would slowly rise. Eight to 48 hours later, I would bake the bread at my convenience. Having fresh bakery fresh bread as a poor medical resident was a tremendous morale booster. Typically, I ate generic white bread that tasted like sawdust.
When the bread machine craze hit in the 1990s, I bought a machine that made one-pound loaves. I upgraded to a machine that made 2-pound loaves sometime in the early 2000s, and I still have that machine today. However, I eventually stopped using my bread machine, and I’m not sure why.
This bread machine is over 20 years old, and it still works!
As my kids got older, I would make bread for them as a treat; soon, they were helping me in the process. By then, I had graduated to a Bosch Universal Mixer, a tremendous mixer that could make six loaves of 100% whole wheat bread at a time. It was great. However, the Bosch method still required work, and I no longer need six loaves of bread.
My Bosch Universal Mixer can easily make six loaves of 100% whole wheat bread.I rarely need this much bread now.The bread made in the Bosch is fantastic, but it still requires some work.
During the pandemic, I was cleaning my basement and rediscovered my bread machine. Would it even power up after sitting dormant for years? The answer was yes!.
I do most of the household’s cooking and make a lot of food from scratch. I cook many combination foods, such as soups, stews, and casseroles. These types of foods lend themselves well to a bread product, and I’ll often whip up something ranging from cornbread to a savory muffin. However, nothing has quite the allure of the smell of freshly baked bread.
Humans have been making some form of bread for over 14,000 years, and it is possible to make bread with the simplest methods and ingredients. Some people love the physicality of kneading dough, but I’m not one of them. However, I love the taste of homemade yeast products, and that is where my old bread machine comes to my rescue. I can toss in a few inexpensive ingredients, press a button, and a few hours later, I have a fantastic loaf of warm bread.
There are hundreds of bread recipes that can be made in a bread machine. White, rye, wheat, fruited, nutted, egg-enriched, sweet, savory, you name it. I made a nice white loaf today. What did it cost me for a 2-pound loaf of fresh, delicious bread? Around seventy-eight cents, including the cost of the electricity.
Bread machines are no longer trendy, so you can often get a used one at a second-hand store for almost nothing. Just make sure that the pan and paddle are included and that it powers up when plugged in. They are very durable, as mine is still running strong, despite being over 20 years old. Most electronic gadgets left in a basement for years would be out of commission. Mine is not an isolated case, as there are internet reports of others who are still using their bread machines decades after purchase.
In fact, I recently searched for bread machines on Facebook Marketplace and found many used models in the $10-25 range. You can’t even go to McDonald’s for that amount of cash. If you are interested, this is what to look for:
-Get a machine that makes between a 1.5 and 2-pound loaf
-Most prefer a traditional horizontal pan, but a vertical pan also works.
-Make sure that the unit comes with the baking pan AND the paddle.
-Make sure it powers up when plugged in.
-You can find recipes on the internet, and you can likely download your particular machine’s manual/recipe guide from the manufacturer’s website.
Many new bread machines sell for under $100, but top-of-the-line machines, such as those from Zojirushi, cost hundreds. Zojirushi is considered the best, but most will do fine with a less expensive brand.
Machines come with multiple programs to make different types of bread. Most users will use only three types: standard (white) bread, whole wheat, and dough. The dough setting is a great option, as the machine will do all of the hard work of making the dough, and all you have to do is form it for baking. The dough setting is terrific for making pizza dough, rolls, coffee cakes, and braided breads, where you make the dough in the machine but bake it in your regular oven.
Most bread machines come with various programs to bake different types of bread, such as white and whole wheat. The controls may appear complicated, but they are very easy to learn, and in most cases, all you need to do is press a button.
Some additional program settings may be included such as sweet breads, and gluten-free bread. If your bread maker doesn’t have a particular specialty setting you can try using the standard white bread setting. Additionally, some machines allow you to create programs where you determine each step of the bread making process. This last option is for advanced users who develop their own recipes or who use unique bread flours that require unusual mixing, kneading, and backing times. Will you use the cake, yogurt, or jam settings that your machine may have? Probably not, but that’s your choice.
Although many ingredients can be used to make bread, here are the basic ones and why they are necessary:
Flour – There are many types of flour, but for simplicity, let’s focus on white flour. Most bread machine recipes instruct you to use bread flour, a flour with a 15% gluten content. When your machine kneads dough, the gluten proteins are altered, becoming stretchy and more flexible. This results in a delicious, chewy, and spongy bread. All-purpose (AP) flour is a versatile flour suitable for a wide range of applications. It typically has a gluten content of 12-13% so bread made with AP flour won’t be quite as chewy or structurally sound as bread made from bread flour. In an ideal world, use bread flour for optimal results. You can simulate bread flour by adding a couple of tablespoons of Vital Wheat Gluten to AP flour to your bread ingredients, or just forgo the vital wheat gluten and still make a delicious breadmaker loaf using only AP flour. I often do that as I always have AP flour on hand. Lastly, cake flour contains only 7-9% gluten, as you don’t want a chewy cake; the low gluten content assures a tender result.
AP flour is inexpensive. This bag will make five one-pound loaves of bread. I often use AP flour because it’s in my household stock.Bread flour is also inexpensive, and it makes a better loaf. If you make bread regularly, consider buying and using bread flour.
Yeast-yeast is a living organism that feeds on the sugars and starches in bread dough and produces carbon dioxide gas, or CO2, as a byproduct. It is the CO2 gas bubbles that cause bread to rise. The yeast is killed in the baking process. Yeast comes in various types. Some bread machines use Active Dry Yeast, while others require Bread Machine Yeast, which is also called Instant Yeast. Instant Yeast granules are smaller and dissolve faster than the granules of Active Dry Yeast.
My bread machine uses Active Dry Yeast that I can buy in bulk at Costco. Each loaf uses only around ten cents’ worth of yeast.
Sugar-any form of sugar can be used, white sugar, brown sugar, honey, and molasses. Small amounts of sugar are added to help jump-start the yeast’s growth.
Any sugary product can be used for bead making, but most people have white sugar on hand. The recipe below uses around five cents of sugar.
Salt-salt adds flavor and also controls yeast growth. Never mix salt with the yeast when you add your ingredients; put them in a separate spot in the machine’s bread pan.
Water– is needed to bind all of the ingredients together. Naturally, other liquids, such as milk, are sometimes used to achieve a different type of loaf.
Other ingredients-.Eggs, dried fruits, spices, cheese, meats, different types of flours, nuts, butter, cooking oil, powdered milk, you name it. Each addition requires a slightly different recipe and may require different rising and baking times. The good news is that others have already figured out all of this. If you have a new machine, read the manual/recipe booklet. If you purchased a used breadmaker, download its manual, which will include recipes ranging from white bread to pizza dough, specifically created for your machine.
A simple and inexpensive white bread recipe.
*You must add ingredients into the baking pan in the order written.
-1.5 cups warm water
-2 T cooking oil
-1 and 3/4 t salt
-4 cups or 500 gms bread flour (or AP flour)
-2 T sugar
-2 ¼ tsp bread maker yeast (I use regular Active Dry Yeast with good results)
I weigh my flour for better results. Five hundred grams is equivalent to 4 cups of flour. Add ingredients in the order listed. I keep the salt and the yeast in separate spots, as salt can kill yeast if it is too concentrated.Just press a button and the machine will mix and knead the dough in several cycles before baking it. A perfect loaf!Use a serrated bread knife when cutting soft breads. The knife on the top is a food service knife, and it wasn’t very expensive. Its slightly longer length works well to make short work out of making slices. Nothing is quite as wonderful as fresh, warm, crusty homemade bread!
Use your bread maker’s “normal” or “white loaf” setting. Mine makes a great loaf of white bread in 3.5 hours. Total cost of the loaf, including electricity? $0.78!
Allow the bread to cool at least 30 minutes before cutting. A serrated knife works best. Any will do, but I like a knife that is a bit longer. It is not necessary to buy an expensive serrated knife, as they are no different from a less expensive one. Serrated knives don’t cut the bread; they tear into it. I have also used a standard Chef’s knife. If it is sharp enough, it will slice bread.
Remember, that homemade bread has no preservatives or other agents to keep it looking fresh. If you don’t consume it in a couple of days, freeze it. You can purchase inexpensive bread bags on Amazon, as well as other types of containers, to store unused bread. If we have any left after a meal, we usually use a large Ziploc-style bag, as we have those on hand.
Homemade bread machine bread is delicious and almost effortless to make. Having a homemade slice of bread with dinner elevates the experience, and a lunch sandwich made with homemade bread is superior to any packaged product. If you see a machine at a thrift store, give it a try. If you want to buy new, there are many machines available in the sub-$100 range. Happy bread making!
Mike
Images are my own or screenshots used only for educational purposes.
