After chatting with friends who always bake their own bread (plus cakes and other market goods) I decided that having a breadmaker Would Be Nice, as I don't like white soggy sandwich bread.

I grew up in Austria and therefore/despite that I very much prefer dark Sourdough bread (like this or this, with is close to Unobtainium as far as QLD is concerned).

Two weeks ago Aldi had a breadmaker as special for $69, and after hunting on ebay I hadn't seen anything cheaper or within driving distance so I was keen to get one. Today I couldn't be bothered driving up Tambo for a flight, and Conny and I first visited the Coolangatta second hand bookstore (two S.Kings, two SF books) and then did a quick shopping run.

The breadmaker was still available and on checkout we realized that it had been reduced to $49, how nice! I also got 2.4kg of barossa sour dough rye bread mix and home we went, eager for a test.

The box. Not too shabby, two kneading blades, makes horizontal loaves from 900g to 1.35kg, has a delay timer (for overnight operation) and the usual mix of programs. Not too bulky either, and thus it fits in my pantry cabinet.

The first result. Very nice, although I could have given it another few minutes of extra baking time (as the pack was for 1kg, which is a tad more than the 2lb the machine was set up for).

So, what's next? Hmm, first I think we'll have a look at how long the bread lasts (although with good bread I can't see a lot going to waste) and then I'm dreaming of garlic and herbs, onion bread, walnut bread and similar...

The bread mix cost $7.15 (at supermarket price) and makes 4x 1kg loaves, the (relatively reasonable) Karl's rye/wheat bread costs no less than $2.80 or so for 800g, thus it will take us about 29 1kg-loaves to break even - ok, evenish, disregarding the energy cost - and the homemade tastes a lot nicer!

In other news, yesterday was Rob's 50th birthday party. I gave Rob silly gifts for his motorbike, he gave me fiery and sweet gifts in return (or retaliation? who knows with friends!). Now I've got a small fridge tub full of ripe and very hot chili peppers, waiting to be planted on the hill behind my house.

Rob also gave us an alien face hugger in disguise; stuff like that grows in his garden! (Well, he said it's a "jackfruit", I say it came from outer space.)

Dissecting the creature was fun, the thing is huge and the flesh tastes like a cross between mango and banana. The sweet goo sticks to your hands like contact glue.

I managed to evade the facehugger's attack, but only just; maybe it needs more hair to cling to.