Hi. My name is Lisa and I'm a carboholic.

So, I spent the last few days perusing through bread machine cookbooks.  Some recipes are asking me to buy gluten as an ingredient and I haven't found it in the grocery store yet so I am sticking to the cookbook that came with my Breadman becuase they keep things simple.

On Saturday I made foccacia to bring to my sister's place.  Nat was going to barbecue for dinner and we decided on a tomato salad with bread for lunch.  I brought over a 13x9 pan of homemade foccacia thinking they would have leftovers for the week.  Not so much.  Apparently bread goes very fast when we are together.  Here is a picture of the final product, before we gobbled it up. 

I baked the bread with a mixture of fresh basil, minced garlic, oregano, red pepper flakes and grated Parmesan cheese.  It was light and fluffy on the inside (to help soak up the juicy, freshly picked tomatoes from the garden) and crispy with great garlic and herb flavor on the outside.

Today, I looked through my book again and thought about trying another dough recipe in the Breadman.  Bagels!  I've lived in LA now for over four years and have yet to find a good bagel place.  I've found decent ones, those that will do when needed, but nothing like the bagels I love from NY.  I've heard it's the water, or the lack of humidity in the air.  Well, either my house is damp and my water is correctly filtered, or I have just figured out the secret to amazing bagels!  I decided to make plain and cinnamon sugar.  They came out really delicious.  They were soft and doughy on the inside with a nice brown crunch on the outside.

What are your favorite breads?  As you know I am a bread freak - I'd like to try some new ones... Feel free to share some of your favorites!

Chow for now! :)