Jami On a Roll With Butter

I clearly remember, lo these many years hence, the first time I saw a bread machine. First, perhaps I should tell you that I love bread. I mean looooove bread. Homemade or store bought, with stuff in it, toasted, whatever. One dream I have is to bake a loaf of bread large enough for me to crawl inside of with a small bowl of melted butter and eat until I fall asleep in the still warm loaf, then wake up and eat my way out. So now you get it. I love bread. Back to that magic moment, when I saw what seemed impossibly miraculous - a machine that makes fresh bread for you. I saw it in the LL Bean outlet store in Maine and I wanted it so much I'd've tried to cram it under my shirt if I hadn't been on a Youth Group Mission Trip. It was $349.99, a fortune to my 14-year-old self. And though I begged and pleaded when I got home, my parents would not order me one. When they left the specialty stores at hit the mainstream, dropping prices, my mother bought one. It made the weirdly shaped loaves we're all familiar with now, and it took some practice, but it worked, My mom learne to make excellent rolls and cinnamon bread and other various things. For my wedding shower, she bought me my very own. A few years ago, with work and everything crowding my time, the bread machine was hardly being used. The loaves didn't seem to every come out right, no matter what I tried. I put it in the closet as counter space is at a premium. This summer, I got it back out, missing the scent of it baking and the unutterable joy of fresh hot bread. After a few failed loaves, it occurred to me that the heating unit was the problem. It just wasn't baking, but if I used it to make the dough and popped it in the oven - viola! Perfect bread. I did this through the fall, got a few new recipes that I love and basically single-handedly making up for all the people who are on a low carb diet. I even made Christmas gifts with it (english muffins). However, with the heating part not working, I couldn't set it for dinner time and leave. I couldn't wake up to hot raisin bread. So I saw a decent one on Amazon and put it on my Christmas list. On Christmas morning, I opened up a brand new bread machine. Joy!! Thanks, Grandma and Pop-Pop. But do you know, what is better than having a bread machine? Having two bread machines! When I'm not using the timer and I will be home, I realized it's as easy to make two batches as it is to make one. And then I get TWO loaves of bread or batches of rolls or whatever. Right now, I am listening to the joyous rhythmic thumping of two bread machines kneeding dough for dinner rolls. One batch we'll have for dinner. The other will be made into "brown-n-serve" style rolls and popped into the freezer, thereby allowing me to make hot fresh rolls for dinner two more times. Sure, the Isrealites got manna from heaven, but could there be a bigger miracle than putting a few ingredients in a metal tub and recieving fresh hot bread? Bread machine - proof that there is a God.